Monday, April 16, 2012

Tennessee Library Day

Last Monday, April 9 was Tennessee Library Day. Library advocates and legislators met at the State Capitol in Nashville to celebrate the official proclamation signed by Governor Haslam, and the General Assembly's Joint Resolution celebrating libraries of all kinds in Tennessee. 


Secretary of State Tre Hargett spoke to crowd, and Beth Frerking told us all to speak up and stop being modest about our accomplishments.  


The Linebaugh crew even took cookies to the legislators, sharing their love of libraries and a call to action on specific legislation: more money for READS. 


Special thanks to Legislation Committee Chairs Tiffani Connor and Laura Murray for all of their hard work! 


Next Monday, April 23, there's a group of Tennessee librarians heading to Washington, D.C. to talk to our national legislators. We'll be talking about funding for LSTA and school libraries, and the important role of libraries in transforming their communities. 


You can join our efforts by contacting your U.S. Congressional representatives! See the TLA website for more information. 



Saturday, April 7, 2012

South Cheatham Public Library

On March 2, a tornado hit the town of Kingston Springs, damaging the roof of the South Cheatham County Library. It's an amazing, practically one-room library that is beloved by the community. 


I'm pleased to announce that the Tennessee Library Association is donating $1,000 to help the library rebuild. 


It's an odd sense of deja vu for me: I first visited South Cheatham Library for TLA's donation ceremony for the Kingston Springs Elementary School Library, which was destroyed in the flood of 2010. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that this will be the last time TLA has to make a disaster relief donation in Cheatham county. 


Librarian Janet Walker hopes the library will open in a few weeks. I've asked her to let us know if she needs anything else.