DOWAGIAC — Monday morning, Bobbie Jo Hartline and Melissa Phillips, organizers of a citywide project, admired a recently unwrapped wooden box, complete with a roof and a Plexiglas door, making it easy to peer inside — to see a small stack of books.

“This is great,” Hartline said. “I can’t wait to see what they will look like once they are decorated.”

The city of Dowagiac and the Dowagiac District Library are launching the next phase of its Little Free Library project, intending to increase the number of Little Free Libraries within city limits. The next phase of the project invites any Dowagiac resident, business or community organization to apply for a chance to “adopt” and decorate one of 12 available Little Free Library boxes at no cost. Applications are now open and will remain open until May 24. Box winners will be chosen at random by project organizers, and boxes will be available for pickup June 1. Completed libraries will be on display for judging during the iconic Summer in the City Festival in July.

“This is phase three, and we didn’t even know that there would be a phase three,” Hartline said. “When we started this, we never thought that there would be phases, so we are very excited to see this grow.”

Little Free Library is a worldwide, nonprofit movement that provides access to books by fostering neighborhood book exchanges. Little Free Libraries operate on the honor system of the “take a book, share a book” concept and allow residents to share some of their favorite stories and titles with others in their communities, Hartline said. The goal of each box is to have a continuous supply and variety of books for all ages.

The first phase of Dowagiac’s Little Free Library project began in May 2018, with city leaders installing five Little Free Libraries within the city. The project continued in late 2018 with residents adding additional libraries in Dowagiac. Now the third phase, made possible through a $10,000 grant from the Pokagon Fund, will seek to increase Dowagiac’s Little Free Library count to 20.

So far, both Hartline and Melissa Phillips, an organizer with the Dowagiac District Library, said they believe that the Little Free Library project has been a success that has encouraged reading and community involvement in Dowagiac.

“I’ve been very touched by how the community has embraced the program,” Phillips said.

“The generosity [of the program] is infectious,” Hartline added. “It gives so many opportunities to give books and share a love of reading or read something new. It’s very fun and great to see.”

With the next phase of the program rolling out, Hartline and Phillips said they hope the trend of the community embracing Little Free Libraries to continue and to see many applicants to decorate boxes and add them to their neighborhoods.

“This will add even more access to books,” Phillips said. “I hope people will become active participants [in phase three], give to it and take from it.”

To apply to decorate and place a Little Free Library, email Phillips at mphillips@dowagiacdl.org, call the Dowagiac District Library at (269) 782-3826 or fill out an application.