CALGARY—Having started from just one box of books set up on his front lawn, Syed Najam was excited to learn Thursday that his free multicultural public libraries had permission to set up a new location in Okotoks.
In May, Najam, with some help from his Love With Humanity community-building non-profit, set up a makeshift library outside his Saddle Ridge home in northeast Calgary. Wanting to celebrate the multiculturalism he saw in Calgary, Najam went door to door collecting books from his neighbours to create a little library where people could choose from classic books written in languages like English, French, Arabic, Punjabi or Cantonese.
Six months later, Najam has found community partners around the Calgary area to set up two more of these little libraries in the city, along with offerings in Airdrie, Cochrane and Chestermere.
The new box in Okotoks will mark the seventh location, which Najam projects will be ready for the public in the next week or so.
Originally from Pakistan, Najam moved to Canada in 2009. Since then, he said he’d noticed newcomers and seniors without cars who’d found it difficult to get to the nearest public library in Saddletowne. So Najam and his family decided they wanted to give something to their community to exchange books and bring people closer together.
At these libraries, like the one on Najam’s lawn, people will come by to take a book, leave a book of their own, stop to read for a bit, or meet and talk with their neighbours. Najam said during their busiest times in the summer, nearly 100 people would visit over the course of a single day.
“This is a small library we’ve launched close to home, close to the community. Communities are sitting together now, they are interacting with each other,” Najam said.
“People are connecting with each other and sharing ideas.”
Now more community groups are getting involved in Najam’s idea. Calgary Reads is a local non-profit that provides some books for the libraries, while Najam’s continued construction efforts in his garage get a hand from the Home Depot, which donates wood for the libraries.
Najam passed along this generosity when people from out of town came calling to set up libraries in their own neighbourhoods, even helping to build the libraries for them.
“This is the best thing for connecting with each other. Building communities together, spreading the love together,” Najam said.
“This is the best thing to do something for your community.”
Just a couple weeks after the first library opened in Calgary, Mona Shehzad began talking to Najam about setting up one outside her home in Airdrie.
Shehzad, a short story writer who has lived in Airdrie for 12 years, said she’s seen a wider diversity of cultures in her neighbourhood in her time there. After being invited to the opening of Najam’s library, she and her husband loved the idea and offered their home to set up a new location.
Now with this library of her own, Shehzad said she and her neighbours know each other better.
“I wanted to do something that should provide kids with a love for hardcover books,” Shehzad said.
“I have three schools in the neighbourhood and when it’s school time, believe me, it’s very very high traffic for the library. People come and go, and whenever I’m pulling my car from the driveway, I always see kids taking books.”
Soon to have seven libraries set up in Alberta, Najam is excited to expand even further, including setting up boxes in Edmonton neighbourhoods. To any community members who want to set up these accessible libraries outside their own homes, Najam is happy to build the stands and help them set up.
“This is my passion,” Najam said. “My passion is free, not for any charges. We are giving this as a community gift.”