{"id":337488,"date":"2026-05-29T13:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/337488\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T13:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:21:09","slug":"little-free-libraries-bring-neighbors-together-in-fresno-and-clovis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/337488\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Free Libraries bring neighbors together in Fresno and Clovis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

The Little Free Library on Swift and McKelvy is operated by husband-and-wife team Kimberly and John Schaefer in Clovis.<\/p>\n

Hana Tilksew<\/p>\n

hana.tilksew@fresnobee.com<\/p>\n

Have you seen little lockers in your neighborhood that happen to be advertising books for all? That\u2019s a Little Free Library.<\/p>\n

They are operated by a Minnesota-based nonprofit of the same name. Any independent resident can register via the organization\u2019s website to become the patron of a charter. Patrons set up boxes in their neighborhood and stock them with books made available to the general public.<\/p>\n

The locations can be found by searching for a city, state, or zip code in the organization\u2019s world map.<\/a><\/p>\n

Reyna Blackburn is the overseer of a Little Free Library on Fairmont Ave. in Fresno. After observing these libraries in places like Monterey and Pismo, she was inspired to begin her own in Fresno.<\/p>\n

Blackburn has found that the libraries foster neighborhood camaraderie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s those people that are looking for a greater sense of community,\u201d she said of the visitors. \u201cThey kind of want to know what\u2019s going on in the community, and they find this little library, and they go, \u2018Ooh, what\u2019s going on over here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Guests have left sticky notes at the Fairmont location expressing their appreciation for the project.<\/p>\n

When she first established the outpost, Blackburn supplied it with a guestbook where people could fill in suggestions about the kind of books they wanted to read., but the book was taken \u2014 \u201cmaybe by mistake, maybe somebody liked it,\u201d Blackburn said. Now, it is up to her to \u201ctry to put a diverse selection in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main role as I see it is to make sure that there\u2019s diversity there and that the books are clean,\u201d Blackburn said.<\/p>\n

Husband-and-wife team Kimberly and John Schaefer operate the Little Free Library on McKelvy and Swift avenues in Clovis. Kimberly Schaefer is an adult education teacher who has turned the Little Free Library into an educational resource.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make books accessible to everyone,\u201d she said. When donations overwhelm the tiny library, she shares books with the Clovis Adult School.<\/p>\n

Living on the corner of two streets, the couple thought they lived in a prime spot for foot traffic. The Schaefers\u2019 Little Free Library has three levels. The top row is for adult books, although those have been \u201cslow-moving.\u201d Children\u2019s books are most in demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a little fairy garden in front of the library for kids to stop. We know that parents go on walks and their kids wanna go by the library,\u201d Schaefer said. She and her husband do not ask that books be returned.<\/p>\n

Schaefer pointed out that for families that have not prioritized reading to their children in the past, or for families who do not have access to free books, the Little Free Library can open up a new world.<\/p>\n

\"A The Little Free Library on Swift and McKelvy is operated by husband-and-wife team Kimberly and John Schaefer in Clovis. Hana Tilksew hana.tilksew@fresnobee.com
\n Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Little Free Library on Swift and McKelvy is operated by husband-and-wife team Kimberly and John Schaefer in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-337488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}