Little library, big impact

When Homewood’s Anti-Racist Little Library got wiped out in late August, the Homewood community came together and donated 500 anti-racist books to the little library.

Little libraries are a book-sharing movement where a person can take a book or leave a book. This particular library is specialized, and all of the books inside are focused on promoting racial equity.

Kristin Berthiaume, who has managed the little library on her Homewood property since July, said she remembered what went through her mind Aug. 27 when she saw all of the books were gone. She checks the library every evening in case any books need to be added, and she had just checked the library the evening before.

“I looked over and was totally stunned,” she said. “It was completely empty, and I knew it had been full. I got out of the car to make sure they weren’t shoved back where I couldn’t see them or something. But it was just completely empty.

“I was like, ‘Well what do we do now? I only had three or four books left that I could put in — I had just filled it completely the night before. It was really disappointing, and it took me a minute to realize that had really happened.”

While she would have loved to believe the books were taken to be read and loved, it didn’t look like that was the case, she said. She wrote posts on her personal Facebook page and on the library’s Instagram page, which read, “These books took time, money and generosity to collect, and we suspect they are in a dumpster somewhere because someone didn’t like this little library.”

The posts spread like wildfire as people shared it among friends or posted it on community Facebook pages. One of Berthiaume’s friends went to the local bookshop Little Professor to buy some books for the library and informed the team at Little Professor what happened. Little Professor began offering discounts to customers who came in to buy books for the Anti-Racist Little Library, and then the shop donated extra books to the library.

“It was really awesome,” Berthiaume said. “They were really supportive.”

Within a week, the library received more than 500 donated books. And on top of that, more than $1,800 was donated to Berthiaume so she could keep stocking the library shelves well into the future.

Berthiaume said she installed the library in July as racial issues dominated news headlines. She is a full-time psychologist, but she had more time to think about a project while staying at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite this bump in the road, Berthiaume said having the Anti-Racist Little Library has been enjoyable. The library is on her property, and she said she and her children enjoy looking out the window and seeing people browsing the shelves.

“I enjoy when books are missing — not all the books at once, obviously — but I enjoy when it’s clear that people have come and taken a book,” she said. “I certainly enjoy when people put books in there that maybe we haven’t seen yet.”

As the coronavirus pandemic has made going to public libraries either difficult or impossible, Berthiaume said little libraries are an important resource to the community. One of the reasons she wanted an anti-racist library was because she wanted to make sure that children who stopped by would be able to see themselves represented in the books, she said. She also wanted to give adults more tools to educate themselves on racism, she said.

“I encourage people who don’t know what the term ‘anti-racist’ means or why we would have a library called the Anti-Racist Library to stop by and see what books are in there,” she said. “I would encourage people to check it out for themselves and see what they might enjoy.”

She is also hoping to get more anti-racist libraries started up around Homewood, she said.

The library is located on Clermont Drive at the Bellview Circle intersection. For more information, follow the library at @antiracistlibrary20 on Instagram.