One of the Little Free Library units at the Chenango SPCA facility. The libraries offer children, teen, and adult books, and guests are welcome to take and leave books as they please. (Submitted photo)

NORWICH — The Chenango SPCA recently installed Little Free Libraries at their facility on County Road 32 in Norwich. The units are located under the trees next to the sidewalk leading in to the SPCA facility, and guests are welcome to take and leave books of their choosing.

"Little Free Libraries is a nation-wide thing where people can put up these small libraries. They probably hold, you know, 18 books or so, and people can come and take a book or they can leave a book, and we will restock this periodically," said Chenango SPCA Executive Director Annette Clarke. "We have an adult one and one for children. When I say adult, it's adults and teens. You know, it's just typical novels, but there's also some novels with animals in it."

The libraries were made possible by grant funding through the Otis Thompson Foundation, according to Clarke.

"It was a grant, and I wrote it for the Little Libraries, and we sent them pictures, and what we would do with it, and then where we'd put it. And so, yeah, they were very good about it," said Clarke. "They donated money for both the unit, the actual little library units, as well as some money towards books."

Clarke added that she chose Little Free Libraries because they could be done in coordination with the SPCA's Book Buddies program, where children can come to the shelter and read books to the animals.