There is a way to find a new read, and it doesn’t require a library card. And if you live in Langley, it doesn’t even mean leaving town.

Little Free Libraries, a non-profit organization, has several boxes on South Whidbey and the latest popped up at 738 Sandy Point Road in Langley. An open house of sorts was held for the library box’s opening on Sunday by the Langley resident behind the free library, Rhonda Salerno. Dozens, including Langley authors and illustrators, showed up throughout the day to progressively stock the box with some of their favorite suggested reads for their neighbors.

The box was filled by the end of the day, and Salerno is encouraging the neighborhood to swing by to grab a book.

“I wanted to host the opening in a festive way so people could come and see that these books are free to take,” Salerno said. “Sometimes people seem unsure if it’s okay to take a book from these little libraries, but it’s meant for them to take.”

Other Little Free Libraries on the South End can be found at the Bayview Farmers Market, in Sun Vista Circle off Bayview Road and on South Alder Avenue near Brainers Road in Freeland. Visit https://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/ for a map of free libraries.

Salerno describes the little library, which has two shelves with room for roughly 50 books, as “Dr. Seuss like.” Her husband Gordon Collins built the elfish library post.

Little Free Libraries first came about in 2009 when Hudson, Wis. native Todd Bol built the first box in the model of a one-room schoolhouse and placed the fully-stocked box in his front yard. The idea quickly caught on, and when it grabbed the attention of a professor at the University of Wisconsin, they pushed forward to promote the idea as a way to build stronger communities.

According to the Little Free Library’s website, there are over 40,000 miniature libraries across the globe.

“This is a way for people to get to know one another in a different way — to figure out what others are reading,” Langley poet Deborah Nedelman said. “It can open up a whole different level of conversation with your neighbors and that’s really exciting.”

Nedelman was one of the driving inspirations for Salerno to build a little library in Langley. Driven by the desire to share her collection of poems with her neighbors, much like Salerno with her assemblage of books, Nedelman set up a poetry post on 4970 Blue Lady Lane. This is about more than spreading her interests to her, rather getting to know the surrounding community through what they are reading. She says you can’t put a value on building a community that encourages people to read what they otherwise might not read.

“I think we each choose books with an interest in our own experiences, and when we share books we ourselves are reading, we’re getting to know each other by sharing our experiences,” Jing Jing Tsong, illustrator and Langley newcomer said.

In Tsong’s words, these little libraries create a visible network between people.

The Record reported Salerno’s Little Free Library was Langley’s first, when that is incorrect. The official Little Free Library website doesn’t list the library on Melsen Alley in between Sixth Street and Fourth Street.