Over thirty years ago, I wrote a note to God on an index card. It said, “Someday I will have a
library.” As life and circumstances pushed that dream farther and farther out, I tucked the card into a notebook and forgot about it. But it kept resurfacing periodically, and I would sigh and again think, “Someday.”
About two and a half years ago, with approximately 1500 books in my living room, I opened Split Rocks Lending Library to members. Because of the way the Lord provided what I needed to accomplish this, I took the name from Psalm 78:15-16.
“He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.”
By July of 2025, that number of books had grown to about two thousand, and I moved them into a dedicated space. Lack of space has never stopped me from acquiring more books, but since gaining more room for more bookshelves, I have added nearly another five hundred. Three thousand books may not sound like a lot . . . until you enter each title into a catalog and glue a card pocket onto every back cover.
When I first dreamed of having my own lending library, I didn’t know it wasn’t an innovation. Though the idea wasn’t original to Benjamin Franklin either, he founded the first one in the American Colonies in 1731. The fifty original members contributed 40 shillings each to join, and agreed to pay ten shillings per year to maintain membership. Over the next 160 years, organizations around the country operated privately funded libraries.
Imagine! People voluntarily contributed to these libraries because they believed in the concept, especially in a time when most people couldn’t afford to own books. Once progressive Americans began to justify funding libraries with taxes, these private enterprises dwindled. We’ve been so immersed in the current system for so long that we no longer remember it hasn’t always been this way.
Since most (perhaps all) counties in the United States have a taxpayer-funded library, building a Private Lending Library might seem redundant, pointless, or simply weird. However, a few years ago, my business partner Sara Masarik (whose library is in her home in Wisconsin) and I were introduced to a group of women from various parts of the country who had been doing that very thing. Some of them built and have been maintaining their libraries since about the time I put my notecard away.
Sara and I discovered that around the country, women who had thought their ideas for devising ways to share their books were a bit crazy had begun finding and supporting each other. Many of them are current or former homeschoolers who amassed hundreds or thousands of books while educating their own children.
Here is a list of over 100 private lending libraries we know about in the United States and around the world.
Though every library is unique, there are common themes. Many of the names of these libraries incorporate the phrase “living books.” That phrase can be as elusive as the term “classic,” and there is no master list. First, though, the obvious: a living book should be full of life even after decades or centuries. It will have lasting appeal and enduring literary merit.
Living books help rightly form a person’s moral imagination rather than appealing to his basest nature. They reach down to draw readers to a higher standard of morality and courage rather than leaving them comfortably where they are–they are life-changing.
Living books librarians are typically conservative in the sense of preserving good things from decay and destruction. We acknowledge that there is objective truth, goodness, and beauty. We curate our libraries rather than arbitrarily tossing out old books to make room for new simply because they are new.
While Sara would say she is a librarian who is also a teacher, I am a teacher who happens to have her own library. One of my favorite things to do is teaching children to read. There is nothing like watching their faces as they struggle and grow and start to “get it.” But even better is teaching parents how to teach their own children to read. I offer this service at Split Rocks Lending Library as well as curriculum consulting, from kindergarten through high school.
We Americans still have the option to repossess our freedoms and reinstitute our institutions. A goal many of us librarians share is to have a private lending library in every state in the country. The larger dream is for one to exist in every county in every state. We only need 21 more to make that dream a reality in Wyoming. We would love to help you help us. At this site, we have tried to compile as much wisdom as possible from experienced private lending librarians. https://thecardcataloglibrarians.com/
Editor's Note: Though the pictures featured show empty shelves in the library, at the time of publication there are more books than shelves to hold them. While public libraries throw classic works away, Split Rocks gives some of them a new home.