Little Saskatoon library with Doctor Who theme back in business

The Little Library in the Westmount neighbourhood is back in business after it was vandalized on New Year's Eve. 

Sarah Cochrane and her husband created the library last summer when they converted an old cupboard into a small version of the police call box used by the character Doctor Who from the BBC TV series. They put the cupboard outside, filled it with books, and and let people borrow them for free. 

Local woodworker Dave Balderstone decided to rebuild one for Sarah when he heard about the vandalism. 

"It just ticked me off," Balderstone said. "You get vandalism like this, people who don't know anything except destroying. Where someone like Sarah was trying to make a small change in her community." He did the project for free. 

The new library was unveiled on Sunday afternoon at Cochran's home at 315 Avenue J N. The BBC also donated several books to Cochran after hearing about the story. 

Even though it may be a tiny collection, Cochran said the little library was already having a big impact on the neighbourhood. 

"It's been fantastic," said Cochran. "There's a lot of kids that come and they'll sit underneath the library and pull books out and they'll be reading right underneath the library."

​She said other than the vandalism on New Years, the community has looked after the library.

As for its design as the Doctor Who police box, Cochran says that was intentional for both the original library and this new one. Fans of the series know that it's called a TARDIS.

"There's many quotes on Doctor Who about books being the biggest weapon that you can have, and that books are always bigger on the inside," said Cochran. "It just seemed very fitting for it to be what the library was."