R. T. Prince Memorial Library: The Journey to Becoming a real Library

 R.T. Prince Memorial library was first established in 1960. The library was originally located in the Mize Community Center. The library's grand opening was held on July 15, 1962, from 3-5pm. From 1960-1980 the library was part of the “Capital Area Regional Library System.” In 1981, the library became part of the “Jackson Metropolitan Library System.” The library remained in the “Jackson Metropolitan Library System” until 1989. From 1989 to the present, the library has been under the “Central Mississippi Regional Library System.” In 1995, the library was moved to its current location on HWY 28. Its current location was originally a health department. The following year after relocating the library was dedicated as R.T. Prince Memorial Library. In 2008, a “Friends of the Library” group was created. The friend group is one of the best assets to the library. The library has been through many changes over the years, from location to hours, to everything in between. No matter these changes, it has always managed to remain open and available to the public. As of December 8, 2015, the friends of the library built a tardis. The tardis is a “little free library” based on the popular Dr. Who series.

The library moved again during COVID, 2020-2021. The location was closed in March 2020 for COVID and remained closed until January 2021. In January the R. T. Prince Memorial Library opened its door in the Old Trustmark Bank building at 302 Hwy. 28 West.  This move doubled the size of the Library and provided more room to have Summer Library Programs and more parking!

The library has two public computers, Wi-Fi access, books, DVDs, and a few blue rays. The R. T. Prince Memorial Library is also home to a drive-through feature, the only one in the whole system! Yes! Patrons can use it! Make a request online and make sure your pickup location is Mize.

The Prince can also brag that we had the first child in the Central Mississippi Regional Library System who completed the 1,000 Books before Kindergarten! Her name is Ashley McAlister. The Friends group treated her to a T-shirt, and a Walmart gift card and she was the star of the Christmas parade float.

The Blue Tardis was the Little Free Library outside of the Library. Since the Library could not be open more than 10 hours a week, Dick Ford and the Friends of the Library wanted to give the community the opportunity to read more books.  They sold the high school annuals on CD to raise the funds for the building of the  Tardis. It was a community favorite until a storm came in 2019 and created damage to the doors and the top of the box. It has been greatly missed. As soon as the Tardis is repaired, it will come home to the new building. 

The future looks bigger and brighter for the Prince but it will take the community to increase it more! Come by and see the crowning glory of this community. 

 

 

 

 

Banned Books Week

Yes Yes Yes, every year, we report on the same books that have been challenged (meaning not actually banned but was attempted to be removed or restricted based upon the objections of a person or group) or banned over the years.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowlings

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

But this year I wanted to focus on worldwide books that have been banned. 

D.H Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), Jackie Collins's The Stud (1969) and Bret Ellis's American Psycho (1991) are among some of the books once banned in Australia.

In Ireland:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was banned in 1932, due to alleged references of sexual promiscuity.

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger was banned in October 1951.

Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan was banned in 1958. The Irish Censorship of Publications Board was not obliged to reveal its reason but it is believed that it was rejected for its critique of Irish republicanism and the Catholic Church, and its depiction of adolescent sexuality.

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien was banned by Ireland's censorship board in 1960 for its explicit sexual content.

The Lonely Girl by Edna O'Brien was banned in 1962 after Archbishop John Charles McQuaid complained personally to Justice Minister Charles Haughey that it "was particularly bad".

United Kingdom:

I thought this one was interesting:

Boy by James Hanley 

Hanley’s literary classic charts the short and brutish life of a boy who was unfairly neglected and forced out of school into the unforgiving world of work by his father. He escapes by running away to sea, but his exposure to the brutality that men are capable of only deepens his feelings of rejection. Narrated with unflinching language, it offers a visceral and acute observation of power imbalances. When Boy was initially published in the 1930s, it was prosecuted for obscenity due to the overtly violent writing and remained banned from 1935 until 1991. When the new British edition appeared in the early Nineties, there were significant omissions.  

In the 16th century, Spain had banned the Bible! But what is also interesting is that it has not been banned anywhere else. Challenged a lot? Yes!

If you really want to be bad you must read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov or Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawerence. Both have been banned in more than 5 countries! 

Besides being challenged in the United States, Animal Farm by George Orwell was banned in Russia, Vietnam, and United Arab Emirates, and then some!

I would like to end with this quote from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: