The People's Library Project

The People's Library is a community development initiative of Meadowcreek Inc.

As a rural enterprise incubator, Meadowcreek invites individuals and organizations to use its land, facilities, and advisers to demonstrate and teach how people can thrive in a remote location following the practices of resilient agriculture and commerce. 

The People's Library (TPL) is a new initiative stewarded by Meadowcreek residents, a hub of collaboration and resource sharing. It is a community-based library that operates much like a public library with the addition of Pay-What-You-Can community services and activities. TPL is being built by and in community. The materials in the library will not only include books but also an extensive lending library including instruments, tools, and art. As part of TPL's community outreach efforts, we will be holding quarterly community meals and conversations. TPL will also serve as a site for food distrubution for Meadowcreek's food pantry project. We will host skill-sharing workshops, performances, and other community events and activities at the headquarters, centrally located across from the Fox Country Store and Post Office. 

Work has already begun at The People's Library. We have had our first community work day to clean and evaluate the condition of the historic native stone building that is our headquarters. We have secured donations of professional library shelving and materials to redo the floor of the library. We've started a book acquisition list. Instruments and sound equipment have been donated for circulation. Now the real fun begins! 

It is time to get the library set up for processing materials for circulation, time for programming for the community, time to come together. 

We are hoping to have the flooring and shelving to Fox and installed by December 1, 2019. We want to begin processing materials as soon as possible and in step with our county library system. We need the technology to do that as well as materials themselves and other technology resources to share with the community. Our goal is to have the library fully operational by February 1, 2020. We will continue to program the space and invite folks to join us in the process along the way.

We need your ideas and your help! The major goal of TPL is for the project to be built together with community members. This truly will take a village. We need to know what materials are needed and wanted in the library as well as what sort of workshops and programming would be beneficial to community members. 

Thus far, we our operating out of our own pockets! To this end, we need financial support to help with these initial stages of growth while we identify additional funding sources for the long-haul. 

The People's Library seeks to engage and empower local residents to shape a resource library and social space that is meaningful to the community, brings people together across the lines that so often divide--as a site for collaboration, creativity, education, and support. Fox is a beautiful place, one rich with natural beauty and a generational economy of neighborliness. TPL hopes to harness these resources to address the needs in the community including isolation and a general lack of access to technology, art/entertainment, enterprise, and food to support an even better quality of life in the place we all love and want to be.  

We believe that, collectively, we can harness the diverse set of talents, interests, and histories of residents to create beautiful and important times together as a community, not only one where we survive but also one where we thrive!