No cards - no fines - but a lot of good books

No cards - no fines - but a lot of good books

SCHUYLER COUNTY--"I love books with a passion!" Doris Breitbeck says emphatically. "I love books and I love people."
Her loves converge at the Tyrone Book Exchange, a small, brown, purpose-built building filled with books, set next to the Tyrone Town Hall. It serves as a sort of free public library for the community, whose gratitude is manifest in the bags of gently-read books which are left inside the shed as donations to replace the ones leaving in the hands of eager readers.
The project began about five years ago, when someone left two plastic tubs of books at the post office. People who came to the post office to mail letters were soon augmented by locals who also came for reading materials. They were invited to take a book (or several) to read if they wished. There was no requirement to sign a book out, nor to bring it back, though some contributed books as well. When the supply of books dipped, someone would bring in more.
The arrangement was popular, but it lasted only a few months until a change of personnel prompted fears this informal arrangement was not something the U.S. Postal Service would smile on. The tubs left the post office in Breitbeck's temporary custody. She applied to the town office for permission to rehome the collection in an unheated, not-quite-weatherproof lean-to attached to the main building, mostly used to store shovels and brooms. Breitbeck spent several hours each week in all weathers keeping it in order, shelving books in alphabetical order on donated shelves.
It worked until the Town Hall was renovated and a meeting room added on, meaning the lean-to had to be demolished. The town board decided to underwrite a small building for the book exchange. Built three years ago by Tyrone Building Supply, the small, insulated building "Looks like a fairy house," Breitbeck says delightedly. "Such a beautiful little building!" It has a door, two windows, and its white-painted interior walls are lined with an assortment of bookshelves. Tinier than most garden sheds, the space is as cozy an invitation to reading as any larger, grander library.
And without it, Tyrone would be in a reader's desert. Breitbeck points out the closest libraries are in Watkins Glen, Dundee and Hammondsport--each 12 miles away.
When it was ready, more bookshelves were donated and set into place. The highway crew moved the books over and Breitbeck's daughter-in-law Roberta Sparling, who works for the Town Justice, helped her shelve them. Breitbeck thought the floor looked a little bare and added a small flowered rug.
"Customers" may come and borrow--or take home permanently--anything they'd like to read. There's no sign-out sheet, no requirement to bring books back within a specified time period, or indeed, at all. Those who come in are subject to only one request--to make sure the door is closed securely when they leave.
Inside, Breitbeck has a space for the most popular books inside the door on the left; the others are arranged alphabetically by author around the room's perimeter. On one shelf is a small basket where patrons are invited to help themselves to a bookmark. There's a small set of shelves beneath one window for children's books. She's learned fiction is far more popular than nonfiction, though she has some of that as well. The books most readily snagged by patrons are murder mysteries and romance. "Are the men of Tyrone not bringing roses home?" she wonders. And while the collection began with a great many home-improvement "how-to" books, they remained on the shelves. These, and other less popular tomes are periodically sent on to other libraries to be used for their collections or book sales. Breitbeck wants to be sure books have a second life in welcoming hands.
On the floor are several grocery bags and a carton filled with books, as well as a few small stacks of reading material. "These were all left here since Saturday," she says. "I looked in and saw there was one box and a pretty flowered bag with books in it. I think someone really liked that bag," she adds, smiling at its disappearance.
Whatever the weather, she puts several volunteer hours a week shelving books and tidying the shed. "I enjoy doing this so much," she says. "I had to close for part of the pandemic and it really hurt my heart." During the time it was believed the virus could survive several days on hard surfaces, the book exchange was closed Mondays through Thursdays. Breitbeck came in to shelve books on Thursdays and the building was open for donations, returns or take-outs the rest of the week.
"It's a great thing and people in town love it and she's doing a great job," says town supervisor Don Desrochers. "It's a really good thing for the community."
An enthusiastic reader herself, Breitbeck is well aware of the comfort offered by a good story. So she's especially glad when a new patron discovers the library and wants to take a book home. "That's what it's all about," she says.