Lee Fowler Schwimmer of Pacific Beach used to be a yoga instructor. Now she\u2019s a librarian, of sorts.
\nHaving set up Lee\u2019s Little Lending Library in front of her home on Diamond and Dawes streets, Fowler Schwimmer said of her motivation, “We\u2019re being nice to the neighborhood. It brings a nice energy into the community and makes it more of a neighborhood where people know each other, wave and say hello.”
\nBest of all, Fowler Schwimmer noted her little lending library, entirely free and located four blocks from the beach, is open “24\/7.”
\nThe yoga instructor-turned-librarian loves her community, as attested to by the “I love PB” mosaic she created on her house. Now, she has a people\u2019s library to complement it.
\nFowler Schwimmer felt it was important to present a handy, wholesome, free recreational alternative for people of all ages.
\nFowler Schwimmer noted there are enough “bars, tattoo parlors and wild, crazy running around” to go around in the beach community.
\nSo, in her own small way, she\u2019s making her personal contribution toward making the beach community a little calmer and more laid back.
\nLee\u2019s Little Lending Library is a global trend Fowler Schwimmer has adopted and made her own.
\n“There is an international movement afoot, and that movement is called the Little Free Library, which is a trademarked brand,” she said. “You can go on that website and register your own Little Free Library. It costs $40.”
\nAdding, however, that she “didn\u2019t go that route,” Fowler Schwimmer nonetheless said she was exposed to the personal library concept on the Internet.
\n“I thought, \u2018What a delightful thing to just give free books introducing them into the neighborhood,\u2019” she said. She added there is no contract \u2014 and few terms \u2014 associated with her little lending library.
\n“If you want to borrow a book and return it, I trust you,” Fowler Schwimmer said. “Or take one of mine, and give me one of yours.”
\nNoting “reading is an option,” the independent librarian is hopeful “parents will come by with their kids” and take full advantage of her book repository.
\nThe library\u2019s design, though, was admittedly a bit of a challenge.
\n“I\u2019m not a mechanic; I\u2019m not a carpenter,” Fowler Schwimmer admitted. “My husband and a friend designed it. We all kind of pitched in.”
\nLee\u2019s Little Lending Library has been open about six weeks and thus far has gotten rave reviews. People leave comments inside on Post-its furnished just for that purpose.
\n“People say, \u2018What a great idea this is, and thank you very much,\u2019” with some taking books while promising to “leave some books later,” Fowler Schwimmer said.
\nThe newly minted little librarian said she\u2019s concerned about stocking her shelves with a good cross-section of literary choices.
\n“I don\u2019t want it to be all romance novels,” she said. “I want some recent books, some fiction, good-quality stuff.”
\nSince families are headed to the beach, Fowler Schwimmer also wants to ensure she has kids picture books as well as classics like Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.
\nThere\u2019s also a doggie bowl in front of the Lee\u2019s Little Lending Library for four-legged browsers.
\n“It\u2019s hard to have too much reading,” concluded Fowler Schwimmer. “It\u2019s a great thing to encourage. When you make something convenient and easy to use, what goes around comes around.”
\nOf her reward for starting her own private, free community lending library, Fowler Schwimmer said, “I get paid for doing this in smiles.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lee Fowler Schwimmer of Pacific Beach used to be a yoga instructor. Now she\u2019s a librarian, of sorts. Having set up Lee\u2019s Little Lending Library in front of her home on Diamond and Dawes streets, Fowler Schwimmer said of her motivation, “We\u2019re being nice to the neighborhood. It brings a nice energy into the community […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":265867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Sharing the love of reading with Lee\u2019s Little Lending Library in Pacific Beach","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}