Announcing the 2026 Greater Victoria Placemaking Network Little Free Library Awards
The Greater Victoria Placemaking Network (GVPN) will be launching the Second Annual Greater Victoria Little Free Library Awards at the Oaklands Sunset Market on Wednesday, July 22nd.
Little free libraries (LFLs) are little book boxes that operate on the principle of ‘leave a book – take a book.’ They come in all shapes and sizes and can be found throughout the region, and they don’t just share books. Our region has little libraries sharing plants, seeds, puzzles, board games, household items, toys, art, art supplies, pet toys and accessories, yarn, food, and more! And when it comes to little libraries for books, we have LFLs that specialize in poetry, children’s books, French books, zines, and magazines.
Since 2017, the GVPN has been running the Pocket Places Project, which maps, promotes, stocks, and helps build LFLs across the CRD. The Project is led by Teale Phelps Bondaroff, a volunteer with the GVPN, who you can regularly find cycling around the region with a bike trailer full of books topping up LFLs. To date, the project has delivered over 148,000 books to LFLs across the CRD, mapped out 1,024+ LFLs, and helped set up over 142 LFLs.
Last year, to celebrate our region reaching the 1,000th LFL milestone, the GVPN launched the Greater Victoria Little Free Library Awards, and the awards are back, building on last year’s success.
“Last year, we launched the Greater Victoria Little Free Library Awards to celebrate all the creativity, care, whimsy, and love that goes into creating and maintaining our region’s amazing network of little free libraries, and they were a huge success,” said Teale Phelps Bondaroff, volunteer Lead of the Pocket Places Project. “I hope that this year’s awards inspire people to get involved in placemaking in their communities. Whether it’s building or helping stock a local LFL, a community gardening or mural project, setting up a bench or bulletin board, we want everyone to take an active role in building and transforming their communities.”
The awards will be officially launched at the Oaklands Sunset Market on Wednesday, July 22nd. The Placemaking Network is enjoying being a vendor at the Oaklands Sunset Market which runs Wednesday evenings 4:30-8:00 p.m. from July 8 – Sept. 2 at the Oaklands Community Centre, 1-2827 Belmont Ave, Victoria BC. Find us there throughout the summer – meet some of our members, learn about our projects, discuss Placemaking and become involved!
The public is encouraged to nominate their favourite LFLs across ten categories, and people are of course encouraged to nominate their own LFLs, with the nomination period running from July 22 to noon on August 12th. Members of the public will then be invited to vote on their favourites between August 12th until September 8th at 10 pm. Winners will be announced at a community event on September 13th, with more details to follow.
“This year, we’ve mixed up the award categories a little, to help showcase even more of our region’s amazing little free libraries. Classic categories like ‘Most Creative LFL,’ “Best Puzzle/board game LFL,’ and ‘Best LFL That Looks Like Another Thing’ are back, but we’ve also added a few new ones,” said Phelps Bondaroff. “New categories this year include ‘Best LFL with a Fish On It’ that riffs off last year’s ‘Best LFL with a Bird On It’ category, as well as ‘Best Gulf Islands LFL’ to celebrate the growing number of LFLs across the Gulf Islands. My favourite new category is ‘Coral Reef LFL’ that celebrates the LFL with the best associated placemaking elements – such things as reading benches, murals, sculptures, fairy doors, gardens, and more, spotlighting the diversity of placemaking!”
Those nominating a LFL are asked to ensure that their submission includes:
- Photo of LFL (please attach a photo of the LFL and label the file with the address or a description of the location of the LFL. Note, we will be sharing any photos submitted on GVPN website and using them for other promotional purposes. Please only attach one photo under 5MB in size. Submitting a nomination signifies that you are allowing the GVPN to use the photos on our website and in promotions of local LFLs.
- Location of LFL (address or description of location, addresses or closest address is appreciated).
- Choose an award category (please select one category from the list provided, and please only nominate one LFL per category).
- Why are you nominating this LFL (a short description as to why you think this LFL should be awarded recognition in this category).
Prize Categories this year are:
- Best Plant/Seed LFL
- Best Puzzle/board game LFL
- Most Verdant Green Roof
- Best Children’s LFL
- Most Creative LFL
- Best LFL with a Fish On It
- Best LFL That Looks Like Another Thing
- Best LFL built from Upcycled/Reused Materials
- Best Gulf Islands LFL
- Coral Reef LFL – Best Associated Placemaking Element(s)
Awards Timeline:
Nominations Open, Oaklands Sunset Market – Wednesday, July 22, 2026.
Nominations Close – Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at noon.
Voting Opens – Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at noon.
Voting Ends – Tuesday, September 8, 2026, 10 pm.
WInners Announced, at a community event with details to be confirmed – Sunday, September 13, 2026.
