KAJIAN TINDAKAN LITTLE FREE LIBRARY

Little Free Library: Born to read and to lead.
Nor Alya Zulkifli

SMK Bukit Sawa, 21400 Marang Terengganu
[email protected]

1 REFLECTION

Students' access to print resources in the school library was curtailed.
This paper is initiated by the idea of bringing a library to students and
inculcating reading culture. This provides easy access for students to
reading materials. The concept of Free library is to give space to
students to read anywhere and anytime they want. Little free libraries are
people sized. It is doable and the workload is reasonable. Students want
to read but they want to do it at a more relaxed environment.

2 SCOPE OF STUDY

Students are seen to encounter problem whenever they are asked to
discuss and share a book they read during their spare time. One of the
factors is the lack of awareness in reading itself. We learn that students
have less contact with library and suitable reading materials.

3 SCOPE OF STUDY
Teacher plays a vital role in providing a 'comforting' place and 'suitable'
reading materials to encourage students to read. Therefore, students
should be given a platform to manage a little library of their own. This is
hoped to inculcate and flourish students' reading habit.

4 OBJECTIVES

This program is aimed to boost students’ interest in reading by managing
their own Little Free Library. Dedicated stewards are vital to tending the
structure and curating the books inside. They shouldn’t need to worry
about running out inventory. The “take a book, return a book” motto
ensures that the shelves of books in a LFL are continuous.

5 SAMPLE

This project aims 23 form 4 students from 4 Premier as Little Free Library
stewards.

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LITERATURE REVIEW INTERVENTION
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The concept is simple: A Little Free Library is a box of books, posted in
an accessible spot. Everyone who passes by is welcomed to stop and
browse the books that fill the microlibrary. The book exchanges run on in
a way that "take a book, return a book" honour system, the inventory
constantly changes, and it aims to offer something for every reader - from

travel guides to Lat Cartoon Comic to teen magazine.

7 INTERVENTION

To ensure the success of Little Free Libraries there are two fundamental
concepts that need to be adhere namely achievable and self-sustaining.
Little Free Library has to be people sized. The idea of sharing and letting

people to take books shows that Little Free Library is not daunting.
Dedicated stewards (students) are vital to tending the structure and
curating the books inside. They shouldn't need to worry about running out

inventory.

8 INTERVENTION - INNOVATION

Choosing the perfect spot to filling it with books is the start to create a
Little Free Library. There are no requirements or limits on how a Little
Free Library can look like. Having students to contribute their ideas in
building their own little library fit the purpose of letting students to have

autonomy.

9 INNOVATION

This is further improved when students are given a 'platform' to manage
their own library where they are given opportunities to promote it to the
rest of their friends. This aids have helped students to know better what
reading materials they are offering by letting them speak publicly about it
every once a week.

10. INTERVENTION - INNOVATION

Observations, questionnaires, and interviews are carried out to gather
information on what types of books they would like to read and to know
the effectiveness of LFL to them. one of the feedbacks is students
claimed that they feel less anxious to share a book during lesson.

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Questionnaire

Item Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly
Agree 29.2% 37.5% Disagree
1 I prefer Malay reading
materials to English. 12.5% 20.8%
I believe reading is
66.7% 29.2% 4.2%
2 important to gain self-
confidence. 37.5% 50% 8.3% 4.2%

3 I would encourage my 62.5% 33.3% 4.3%
friends to read.
Little Free Library 70.8% 25% 4.2%
Table 1
4 makes reading
materials accessible.
Handling Little Free

5 Library Project
encourages me to read
books.

11 FINDING

As Out of the 24 respondents who participated in the project, 70.8% (17)
are female and 29.2% (7) are male and all of them are categorized under the
intermediate level group of students.

As revealed in the survey item 1, most (37.5%) of the participants stated
that they disagree to the statement, meanwhile 29.2% of the participants
stated that they prefer Malay reading materials to English. 66.7% of the
participants viewed Little Free Library as a platform where it cultivates the
idea of reading would help to gain self-confidence. Item 3 had majority 50%
participants stating that Little Free Library helps them to encourage their
friends to read. However, there is 4.2% of them strongly agreed to the
statement. 37.5% of the respondents felt that they do not share the same
opinion in which they strongly agree to the statement. Item 4 states that
62.5% strongly agree that Little Free Library has made reading materials
accessible. This followed with another 33.3% who agree to the same
statement. Only 4.3% shares different idea.

Referring to Item 5, it is revealed that most of the participants (70.8%)
strongly agreed Little Free Library encourages them to read books with
extra 25% agreed to the statement. On the contrary, only 4.2% of
participants did not find Little Free Library could encourage them to read
books.

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12. DISCUSSION
They seem to be more confident comparing to the first session. Also, the
role of stewards has helped students to practice and have in turn, made
them feel more encouraged to read books.
There will be times when books are not returned, and the mini library is
vandalized. This is where the role of stewards come in hand. This method
might not be applicable to all students; however, it might help students to
have sense of ownership and responsibility as well as confidence level.
By having suitable reading materials provided would enhance students'
interest to read.
This method however is still open for improvement and hopefully can be
applied to other students of different interests so that they can benefit
from it too. After a while, students show progress, confidence and
interest which is something that should be celebrated.

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