Nearly 100 new LFLs sprung up in 2024!
It has been an exciting and transformative year for the Pocket Places Project! This Greater Victoria Placemaking Network project seeks to promote, map, stock, and build little free libraries (LFLs) across the Greater Victoria region, and boy howdy, did we ever in 2024.
Our region’s network of LFLs continued to grow creative and inspiring directions this year, and we hit a number of major milestones. I wanted to share some of the highlights and numbers for 2024.
A Year in Numbers
We ended 2023 with the ribbon cutting for the 800th LFL in the Capital Regional District (CRD) (on December 18, 2023), and nearly 100 new LFLs sprung up in 2024. As of December 19, 2024, our project has mapped:
- 883 little free libraries, indicated in blue, purple, and yellow on our map. Note that we are still looking for photos of any of the LFLs with purple dots, and to confirm the locations and get pictures of any LFLs with yellow dots.
- 30 seed and plant libraries, indicated in green on our map.
- 23 puzzle and board game exchanges, indicated in pink on our map.
- 13 little art galleries and art supplies boxes, indicated in brown on our map. This category was added this year, once the region go its 10th little art gallery.
And there are also little libraries that share yarn (4), household items (5), and little free pantries/community fridges (5). People’s creativity when it comes to LFL design and purpose continues to impress!
The Pocket Places Project helps stock LFLs around the region. We regularly hold book pickup events, where members of the LFL community can come and stock up on books donated by various community members and organizations. Amazing volunteers help keep their local LFLs well-fed.
The Pocket Places Project lead, Teale Phelps Bondaroff, regularly cycles around the region with a bike trailer full of books, helping keep LFLs topped up. This year, he visited 504 LFLs, not including his own in Rutledge Park. He has made a total of 3,714 unique LFL visits since August 2018!
This year, the Pocket Places Project helped distribute 23,483 books! We have been keeping track of books distributed in this way since August 1, 2018, and as of December 19, 2024, the Pocket Places Project has distributed 109,393 books to LFLs across the region. One July 20th, during the GVPN’s 10th anniversary Celebration Picnic, we delivered the project’s 100,000th book!
|
Year |
Books Distributed |
Volunteer Hours |
|
2018 |
1,028 |
143.5 |
|
2019 |
5,733 |
336 |
|
2020 |
13,181 |
427 |
|
2021 |
37,139 |
417 |
|
2022 |
27,295 |
417.5 |
|
2023 |
5,799 |
159.5 |
|
2024 |
23,483 |
253 |
|
Total |
109,393 |
2,030 |
Exciting Events and Milestones
We are always looking for ways to celebrate LFLs and placemaking, and this year, were able to hold a number of community events:
- May 4th – Free Comic Book Day! We teamed up with the Superheroes of Victoria to celebrate Free Comic Book Day in style with a ‘Little Free Library Superheroes Adventure!’ Superheroes stationed at LFLs around Fernwood helped distribute over 300 free comic books.
- May 6th – Times Colonist Book Sale! In addition to helping distribute book donations we receive throughout the year, our friends at the Times Colonist Book Sale make leftover books available to local community groups after the sale. This year, members of the LFL community carted off thousands of books thanks to the TC sale.
- July 20th – GVPN’s 10th anniversary Celebration Picnic and Delivery of the Pocket Places Project’s 100,000th Book! Placemakers gathers at Rutledge Park, Saanich to celebrate a decade of placemaking on ‘Placemaking Day.’ We also celebrated a massive project milestone, when we delivered the Pocket Places Project’s 100,000th book. The book, ‘Hand Drawn Victoria’ by Canadian artist and author Emma FitzGerald, was selected using suggestions from the community.
- August 24th – Ribbon Cutting for the 850th LFL in the Region! The LFL, aptly named “Put A Bird On It”, was installed by the Honourable Lana Popham, BC Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport and MLA for Saanich South and her partner Dr. Rob Sealey.
- October 15th – Bruce More Receives Community Impact Award! Little Free Library Builder Extraordinaire,’ Bruce More, was recognized by the City of Victoria for his outstanding work building LFLs from upcycled materials. Bruce has built and gifted over 75 LFLs, and his contributions have had a remarkable impact in helping promote literacy, fostering community and connection, and supporting placemaking across the region.
- October 25th – 500,000th Visitor to our LFL Map! Over half a million people have visited our LFL map!
- October 30th – Book-or-Treat! Victoria-born illustrator Tegan Thomas hid three copies of her new book in little free libraries across the region. Thomas is the illustrator of “The Book Witch, the Wee White Dog and the Little Free Library,” written by Lana Shupe and published with Nimbus Publishing.
Little free libraries are fantastic platforms to help share important information with the community. Over the year, Pocket Places Project distributed hundreds of post cards promoting the Victoria Literacy Connection’s Intergenerational PenPal Club! We also worked to support and promote the work of local authors, and a wide range of other important causes, like the Moosehide Campaign.
We are looking forward to a very exciting 2025! You can stay up to date with news about upcoming book pickup, milestones, and other LFL events by signing up for our newsletter and if you need help building or setting up a LFL, get in touch!
Guest Author Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff
Visit Teale’s Blog / Website: https://www.teale.ca/
