The keychain library is located on 7 Wood Street in Greencastle. (Alaina Davis/WTIU News)
Action figures, dollhouse furniture, rubber ducks. Josee Scroggin has seen each of these and more since she began her free community keychain library.
Between her buckets of thrifted items and donations to her collection, she estimates she has accumulated around 1,000 unique items. When people see her bike around Greencastle, they’ll leave her even more items.
“Sometimes, if they see me in town, they will put…a key ring on the bike,” she said.
Josee Scroggin refills the keychain library almost every day. (Katy Szpak/WTIU News)
Scroggin built the Greencastle Keychain Library in July last year. She was inspired by the Portland Keychain Library, created by artist Mike Bennett, and wanted to recreate it locally.
“I've noticed we've had a lot of the free little libraries showing up, so I was like, why not keychains?”
Bennett encourages people who are interested to start their own libraries. Dozens have popped up across the country.
Scroggin, 24, says she wanted to pursue the idea after graduating from Greencastle High School in 2019. She can make up to 200 keychains in a day.
“I have a little hand drill, and so I will drill a little hole anywhere I can,” she said, “I will take an eye hook, put a little bit of super glue, E6000, Gorilla Glue, whatever kind of glue I got, and I will just screw it into the head. And then I will get a key ring of any kind I have on hand, and then just wrap it up there.”
Nearly a year into the project, Scroggin says the community has continued to support the library with donations of toys and keychain materials. She keeps people updated in a local Facebook group.
While biking around town, people will add keychains to Scroggin’s bike. (Alaina Davis/WTIU News)
She says she’s seen more traffic to the library lately from construction detours. She also gets more visitors during summer break, but the busiest time for the library is Halloween.
“Parents and other people were asking ‘Oh, can we be a part of it?’ Yes,” she said. ‘Children, adults, elderly, whoever.”
All she asks for is a fair trade. Take a keychain and leave a trinket, or swap out a keychain with one you already have. She also encourages people to start their own little free libraries.
The library is located on 7 Wood Street, near the Dairy Castle intersection.
