Other Little Free Libraries could be ordered to cease

One of Shreveport's Little Free Libraries was ordered to cease operations Thursday, and others in the city could face the same fate.

Alan Clarke, the MPC's zoning administrator, said the book swaps are, by definition, libraries equivalent to Shreve Memorial Library, and under city law a library can only exist in a commercially-zoned area.

Shreveporter Teresa Edgerton learned this after her husband opened a certified letter from the zoning division ordering them to stop operating their Little Free Library, a decorative structure containing books, outside of their Wilkinson Street home.

Passersby are permitted to "take a book, return a book." Money is not exchanged. But according to the letter, which Teresa Edgerton posted on Facebook, their book swap station still is considered a commercial enterprise and can't operate in a residential neighborhood.

"What is it about a book loaning that makes it commercial?" she said.

Brittany Turner, a Highland resident who introduced the couple to the concept, said she did review city law to make sure it's OK and saw nothing that prohibited them.

"It doesn't appear to be commercial, barring some transaction, I'm not really clear how the ordinance would apply," Turner said.

The zoning division's directive raises questions about how city law addresses seemingly harmless modern movements spreading in urban areas.

The Edgertons have 10 days to appeal the decision to the Zoning Board of Appeals. Clarke said the division is studying how other cities and communities have addressed the miniature libraries.

Shreveport law could be amended to make the book swap station a legal endeavor, and the MPC is hoping its research is beneficial to establishing best practices.

But LeVette Fuller, who sits on the MPC, said supporters should make their voices heard at the public meeting which would follow the Edgertons' request for an appeal.

Teresa Edgerton's library, which her husband constructed, is a part of an international movement in which people place books — in boxes or small decorative displays — outside their homes for anyone to borrow.

There are at least two other registered Little Free Libraries in Shreveport and a number of unofficial lending boxes around the city, Turner said.

Clarke said the zoning division stands by its decision. "If someone tells us where one is then we will do the same thing that we did on Wilkinson," he said. "(We) only went there because it bothered someone."