Montgomery County slapped a notice on her Little Free Library

Carol Andress’ husband gave her a Little Free Library kit for Christmas. She painted the wood box pastel blue and yellow, and the couple sank its post into the grass in front of their Bethesda house, under the shade of an old fig tree.

She hung a hand-painted sign: “Take a book and/or leave a book.”

For more than a decade, Andress’ little library has served Bethesda’s Westgate community with free books. It’s part of a movement that in the last 20 years has planted tens of thousands of Little Free Libraries across the nation to encourage literacy and neighborliness.

But a few weeks ago, Andress found a notice from the county taped to the little library she tends so carefully, with new books every week and a fresh coat of paint whenever its colors dull.

“Upon inspection it has been determined that this little library appears to be in non-compliance with the required guidelines to place a little library in the public right of way,” the notice read.

Andress was taken aback. The county required her to comply within 30 days.

At first, she thought it might mean the end of her little library, which sits at the corner of Newport Avenue and Earlston Drive.

“It’s been really fun to manage it, and so it’ll be sad to take it down,” Andress told The Banner shortly after she saw the notice.

She wrote a letter to the county — co-signed by 150 neighbors — asking that it allow the library to remain in its current location.

But the county hadn’t threatened to remove it. And officials recently issued new guidelines that the permitting department hopes will make the rules around Little Free Libraries clearer.

According to the guidelines, you don’t need a permit to erect one on private property; you do if it’s in a right of way. The county won’t charge you for the permit, but an inspector will make sure it’s not impeding traffic, too big or blocking hydrants — among other restrictions.

“We want to make sure that it’s installed properly and no one’s going to get hurt,” said Linda Kobylski, the permitting department’s land development chief. “We are trying to do our best to allow these in the public right of way, because I do think it’s a great service for the community.”

To avoid the need for a permit, the Saint Paul, Minnesota-based Little Free Library nonprofit recommends constructing the libraries on private property. It estimates that more than 400 million books have been shared through the libraries, which must be registered with the group. Each little library holds 10 to 20 books and must be built to withstand harsh weather.

Andress, who retired in 2023 from an international environmental advocacy group, hopes she can get a permit to keep her little library where it stands. She worries that moving it out of the right of way would put it too far from passersby.

She’s not sure how her Little Free Library came to the attention of the permitting department. Perhaps someone complained, she said. The noncompliance notice indicated that the permitting department had “received a request concerning a little library” at her address.

But she knows many neighbors treasure her library, the conversations it sparks in the street, and her curation of its books. She said she showcases authors of color.

“There have been some amazing books dropped off there,” she said, mentioning Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” and Louise Erdrich’s “The Night Watchman,” among other titles that neighbors have donated over the years.

“I’ve been very pleased by all the support from neighbors for keeping the Little Free Library at the corner,” she said. “Fingers crossed.”