Seed Library

A seed library is typically established in conjunction with a more traditional library program. The concept is revolutionary, but the name itself is relatively intuitive. Patrons of a seed library are able to “check out” seeds from that library’s desk, much as they might check out books or other materials. Participants,however, are not expected to return the original seeds to the library. Rather, they are encouraged to plant and to nurture the seeds as they mature into plants that then will produce seeds of their own. A portion of this next generation of seeds is then duly returned to the library to be checked out and utilized by other citizens, and the cycle begins again. The seeds stored by the library typically vary from season to season, and often include varieties that might otherwise be lost.

Description
There are a number of benefits to the community from fostering a seed library, some of which are

immediately obvious, and some of which are more subtle. One of the most noticeable and immediate results is the beautification of the surrounding community, along with the concomitant environmental benefits. There are myriad examples and spins offs on how a seed library may operate. A library from Fairfield, Conneticut runs a seed library program which is fairly standard The program offers both online and in-person classes about how to raise seeds in the local environment. Some cities, such Palo Alto, California, even encourage the users of the seed library to sell the plants that they have raised at the local farmer’s market. As a result of such efforts, another less obv ious, and perhaps subjective, but equally attractive benefit of a seed library emerges: its capacity to create a sense of community through a shared interest in the dissemination of seeds, and the growth of groups of experienced gardeners interested in nurturing new ones. (McCloud) This, in turn, helps to benefit the community’s health and general sense of well-being, as well as boosting the local economy, which inevitably is helped by the presence and interest of this vibrant, committed cadre of citizens.

Another somewhat subjective beneficial influence that accrues from the presence of a seed library is the promotion of an area’s agricultural heritage through the preservation of heirloom seeds. The Delano-Wichita community seed library has instituted initiatives for citizens to plant flowers around the town in order to beautify it. These flowers grow from seeds   that have not been genetically altered, and they create a macro-level benefit to agriculture. Since they do not come from the same monoculture stocks used by most large-scale industrialized agro-business, they preserve unique varieties that may not otherwise be widely cultivated. In this way, they provide resources for a more varied approach to creating food and other plant resources for the community, as well as preserving stock that may be less likely to be decimated by a disease or pest that targets more common varieties.

Funding & Implementation
The official name of the Fairfield seed library is the Fairfield Seed to Seed Library. It was the brainchild of Nancy Coriaty, a deputy librarian of Fairfield’s town library. In keeping with Fairfield’s atmosphere of green living in the town, she believed it to be a program that would benefit her community tremendously both as a resource and as a communal exercise. According to Nancy Coriaty, “The Library is always searching for ways to enhance our local community, and the seed library was in keeping with that mission, as well as the mission to promote green living and community learning by making certain innovative resources available to our patrons.”  In order to get the Seed to Seed Library started, Coriaty arranged a partnership with the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm, a local group devoted to teaching Fairfield’s citizens the benefit of planting and eating organic food, and thus created a partnership that would help educate citizens about how to garden and to produce  local, organic fruits and vegetables.

Fairfield’s Seed to Seed Library had a formal meeting to oversee its creation in November of 2010. By April of 2011, it began its operation. Since the date of its creation, it has met with resounding success. Nancy Coriaty notes that Fairfielders often will spend hours browsing the seed catalogue, and that many of them are eager to attend local meetings held at the library that educate the populace on how to garden and on what uses they may get from the gardens they grow. The Seed to Seed library is fairly young, so it has not yet had a great deal of time to evolve and to formulate new programs. Other seed libraries across the nation, however, have seen entire movements come about as a result of their presence. The Seed Library of Los Angeles, for example, holds an expo each year in order to promote the use of heirloom seeds and to show the benefits that they bring to a community.The Hudson Valley seed library has a community garden located in the downtown area, grown from the seeds that they provide.

According to Coriaty, no politicians were directly involved with the creation of the Seed to Seed Library. It was an internal affair of the library, and Coriaty was able to set up partnerships and look for grants without any concern about political opposition arising from either individual citizens or conglomerates. The initial funding for the Seed to Seed Library and its partnership with the Fairfield Organic Teacher Farm was provided by two grants that Nancy Coriarty obtained. One of these was a grant for $1,500.00, given by the Norcross Wildlife Foundation for the purchase of a MacBook Pro Computer that allows citizens to catalogue seeds and to submit videos and tips on how to garden. Another grant in the amount of one thousand dollars was awarded to the partnership by the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund. These funds were used to purchase seeds and seed cabinets and to hire a keynote speaker for the opening ceremony of the library. Aside from this modest startup cost, the ongoing expense of running the seed library has been mostly subsidized by the community. As reported by Coriaty, most of the program’s seeds have been donated by a local heirloom seed company named Comstock, Ferre & Co. The operation of the seed library has been run almost entirely by the community. In an interview, Coriaty stated “Volunteers have helped to label envelopes and fill them with seeds, organize the catalog, etc. Several community members have donated time to give lectures and workshops on planning a garden, planting herbs, saving seeds, etc.  It has been a true community effort.”