The recognizable library box opened at 1477 N. 1930 West in the Grandview neighborhood in north Provo. The steward of the library is Mary Hedengren, who lives at the house where the library box is located.

To celebrate the event, there was a ribbon cutting, speeches by neighborhood representative Richard Jaussi and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stake president for the area, Travis Blackwelder. They spoke on the importance of reading and having something that brings neighbors together.

There was a party following the ribbon cutting with free snow cones and popcorn. Children also had a bounce house to play in.

The excitement of the Little Free Library opening had many people in the area bringing books to share.

“There were so many books we had an ‘annex’ box for additional donations that didn’t fit in the box that we can add later,” Hedengren said. “Many people left with a book in hand to take home and enjoy.”

There are approximately 50 Little Free Library boxes in Utah County. Each box is open 24 hours a day and is based on a trust system of returning the books when you’re done reading and exchanging them for others so children can read several. Children’s book donations are always welcome, Hedengren added.

The Little Free Library nonprofit organization started in St. Paul, Minnesota, and now has community libraries in more than 110 countries, with more than 70 million books shared, according to the foundation website.

The mission of the nonprofit is to be a catalyst for building community, inspiring readers and expanding book access for all through a global network of volunteer-led Little Free Libraries.

The organization’s vision is to be in every community and have a book for every reader.

According to the nonprofit’s website the story began in 2009, when “Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, built a model of a one room schoolhouse. It was a tribute to his mother; she was a teacher who loved to read. He filled it with books and put it on a post in his front yard. His neighbors and friends loved it, so he built several more and gave them away.”

“University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Rick Brooks (retired from Little Free Library 2014) saw Bol’s do-it-yourself project while they were discussing potential social enterprises. Together, the two saw opportunities to achieve a variety of goals for the common good,” the story continues.

Bol and Brooks were inspired by community gift-sharing networks, “take a book, leave a book” collections in coffee shops and public spaces, and most especially by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Carnegie set a goal to fund the creation of 2,508 free public libraries across the English-speaking world. Provo was the recipient of one of the famous Carnegie Libraries with the first one being built in Dunfermline, Scotland, Carnegie’s boyhood home. The Provo building sits on the corner of Center Street and 100 East.

By the end of 2012, there were more than 4,000 Little Free Libraries. By 2016, more than 50,000 Little Free Libraries had been installed in all 50 U.S. states and 70 countries.

“On October 18, 2018, Bol passed away from complications of pancreatic cancer, shortly after the organization celebrated the landmark 75,000th Little Free Library. He remained dedicated to Little Free Library’s mission in his last days, saying, ‘I really believe in a Little Free Library on every block and a book in every hand. I believe people can fix their neighborhoods, fix their communities, develop systems of sharing, learn from each other, and see that they have a better place on this planet to live,'” the website records.

That sentiment seems to be proving true. According to the nonprofit’s recent data, 72% of people say their neighborhood feels like a friendlier place because of a Little Free Library.

The Little Free Libraries initiative reached its 10-year anniversary in 2019, and 2020 saw more than 100,000 Little Free Library book-sharing boxes installed worldwide.