There are more than 650+ Little Free Libraries in Victoria, and the CRD has created a map so you can find them all!

You’re driving along a residential road singing along to the radio and something bright and colourful catches your eye. It’s a little red box with ‘Give a Book, Take a Book’ stamped on the side. It’s the kind of neighbourhood feature that makes your heart feel warm and fuzzy.

These wholesome community features are what the CRD calls, ‘Little free Libraries’ – aka LFLs – and they can be found throughout the city in all shapes and sizes.

“Victorians love LFLs,” says Teale Phelps Bondaroff, Pocket Places Project Lead and Greater Victoria Placemaking Network (GVPN) volunteer board member, “The city has the highest density of LFLs in Canada, and the pace at which Victorians have been installing LFLs is rapid.”

For the past four years the GVPN has been mapping LFLs across the CRD, and celebrating milestones, as part of its Pocket Places Project. This project also helps people install their own LFLs and tops up collections with fresh books. To date, the project has set up dozens of LFLs, and delivered over 17,500 books to LFLs across the CRD by bike trailer.

The little Red Book Box was the 200th Little Free Library in Victoria | Photo by Belle White

“Whenever I’m out cycling around dropping off books to little free libraries, I meet fascinating people and fall into interesting conversations,” says Phelps Bondaroff. “Little free libraries are not just places to pick up a book, but they help build community. These days, people realize that now, more than ever, we need points of connection in our shared public spaces.”

Click here for the full map of Little Free Libraries in Victoria.

Partnering with Lapis Homes, the GVPN recently launched ‘#HappyYYJ’ – a project that is delivering a copy of Happy City to LFLs across the CRD. Happy City is a seminal book about fostering community and well-being through placemaking and urban planning by noted urbanist Charles Montgomery. 

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