Miniature house of knowledge
Former national rhythmic gymnast hopes to inculcate a reading habit among the community via a purpose-built mini library located in her neighbourhood.
IT could pass off as a birdhouse from the outside. There’s nothing feathery in it but it is a hatchery for learning.
The small structure – located in Shah Alam, Selangor – has been drawing attention from people around the area lately.
Last month, businesswoman Carol Low, 44, set up the mini street library – located at Section 23, Kemuning Utama – for people to borrow reading materials freely.
The mother of two is trusting that readers will respect the neighbourhood facility enough to take care of the books and duly return them.
“It’s free and easy; just take what you want to read and return it when you’re done. If there’s a book that someone really likes and wants to keep, then I encourage that person to put in another book of their own as a swap. This will ensure that the library won’t be empty.
“I’ve always held on to author C. S. Lewis’ quote: ‘Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching’. And what better way for the children in our community to learn integrity than this,” said Low in an email interview recently.
Like other street libraries, the public book-sharing space aims to encourage a ‘take one, leave one’ approach to make books available to everyone.
While the concept is similar to Titi Street Library in Kuala Lumpur’s Taman Titiwangsa, Low’s mini library caters to residents living in the neighbourhood.
Through this initiative, the former national rhythmic gymnast hopes to spark an interest in reading in the community.
“Reading, to me, is a source of inspiration and motivation, a great teacher in all kinds of subjects, and a restorer of faith. It also offers endless adventures and learning opportunities.
“If this library can help a handful of people pick up reading – which wasn’t a part of their lives before – it would have served its purpose of empowering a community,” shared Low, who runs an online book rental business.
While social media, e-books and digital media consume a lot of our time these days, Low believes it is essential to tip the scale towards physical books.
“Reading should be something that’s fun and not treated as a tedious activity. It is essential to cultivate the reading habit in children. Let the individual select what he or she wants to read. It’s only when someone has an interest in something that they will willingly pick up a book on the topic,” said Low, who clinched a gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics at the Manila SEA Games in 1991.
Low said that in general Malaysians are not reading enough.
“Even though we know its importance and benefits, we hardly read. During the little spare time that we have, many people prefer to turn to their mobile phones or Netflix rather than read.
“We are constantly fed information in a passive way when we are watching something on screen. Whether it’s a good or bad influence, we simply absorb what’s being put in front of us.
“But with reading, it’s an active input. We use more of our brain cells to digest the information we’ve read, and we can stop to think through or question what we’ve read.
“We get so much more exposure if we give ourselves a chance to read widely across genres. Reading builds a person’s character too,” she said.
Take a look, read a book
Low was inspired to launch the street library after seeing such setups in Western countries on the Internet.
“I’ve seen photos of them being enacted in parks, along the streets, and within residential areas. I’m a book lover and I thought, what a nice thing it would be to have one here in our own community too,” said Low, citing Agatha Christie, Paulo Coelho and Osho as some of her favourite authors.
The mini library measures 1m by 0.76m and can store up to 60 books. The books cover topics such as selfhelp, health and nutrition, business and management and spirituality. There are also books for children and young adults, along with some Chinese and Malay titles.
“I’ve set aside about 300 books for the mini library. As the books are being borrowed, I will slot in new ones to fill up the shelves,” said Low.
Besides channelling books from her personal collection, friends, neighbours and Red Shield Industries (the social enterprise unit of The Salvation Army) also donate to the library.
Low worked with her husband, businessman Ray Sern, 45, to create the library, which resembles a tiny house complete with a roof. In total, the couple spent RM500 on the project, which includes acquiring a few new books.
“We agreed on a weatherproof bookshelf that can withstand heavy downpours. Thankfully, my husband is quite the handyman who enjoys making things with his DIY tools. He put a lot of thought into constructing the library, using weather-resistant materials including pinewood, aluminium sheets and all-weather transparent waterproofing composite,” said Low, adding that it took a week to construct the library.
Low hopes her effort will encourage other communities to set up similar libraries for the public.
“I think it takes a success story to encourage others to do the same. When people learn that this is doable and users appreciate and respect such initiatives, they might be inspired to set up something in their own neighbourhood.
“It takes small steps like these to grow into something bigger and better. It’s doubt that holds us back. So if we can take one step at a time, take a bit of risk and be prepared to ‘lose’ some books (as I did!), publicise the initiative within the community to garner some support, then we might see more of these libraries mushrooming around our communities.”