Little Free Library Is At Metcalfe Park

A new Little Free Library is up in Omaha.

We installed our white and blue beauty at Metcalfe Park over the weekend.

We put the Little Free Library up over the weekend at Metcalfe Park, located between Dundee and Benson.

Thanks to Alpha-Bits Cereal, the library came to my house with 10 fantastic children’s books to help start the library. I added a few of my old books, and Mooch and Farley kicked in a few of their old ones as well.

Don’t tell my kids, I picked some of the old books of theirs I cannot bear to read one more time.

I hope the neighborhood embraces this Little Free Library. I picked the location since it’s a very busy area, not only for families visiting the playground but adults out for a walk or run. Another neighbor had a similar idea, so you might see a second one near there too.

Come check it out sometime. Bring a book to leave, and grab one or a few that interest you.

How it came to be:

I explain the impetus of this Little Free Library here.

The library arrived to my house in a huge cat- and kid-enticing box, with instructions on building and connecting it to a base. You can build a library on your own with instructions here. I was fortunate enough to be contacted by a firm working with Alpha-Bits, so I jumped at the chance to have part of the library already constructed. I’m not what you’d call mechanically-inclined.

I procrastinated all through our cold spring, finally getting the base built when the weather started to warm up. I had help from my husband; my handy sister-in-law, Amy; and my son. My daughter helped on runs to the hardware store, so I suppose she can be included on the helper list.

Both kids also helped cover the hole after the post was in place.

I painted it myself, as evidence by the sad paint job. I really should just say my 4-year-old son painted it – then you’d all marvel at his talent.

Before putting it in at Metcalfe Park, I contacted the city’s parks and recreation department to make sure they were cool with it – they were (and they offered to give it a cement base). I also contacted OPPD and got the paperwork filed to get it approved by all utilities. It was. And I contacted the Metcalfe-Harrison Neighborhood Association. I also contacted my brother, Daniel, owner of many digging tools, so that I could borrow a pole digging shovel. It probably has a real name, but as noted before, I’m not mechanically inclined to know what that is.

Your turn: Do you know if you have a Little Free Library in your neighborhood? (you can view this map to find out)