The Magee Public Library

     What does it take to start up a library in your community? A strong desire from the people that live in the community. And that is how it all begins in Magee, Mississippi.

    The Library began in 1935 on the 2nd floor of the State Guaranty Bank under the leadership of Ms. Maude Turner. The WPA (Works Progress Administration). 

    Fast forward to 1937, the Library is now in a far left section of the Community House and is renamed Mims Williams Memorial Library. Mims Williams was a prominent and highly respected business owner in Magee. Mrs. Williams was very active in bringing culture and education to her community. 

    In 1974, Mrs. Inez Shannon became the Librarian of Magee. Thanks to her tireless efforts, as well as the support of the Women's Club and local leaders, a new building was constructed which still stands to this day. I always love hearing stories from patrons who helped move books from the Community House to the new library building. Apparently, someone would pass the books out the window for others to carry over. It sounds like everyone had a great time helping out. This was just one example of how Mrs. Inez knew how to bring her community together. 

In a small town like Magee, the library was more about the librarians themselves rather than the building. Patrons fondly remember Inez Shannon (on the far left), Billie Terrell (my mentor, on the far right), Marge King, Mrs. Tootsie, Mrs. Mary, Garnet Craft, and Peggy Nowell for their invaluable help to the community and their enjoyable programs. I'm personally convinced that Mrs. Inez could have written a book about all the interesting things patrons have shared with me. For instance, one person (whose name I won't share) admitted to placing a possum in the book drop when they were a teenager. Luckily, Mrs. Inez was the one who discovered it. She forgave the prankster of their misdeed and allowed them back in the library. I'm certain she knew every child in the school.

    Mrs. Tootsie, Mrs. Mary, and Mrs. Peggy, all helped in making this library an inviting place to be in the community. The kids from the schoolhouse always found their way down the block after school to the library. The Librarians always kept them in control cause the kids knew the Librarians knew their moms and dads and sometimes their coaches! I don't know who the football players were more scared of, their parents or the coach? It was funny seeing their faces!

    To this day, we still have the beginning library collection. It is housed in the grey cabinets in the hall area. Do we ever plan to get rid of them? I hope not, I think it is a standing tribute to the hard work and dedication of Maude Turner and the Women's Club of Magee. 

    With the community's help, I hope to see the library still vibrant in the years to come.

    

The Story and History of Evon A. Ford ( Taylorsville) Public Library

 The Story of Evon A. Ford( Taylorsville) Public Library 

We have had a great outpouring of help and upgrades to our library in the past year made possible by our town employees, mayor, Friends of the Library, and our volunteers, which have made it all possible.

Our library was built in 1975. Ruth Walley was our town librarian a well-educated woman from Australia, after Ms. Walley retired, Ms. Frances Gregg began her time as our town librarian and was here for about 15 years. Joyce Mckinley then took over as librarian in 2005, after being a sub for two years prior. There have only been three librarians at our library since its opening in 1975.

Our mayor was John Locke Bryant at the time the library was built. Evon A. Ford of which whose home originally sat on the property until it burned in the early 70s donated the land that our library sits on.

Our Friends of the Library are very active in our library they can always be depended on to help with programming, as well as volunteering for anything we need help with. For example, for the upgrading of our carpet, The Friends of the Library offered their help, as well as funds to feed our volunteers as they helped box books and move the shelving, and then unboxed and put books back on shelves. A couple of years ago the Friends of the Library upgraded our bathrooms and we got new sinks, countertops, and toilets. They also upgraded our children’s area with new flooring a few years ago. Recently they have had our carpets cleaned and the floors cleaned and waxed. They are also working on replacing our doors.

Our mayor, Kelli Phipps has also provided her services and the town employees on keeping the grounds up kept, and clean as well as helping with moving things and keeping the inside maintained.

Our patrons are a great part of making our Smith County libraries a great success and asset to our communities. Our statistics reflect how well we are received in our towns and communities. With 25,883 visits in Fiscal 2022, we have 9,266 library cardholders. Our circulation of materials was 19,078. We have had 5,000 patrons attend our programs and 1,896 computer users for the fiscal year of 2022, Our WiFi has been used for 3,455 sessions.

All in all, our community, patron’s city, and county officials, and our Friends of the Library make our library what it is today and with their help, our coming year will be even bigger and better than our previous year. With more programming and more to offer to the community.

