Last August, Beth and Jon Gear built their “Big Red Little Library,” a small box to hold books that sits on a stake on their front lawn at Lillian Street and South Weston Avenue in Elgin.
It’s a lending library of sorts, where people are invited to take any book they’d like and to donate them as well.
“There’s been a lot of activity with it, books donated and books taken. We often see families walking with books they’ve picked,” Beth Gear said.
Which is why it’s hard to fathom why vandals would have attacked it not once but twice in recent months, she said.
The culprits don’t damage the box itself but tear apart the books, Gear said.
“We haven’t had any trouble until the last couple of months. Twice now there have been multiple books removed, ripped apart and the pages thrown on the ground for a span of about two blocks,” she said.
Jon Gear built and painted the mini-library, which has one shelf for kids’ books and the other for adults. It also contains a geocache, which can be found by people who like to hunt down items using GPS coordinates, Beth Gear said.
“The library itself hasn’t been damaged at all, and the cost of the books is fairly small so we haven’t involved the Elgin Police Department, thinking there probably isn’t much that they could do,” she said.
That said, it’s frustrating to not know why someone might destroy books.
“I posted about (the vandalism) both times in the ‘What’s Happening in Elgin?’ Facebook group,” she said. “I’ve been asked a few times if the books that were destroyed were banned books or could have been inflammatory subject matter, and the answer is no.
“The books just seem to be grabbed at random. The only common factor is that they’ve all been novels or kids chapter books with lots of pages.”
Their home doorbell camera doesn’t capture the spot where the little library is located so now they’re considering putting up a camera to capture video of the vandals or deter them from doing it again, Gear said.
“That way, if it happens again, we can go to the police with it,” she said. “We’re being more observant now when our dogs are barking at the windows or when we hear people outside. Hopefully, we can keep it from happening again.”
On a positive note, Gear said, a lot of people have contact them about donating books after reading the social media posts about the vandalism.
“It has been wonderful to know that so many people are in support of our little project,” she said.
Gear maintains a Facebook page for The Big Red Little Library at m.facebook.com/groups/521685510156045/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT.
“I post things like when I add new books, book/reading-related memes and when we’re looking for donations,” she said.
The library is not an official Little Free Library, so she and her husband don’t have any of the resources or benefits through their organization.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
