You can find one in almost every neighborhood: a mini library with books that you can take with you for free. Drenthe currently has almost 200 such mini-libraries. Janny Pot-Spijker from Wijster has one at home, full of children’s books.
You can find the booklets from the mini library in Wijster everywhere. They are wandering books. This means that they have a sticker with a code. In this way Pot-Spijker can follow exactly where the booklets end up. She gets the books from people in the neighborhood or from acquaintances. “That’s what I like best. Recently a lady came to bring a bag full of books. And I make stray books out of that.”
The books that children have taken from the mini library are popping up in various places in the Netherlands. “Yesterday a book of mine appeared in Beilen. But there are also books by me in Groningen, Noord-Holland and Terschelling. When I get a notification I think: you see, they travel the world after all! And I think that’s great, because that’s what you do it for,” she says.
She started the mini library three years ago. “I came across it somewhere on Facebook and I thought, that’s fun to do. I’m old and you don’t do so many things anymore. And I think it’s very important that children read. But it is also for children who unable to pay to view a book.”
She also notices that more and more people from the area are also installing a mini library in the front yard. “Fortunately not in my village yet, I’m the only one there. I’m affiliated with a website for mini-libraries and you can see that more and more are being added.”