We are open Monday-Friday from 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. We are closed on Saturday and Sunday. We offer photo copying (Black and White, Color), Sanning, Faxing, Wireless Printing, WiFi. We were the honored as the Branch of the Year for the medium division in 2023. The Branch Manager is Joyce McKinley and the Youth Specialist is Jackie Jernigan. 

 

 

 

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. 

 

 

 

 

Pearl Public Library: Humble Beginnings

The Pearl River, which separates Pearl on the East side from Jackson on the West today, initially brought settlers to the area for agricultural purposes. Jackson, MS became the state capitol in 1822. In the 1940s, development from the capital city spilled over into Rankin county and more and more residents were calling it home. 

As all members of a civilized society will tell you, the town needed a library!  Residents of Rankin County were growing tired of having to cross the river and go to Jackson for basic needs. One library patron recalls having to go to Jackson for decent clothing at Howard's Department Store on Ellis Ave. Jackson also had the only children's clinic near the Jackson Mall off of Medgar Evers Blvd. All library needs were also being met in the capital city. In 1966, a library was established in Bright Shopping Center in what is now the Country Fisherman Cafe. 

City of Pearl Historian Chris Reid shared the following about the new library construction: 

In July of 1976, the Pearl Board of Alderman approved a contract with architect Charles F. Craig for the construction of a new library. By April 1977, the library's construction was well underway. The effort began 9 years earlier when the Director of the Rankin County Library System, Vance H. Dyess, applied for a matching grant through the Mississippi Library Commission to build a new library. Under the terms of the grant, the $400,000 construction cost would be split equally between the Library Commission and the City of Pearl, as funds became available to the Commission from the state legislature. When Dyess first applied for the grant, Pearl was No. 36 on the list and it took until 1976 to move to the No. 1 spot.

Unfortunately by 1977, the city was plagued with infrastructure issues and many citizens felt that the $200,000 price tag that Pearl was responsible for could be put to better use elsewhere. It was a hard choice -- either build at that time, and at the minimum square footage of 15,000 or lose any chance of getting the grant again. 

Fortunately, the need for a library won out! On November 14, the former library closed and began transitioning its materials (some 20,000 volumes) to the new facility at 3470 Highway 80 East. On January 15, 1978, the grand opening was held with guest speakers Evelyn Gandy, Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, Jim Buck Ross, Commissioner of Agriculture, and Mayor Harris Harvey.

The Pearl Press - March 3, 1977

The Pearl Press - April 21, 1977

In October of 1986, Hinds County pulled out to create its own library system and the Pearl Library became the Headquarters location for a brand new library system! That's right folks, the Central Mississippi Regional Library System was born. 

"The Library on the Hill" 1987

Penny Donald Stewart, a former Pearl Library shelver shared a story with us: "In high school, I worked as a shelver at the library on the hill during the evening and weekend hours. Before we used computers to do research (aka the internet), I took a phone call from a gentleman wanting to know what "E pluribus unum" on the back of our currency meant. We did not have any research librarians that worked in the evenings so I went on a search on my own. After checking latin dictionaries and the like I recruited Billy, my shelving co-worker. We searched for quite some time when I had the thought to use the World Book encyclopedias in the children's department. There it was! E pluribus unum meaning "out of many, one" referring to the thirteen original colonies becoming one nation."

She went on to say, "That experience helped solidify my desire to work as a librarian even though it took me another 25 years to return to the library world. The fact that sometimes the simplest, easiest tool can be the best was a lesson I never forgot."

Penny is now a Patron Services Specialist at Blount County Public Library in Maryville, TN.

The Rankin County News featured the Pearl Library weekly and here are some updates from August 1987. As you can see, the library has changed a lot since then! The library is boasting a purchase of Reader's Guide as far back as 1930 and magazines dating from 1980. Also, new VHS tapes on home improvement and the ACT have been acquired. The Babysitters Club series is available, and boy that brings me back! The Pearl Library in this location was right up the hill from my house growing up. My sister and I would walk there and check out all of the Babysitters Club and Goosebumps books. 

In 2005, a brand new library was built in the current location at 2416 Old Brandon Road right next to the old high school which is now City Hall. Today we have numerous digital resources, a computer lab, programs for every age group, and our card catalogs are all online. But as former Pearl staffer Penny says, sometimes the simplest way to find information is through an encyclopedia or physical book. Good thing we still have plenty of those too!