Q&A for How to Start a Small Library

Talk to the principal about it. Ask him if there is any free space that you can use. Start the project by asking the students if they have any books that they want to donate. The school might donate some money for the books as well. Start an auction for donating money for the things the library needs such as shelves, tables and chairs.

50 books is not a large number, so it should be easy to manage. You can start by assigning a number to each book and maintain a register with columns: "Book Number, Borrower, Date Borrowed, and Date Returned." If there is a small group of borrowers, you may just use their names or initials, or if you wish to start a bigger library, then you should register each user assigning them numbers. Maintain a separate register with user details like name, phone numbers, address, date of birth, etc.

The article has some useful suggestions. You could also start a free book library out the front of your house in an old fridge or sheltered box, with a sign that people can take and share whatever they like. Beware though, people will take anything if it's free, so you need to keep restocking it often.

Yep. You will need to take a trip to your local town hall to see what type of permit your town requires.

Look at the classified ads in your community for rental spaces or contact a realtor.

You may make cards using cardstock and ink or stamps, and you may scan books using a scanner at home or at an office supply place.

It depends on what will be in your library. If it's a real mix, you can do it the same way most libraries do: sort adults, young adults/teens, and children's books separately. In the former two, fiction is sorted alphabetically by the author's last name, and non-fiction is sorted by Dewey Decimal number (or LoC number for academic libraries); the same is true in the children's sections, except picture books and board books usually have their own space again. If your books are only fiction you could sort them by genre and then last name, or if they're mostly non-fiction you could sort them by subject (or sub-area) and then by last name.

People who are likely to support your vision are your community members. A local radio station could be of great help, too, if you share your idea with someone you can trust there.

You can go to the town council about it. This way, you could go directly to the council to get approval.

LIbraryThing.com is a website used by libraries and individuals. This site offers a small cataloging database for small libraries. to keep track of their books, movies and music. There is a small fee required about $10 or $20 dollars annually. The first 200 books are free to catalog, then there is a small fee.

It really just depends on how much space you have to work with and how you want to organize your selection. At the very least, there should be 3 main sections: Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Reference. Beyond that, you're free to group your books into various subcategories however you see fit.

Try Facebook pages including neighborhood, city, and area classified Facebook pages––these are a great place to start. Also, look into community sites like Nextdoor.com. Ask local stores to put up flyers for you, especially book stores, laundromats and small businesses. Leave a note on your local library's community bulletin board.

It really depends on where you live, what type of church, etc. Try contacting you state/county/town/church officials for information.