Capitol Hill Resident Asks Locals for Help Finding Area’s ‘Little Libraries’

A local woman is aspiring to map every outdoor public library in the Capitol Hill area, with the help of her neighbors.

Ashleigh Grant and her allies so far have pinpointed 18 “little libraries” — small boxes that look like birdhouses filled with books — on a public Google map. The little libraries are free to the public under the premise that if people remove books from the structures, they will replace them with literature of their own.

Grant said she started the public map after fellow local Meg Biallas asked about little library locations on the “New Hill East” Facebook group.

The Little Free Library organization, which has registered several Capitol Hill libraries, has a map that Grant said is outdated. Unable to find a current map, she took it upon herself to begin crowd-sourcing a public Google map that might prove more helpful to neighborhood bookworms.

“I usually find an interesting book each time that I enjoy and then return to the little library or contribute my own,” she said. “But I don’t have the opportunity to walk every street, so crowd-sourcing the locations of all the little libraries seemed like a perfect way to track down as many locations as possible.”

She posted the Google map to the Facebook group and asked for help. Soon, members had contributed 10 more locations to the map.

“I think this map is a great way to make sure our community knows about all the little libraries our neighbors have worked so hard at building and maintaining,” she said. “It adds to the culture and experience of Capitol Hill.”

Image of map via Google Maps