Ellyn Honey is a proponent of books, a facilitator of books, a book circulator. Her involvement with the international organization Little Free Libraries has helped change the course of circulation and makes books more readily available for everyone.

"The purpose of Little Free Libraries is to provide books for anybody," said Honey, a registered book steward with Little Free Libraries, explaining that the initiative operates on the concept of "take a book and leave a book." "If you visited a Little Free Library, you could take books, you could bring them back or you could keep them. It's a big community thing containing kids' and adult books. Nine out of 10 kids' books don't come back, and that's OK. Some people will take five books and bring 10 back. If they want to keep them, that's perfectly fine."

They're not hers, they don't belong to her and neither did she build them or place them at their current locations, but Honey helps service many of the 12 Little Free Libraries located in and around Lititz.

"The community knows who I am," said Honey, a resident of Narvon. "The community knows what it is and where it is. When my husband and I go through Lititz, I'll check them, straighten them up and fill them with books if needed. I'm one of the people doing it, but I'm not the only one. It's a great way to get books in people's hands."

Among the dozen Little Free Libraries located in the Lititz area are ones at 11 Pinewood Ave., at Lititz Church of the Brethren at 300 W. Orange St., on the corner of New and Locust Streets and at 696 Sue Drive. Some of the Little Free Libraries have been built and placed by organizations like the Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts of the USA, and others have been purchased from the Little Free Library organization. Many of the structures resemble houses.

"I get very passionate about helping provide books to the community," said Honey. "I've always loved to read. My love of reading and ways I can help the community make me feel good about what I am doing. It warms my heart to see a family stop in at the library, to see the small children jumping up and down getting excited to find a book just for them."

There are nearly 40 Little Free Libraries stationed across Lancaster County. Locally, they seem to have gained traction during the pandemic when public libraries were off limits.

Little Free Library was founded as an organization in 2016 and since then 400 million books have been circulated. There are currently 185,000 Little Free Libraries in 121 countries around the world.

"They're all over the place. You see them everywhere," said Honey. "Because they're around the world, they're in places where people don't get a lot of opportunities to read. For me and my husband, it's kind of like a scavenger hunt. We'll purposely look for them."

For additional information about Little Free Library, go to http://www.littlefreelibrary.org.