In a number of communities throughout the Copper Country, little boxes on posts containing books, usually placed in someone’s front yard, have begun to pop up with no announcement or fanfare. The popularity of these little book boxes has been rapidly growing all across the world, and there is a very interesting story behind them.

In 2009, a man named Todd Bol, of Hudson, Wisconsin, had an idea. Bol built a wooden model of a one-room schoolhouse. Then, he mounted it on a post in his front yard and filled with with books. It bore a sign which read simply, “Free books.” The project was a tribute to his mother, a school teacher, who loved to read. Bol’s friends and neighbors loved his little schoolhouse filled with books, so he built several more little boxes and gave them away, each bearing the same simple sign: “Free books.”

According to the Little Free Library website, Bol built his first little library in 2009 and just two years later there were over 400 Little Free Libraries across the United States. In May 2012, Little Free Library was officially established as a Wisconsin nonprofit corporation with a board of directors. In September, the Internal Revenue Service granted the organization tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

The mission of the Little Free Library is simple: “To promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide and to build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across generations,” the website states.

The concept of the Little Free Libraries is very straightforward: take a book and either bring it back after reading it, or replace it with another book. There is no sign-up fee, no late fee, or expense associated with the Little Free Library.

“Today, more than 70 countries worldwide have a ‘little free library,'” Global News wrote on March, 19, 2015, “teeny tiny book exchanges that are popping up everywhere including Regina and Saskatoon.”

There are Little Free Libraries in at least four communities in the Copper Country today. There are two in Houghton (420 Jacker Street and 500 Garnet Street), one in Dodgeville (Frue Street), another one in Calumet (Sixth Street), and two in the City of Hancock (Ryan Street and the Jutilla Center). While anyone, anywhere, is welcome and encouraged to build and display a Little Free Library, people planning to do so must obtain an official charter sign and charter number on the Library.

Registering the Little Free Library through the website does a number of things. It protects the integrity and quality of the Little Free Library name, and it also provides those registering a number of benefits.

According to the website, those who become registered members are referred to as stewards. Stewards will receive a guide containing tips to make the individual’s library a community success. It provides the steward the opportunity to have the Little Free Library placed on the website’s world map. It also gives the steward an official charter sign engraved with the steward’s charter number.

Only Libraries with official charter signs and numbers can be photographed and displayed as part of the Little Free Library network. This is the only way the Little Free Library organization can track, monitor, support, fund and celebrate people’s efforts, the website states.

The one-time registration fee varies from $42.45 to $76.95, depending on a number of factors that are discussed on the Little Free Library website.