Photos by Nora Edinger This Little Free Library outside REStyle Consignment in Centre Market ranks high on the cute scale. But, there’s plenty of variety among such kiosks — including some libraries that are tucked into repurposed news boxes donated by Wheeling Newspapers.

WHEELING — When Rebecca Stahl is working past closing time at her Centre Market storefront, she often notices people lingering just outside the glass windows that stretch across the shop’s front. She knows they’re not looking at the artistic clothing display just inside — no matter how hard she has worked at that kind of thing.

It’s the books.

“People check it out all hours of the day and night,” Stahl said of a Little Free Library she located just outside her REStyle Consignment in 2019.

At first, she stocked the small kiosk with titles she thought would appeal to shoppers, diners and the multitude of youthful dancers that come in and out of a nearby studio. In the recycling spirit of her business, she picked up quite a few volumes at book sales conducted by the Ohio County Public Library.

Then, she pretty much let things go free-range except for the tidy seasonal decor she keeps in the planter at its base.

Readers — including lunch-breaking police officers and the occasional street sweeper — were stopping by to pick up a title or two, Stahl said. No cost. No formal check-out procedure. No formal anything.

Stahl was delighted when books started leaving and when just as many or more wound up coming back.

“Now, I barely have to (stock it) because people have been pretty good at refilling it,” Stahl said, noting she weeds out books she flags as too tattered to be appealing.

“Sometimes, someone will show up with a grocery bag of books and it’s already filled,” she added. “I keep those by the door for when it starts to empty out.”

COMMUNITY OF BOOKS

That books-gone-wild-and-wonderful experience has played out at other little libraries around the city in the handful of years they’ve been in use. Kris Quinn said about a dozen little lending libraries coordinated by the Ohio County Virtual Lions Club have been similarly well received.

These little libraries — many of which are in Warwood or in city playgrounds — were originally stocked with direct book donations or by funds raised by the Virtual Lions Club and Grow Warwood Pride. But, as with Stahl’s experience, Quinn said they soon took on a life of their own.

“It’s very rare that we get a request to fill the books,” Quinn said. “So, they must be getting filled by people.”

Not that the Lions aren’t ready to restock, Quinn noted. The group came across some good deals and there are plenty of books in storage.

In contrast to super-cute libraries such as those at REStyle and outside Whisk Bakery + Catering in Woodsdale, the Virtual Lions’ libraries are also pretty much free-range in terms of maintenance. They are built like tanks.

Once street-distribution points for editions of the Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register, the water-proof news boxes have been painted to a neutral gray, Quinn said. They’ve since been decorated — sometimes by West Liberty University students — in a variety of ways.

MAPPING IT OUT

The Lions’ little libraries can be located through a map on the ohiocountyvirtuallions.com website.

The box at REStyle and another at First Presbyterian Church are also mapped as they are registered through the official Little Free Library group, a literacy-oriented organization started in 2009 by a Wisconsin woodworker.

But, other little libraries — including the one at Whisk and at least one in front of a private home in Woodsdale — are more about serendipity. Readers simply find them.

That was what got Stahl hooked on the idea, she said. She couldn’t help but browse when she was visiting her sister in Pittsburgh a few years ago.

“In her neighborhood, they have them all over the place,” Stahl said. “People have them in front of their houses and they’re all decorated.”

She also likes a more recent spin on the idea that has agencies, churches or individuals putting out easy-to-eat food in similar kiosks.

Another spin is putting winter coats, hats and gloves on direct street display — available to anyone who needs it, whenever they need it.

Readers who are interested in managing a little lending library of their own can do a solo effort or work through the Little Free Library organization — which also sells pre-made kiosks.

Or, they can still tap into the news box supply coordinated by the Virtual Lions, Quinn noted.

Information about the latter boxes is available at the ohiocountyvirtuallions.com website under the little lending library button.