A library alternative

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 10th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Lending Libraries! Some time ago we did a series of reports on church libraries. How some parents are using them to fill the gaps left by a public library system they no longer trust.

After those stories aired, a number of listeners wrote in to tell us about another alternative.

EICHER: As promised, we did our research and have put together a three-part series on the lending library movement and the homeschool families behind it.

WORLD’s Myrna Brown begins our coverage in Johnson City, Tennessee.

AUDIO: You want to see what the library looks like? Uh huh. We’ll find out…

MYRNA BROWN: It’s library day for Rachel Showens and her four children.

RACHEL SHOWENS: We moved from Vermont to Tennessee, and I met a friend and she said, “Oh you should consider joining this library.” And I said, “Why would I pay to join a library when we just go to the public library?”

The answer to that question is inside Alison Dykes basement. That's where the Showens are headed.

AUDIO: Oh my goodness. It’s so good to have you. Tell me your names. I haven’t met you. I’m Grabriella…Gabriella…J.J….. J.J. hi….Solomon……hi Solomon. My name is Barnabas. Barnabas? What great names… Come in…welcome…

Dykes leads the Showens down a narrow hallway between unfinished walls. The studs and insulation lead directly to her living books lending library.

AUDIO: There’s Pilgrim’s Progress guys…

There are a few different views on what exactly a living book is but they're usually written by one author. Instead of short, choppy sentences you often find in today's graphic novels, the stories in living books are written in a narrative form, presenting ideas, not just facts.

ALISON DYKES: Living books are the best. They are books that you remember. They are books that stick with you. So, when we found out about living books, that's when we switched from the public library to a private library.

That was in 2012 when a then 41-year-old Dykes was a homeschool mom of four. Dykes remembers losing faith in her local public library.

DYKES: It was ok for a while. When they couldn’t read it was ok. When they got up to teenage years and some of the content in the books, then we had to stop going.

Content that clashed with her family’s Biblical values. Then, a friend introduced the Dykes to living books and invited them to become members of her lending library.

DYKES: The only problem was it was out in the country and we all have car sickness and it was worth it to get the books. But it was an event.

They eventually stopped making those trips and instead started collecting their own books. Their biggest discovery came from an online ad.

DYKES: It just said children’s books for sale. We’re always up for an adventure.

The adventure took Dykes and her husband to an old rundown barn with thousands and thousands of books for children, written between the late 1800's and 1960.

DYKES: Mice nests, mouse droppings, bugs that were still alive and then dead things like mouse carcasses, snake shedding in the books.

The books, owned by a former professor, had been stored in that barn for a decade.

DYKES: But the books were like jewels. They were so incredibly valuable and so rare.

The Dykes bought them all. After the arduous task of cleaning them and discarding those too far gone, they were finally ready to open their own lending library. Or so they thought.

DYKES: We had the books on the shelves. We just didn’t have them organized or any kind of system for lending and that’s what the trouble, the trouble began.

Dykes says they also lacked the proper infrastructure.

DYKES: In our house where we were before, we didn’t have a private entrance. So, the families would have to come through our home. It was an open floor plan.

Dykes says they served a dozen families for 18 months before they decided to close their doors.

DYKES: But I do have some regrets from that because I only have so much mental and physical and emotional energy. And I was spending it on the library. 

But they still had all those books. As their children became adults, Dykes and her husband decided to relocate to try again. The hunt began for the perfect setup. After nine months of searching they finally found it..

DYKES: We didn’t love the neighborhood. I didn’t like the house, but then we saw the basement.

A 3,300 square foot basement, with a separate entrance and a bathroom. They bought it in 2022 and spent the next two years outfitting the basement.

Dozens of wooden and metal book shelves, almost as tall as the basement’s 10-foot-ceiling, cover nearly every inch of the concrete floor. And stacked, bar coded and labeled on each shelf, are 24,000 living children’s books.

But this time around, Dykes has a different approach to running a lending library.

AUDIO: Everybody gets their own cart when they come…

Before she re-opened last month, she spent an entire year experimenting with a few families.

DYKES: I knew that’s what I needed to do. I gave them free membership in exchange for me making mistakes on them and their feedback.

Feedback that helped inform decisions about operating hours, book placement and…

AUDIO: [KIDS INTERACTING WITH TRAIN SET]

the giant train set that keeps the kiddos busy while moms like Showens explore.

SHOWENS: Having access to high quality books. This library makes it much more affordable. Because to buy all the books that we could get here would be incredibly expensive. So this helps us homeschool, I think, at a much higher level.

Along with the Showens, the Dykes are serving 35 other families in their community. Those families pay a yearly membership fee for unlimited checkout. And patrons can keep the books for up to twelve weeks.

Dykes says despite the temporary setback with her first lending library, she never lost the desire to share her books with others.

DYKES: We knew we were going to start the library. That’s what God had for us.

And that leaves moms like Showens inspired.

SHOWENS: I probably don’t fully grasp the amount of time, effort, money, resources and energy that something like this takes. Maybe we can’t all have a living library, but we should all ask, how can we contribute back to the community.

With paper and hardback treasures in each hand, Showens and her crew of redheads stroll out the basement storm door and down the driveway.

AUDIO: Alright, bye! Thank you!

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Johnson City, Tennessee.

AUDIO: You got a good find there with those two books. Are you happy with them?

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