From Emy Damian, Written Treasures, Triangle Area, NC

I wasn’t always a book hoarder, but l’ve always loved to read. I was born and raised in the Philippines in a family of readers, and my siblings and I grew up reading Enid Blyton, the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys. But we also read children’s classics — I have fond memories of my Ate (older sis) and I taking an hour-long bus ride, backpacks in tow, to this dome-shaped building dwarfed by skyscrapers, right in the very heart of the financial district. It was a church founded over a century ago for American expatriates, and inside was a little library — a regular library to everyone else, but THE Secret Garden to me. We filled our backpacks with Black Beauty and the like, and devoured them at home before our next trip to this magical place.

Though I never traveled outside of my country as a child, I traveled everywhere through books. I read Lord of the Rings when I was twelve and felt I had already “been” to Middle Earth decades before any of the movies or the Hobbiton movie set existed!

The Dewey Decimal System fascinated me — I even attempted to catalog our home library as a child — but I never really started collecting books until I began homeschooling our four children. Homeschooling opened up the world of good books to me, and I hoarded all the Good Book lists I could find online. Discovering Charlotte Mason was at once both eye-opening and liberating in terms of book collecting: I learned how books I once considered good were actually twaddle – books that didn’t respect or inspire our children’s minds and souls. This insight helped thin out our home library — for a short while anyway, until Good books replaced them!

Around this time, I stumbled upon an email list of fellow homeschool moms who had turned their private libraries into lending libraries. I had no intention of following suit, but I lived vicariously through their stories, amazed at what they were able to do. To me, they were recreating for other families the magical Secret Garden library of my childhood. 

In January 2023, I sold a complete 33-book hardbound set of The Happy Hollisters which our kids had outgrown. I was happy to find a mom who wanted them for her own children and for her lending library patrons to enjoy. But my heart was broken. I realized I wasn’t just mourning the end of a phase in the lives of our children — I was also mourning the end of a dream. I had always secretly dreamed of having a lending library of my own, and selling our Happy Hollisters seemed to herald the death of that dream.

To console myself, I went back to that online group of mom librarians and read their stories again– their journeys, their questions, and their struggles. And then it happened.  As I read their stories, the first tentative “what if?” appeared, then increased in strength and frequency until it took on a life of its own. The reading of journeys turned into research, the research turned into a survey for friends, the survey turned into a trial period, the trial period kept getting extended and extended and extended by request until. . . finally, I could no longer deny it. My dream had come true! Our lending library started its trial period in March 2023 and officially launched in September.

I created a social media account to hold myself accountable and joined Facebook groups of fellow librarians. These, together with The Card Catalog, were (and continue to be) a great resource and source of encouragement. 

As I’m the only one running the library, I decided early on to only lend curated boxes (bins) of books, not individual books. I was inspired by a library in Washington when I browsed their website and saw photos of how they actually lent out Five in a Row boxes. With kind encouragement from the founder of that library, I slowly started curating FIAR boxes of books, then added to them boxes that I curated myself. Our Member families love both! I believe part of their appeal is the double convenience: No decision fatigue on choosing/ finding books, and the books are already conveniently boxed up and labeled. Although the FIAR books can be used as part of the FIAR curriculum, I find that all our Member families simply enjoy the books for leisure reading. 

Since I have no space for an actual library in our home, I meet with members monthly at a designated place for our monthly Box Swap, where members return their current Treasure Box of books and borrow new ones. This has worked well so far, but since I no longer homeschool, I’m pretty flexible if the need to change arises. 

Members pay an annual or 3-month membership fee, which will go up in September. Those who are members by June will have access to the old annual membership rate. In addition, I will start offering a cheaper Membership that excludes the curated boxes. 

A lending library is no money-maker – it’s a ministry. And it can get pretty expensive! So choosing which books and when to buy is key. Many of our books are secondhand. Most are living books — books that are rich in language and ideas, capture and inspire the mind and heart, appeal to young and old, and stand the test of time. Some of our books may not meet all the criteria (from our pre-Charlotte Mason days), but are still wholesome and good alternatives to books that are in other libraries but don’t fit our Members’ values.

If I can start a lending library with little know-how, with books mostly haphazardly collected over a decade, and a tight budget, I truly believe anyone can! If even the thought of starting a lending library brings you joy, start following others’ journeys, and learn from them. Even if you’re not ready to start a library yet, you’ll glean ideas about what fits your time, budget, and space constraints. Don’t be afraid to ask – we’ve all been there, and still are all learning. Start small. We’re in this for the long haul, and it’s worthwhile work – you don’t want to burn out. Involve your spouse and kids, at least so they know why those book piles keep growing. 😉 Don’t be afraid to try new ways of doing things: We all have different circumstances and can serve families in our unique way, no matter how small or different our library may be. Above all, pray for guidance. Written Treasures library is still young, and its future remains to be seen. But God willing, I can continue to  lend these treasures for as long as the need exists and resources allow — just like that little round church half the world away did for me, many, many years ago.  

Maintaining a lending library is HARD work, mostly involving plenty of tedious repetitive steps. What keeps me going is thinking of the delight of Member families as they read each Treasure, and my own delight in reading books as a child. But I wanted to share two stories from Members that bring me so much joy and encouragement each time I remember. One is from the mom of a 5-year old who developed anxiety with reading new books, afraid of encountering something fearful in stories. Since bringing home their first Treasure Box, however, that child has learned again to trust that books are safe and enjoyable, and is now even venturing into stories that may have caused anxiety in the past. I just love seeing the smile on that child’s face when we meet!

Another mom shared with me how, in the middle of reading a book to her seven-year-old son one day, she told him she couldn’t read aloud anymore as she wasn’t feeling well. She told him he should try to just read it himself, even though he had never read a book before. Well, lo and behold, he started reading the entire book aloud to her, stunning them both. Truly, what an honor it is to help these two lovely families and be part of their reading journeys!. And honestly, even if I was forced to shutter my library tomorrow, these two stories would have made it all worthwhile. 

This article is part of our Librarian Notices series of library stories at The Card Catalog. You can connect with us to comment on this story or any of our other library stories on our Facebook page.