Leave a Book, Take a Book

By: Sydney McKee

The University of Sioux Falls has recently added a free book cabinet to campus. Currently located outside of the school’s bookstore, USF staff hope to solve the book desert in the surrounding community. Director of Student Life and Housing, Andrew Porteous applied for a grant about 6 months ago with the Little Free Library Organization, and was allowed the funds for the cabinet. “We were looking at Little Free Library to serve not only our student population, but the surrounding population as well,” said Porteous. The idea behind all of this is to meet the basic needs of students, as well as those living near the campus.

The cabinet contains donated books in both English and Spanish, and will be monitored by volunteers from campus. Additionally, children’s books and advanced readings will be available.  The concept of the free book cabinet is to leave a book, then take a book, or replace the book you took. “The idea is that it’s like a book exchange with no one there,” explained Porteous. 

The Little Free Library Organization bases their book cabinet locations on the economic needs in the communities they are planted in. The free book cabinet is for USF students and surrounding community members. Porteous gave an example of potential community members in need. “If I were a young mom with a couple of kids, I couldn’t use the school’s (USF) library, but I could just pop across the street and get books from the free library.” Because of this, USF is planning on placing the cabinet on the southeast corner of campus or near the library on the edge of campus. The cabinet is planned to be launched in May 2023 before the students leave for summer.