now the question is...

... where should it be installed to be most beneficial to people who would stop and peruse the offerings? I would love to put the little free library out on the street in front of my house, but there is virtually no 'foot traffic'. No one walking along a very busy thoroughfare to stop and choose a book, or make a donation by leaving reading material for other patrons. Everyone who passes by is traveling at a rate of speed much too great to take the time to poke around in a little wooden box full of literature.

As much as I would like to keep the little free library nearby, it makes sense to put it someplace there would be pedestrians. Make it convenient for people who would slow down enough to open the little wooden door, and look inside. Be delighted by the assortment of books, and find one to take home and enjoy, or read aloud with a child.

Our house is located about half a mile from an elementary school, so I thought about asking the principal if she would agree to putting the library up on the school property. If I were a teacher, or school librarian, or even a parent of a small child - it would thrill me to see a little free library installed there near a local center for education. An obvious encouragement to little people to peer inside, select a book to read, share, enjoy, return. And possibly bring other books to donate for more children to see and choose. But then I thought: a proposal for a permanent structure on school board property would likely need so many levels of approval, it would be years before administrators could come to consensus. I've already discarded that idea as too frustrating to pursue.

Now I am thinking: maybe at church. There are lots of small grass islands with trees in the parking lot. It could go out there where hundreds of people pass in the course of a Sunday or during the week. This seems like the best option. Hopefully it would be a much simpler process to gain permission to dig a hole and mount the wooden box. I propose to take my library to show the administrator, who might be willing to make the decision, without having to form a committee and debate the decision half to death. How could you not want something so clever and useful sitting there for all passersby to see and enjoy?