You can read more about the campaign on my website. The official campaign dates are May 15-June 1, 2022 but I'm going to keep the Stock the Shelves page live on my website. There's no deadline on the idea of adding more good books to libraries.
Working on my campaign webpage made me wonder about the history of libraries in Florida. Superficial research revealed some immediate surprises. The Marion County library website said that two other nearby counties - Levy and Citrus - plus the Marion County city of Ocala formed the Central Florida Regional Library in 1961. That's right, 1961, practically modern times.
Meanwhile the city of Seminole's website notes that the Seminole Community Library was founded in 1960. Another midcentury America founding. What took so long? What were Floridians doing about libraries in the 1880s, 1890s, and early years of the 1900s?
My guess is early libraries were small and scattered, hosted in the homes or clubs of civic-minded individuals or set up via subscription. Libraries have to evolve to survive. One look inside a modern facility tells you that. So the Florida library of 100 or 120 years ago must have been vastly different than anything I can imagine.
I browsed a bit more and was delighted to find a document titled Florida Library History Project - Volusia County Public Library in the University of South Florida's digital collections. Delighted because of what I learned and because Volusia County is the county in which I live. And, because finding that link led me to the entire Florida Library History Project's digital files. These types of discoveries are what make the rabbit hole of research so enticing.
But the first paragraph of the document chilled me. The first sentence says that, before the federal Library Services Act was enacted in the mid-1950s, "libraries were frequently substandard or non-existent, particularly in rural areas." I give thanks to have been born and raised in crowded Brooklyn, N.Y, where libraries were established early and where branches were often within walking distance. I visited my local library every week in the 1960s. And I know my parents did the same in their Brooklyn youths.
I especially appreciated my youthful access when I read the document's next sentence. Before the mid-1950s, in Florida, more than 2 million people had no access to libraries. And only 25 percent of the state's population had adequate access. I could cry at reading that. What did the poor, rural, intelligent child hungry for books and knowledge do?
I had no idea libraries were such latecomers to many scenes. Volusia County's countywide effort began in 1949. The document's explanations about earlier efforts likely mirrors what occurred in other places in Florida. Women's clubs, membership associations, or small municipal reading rooms served as local libraries. Books were often second-hand and donated by the sponsors.
Go visit your nearby library and be thankful it exists. Join the local Friends of the Library if you can, to support supplemental projects that aren't funded through other means. I love online libraries but nothing beats a browse through the shelves in person. Shrinking though those shelves might be. I realize - as I already said - that libraries must continue to evolve if they want to continue to exist. I get it. Just have to remind myself sometimes.
But right now, I'll go spend too much time cruising through the Library History Project's online collection. I know it has to be rich in period details about libraries starting small and starting as labors of love and community-mindedness.
Most - if not all - of today's precious libraries have roots in the hearts and minds of regular people who loved to read, loved to learn, loved books, and loved to help others gain access to the same. For that, we all can give thanks. Support your local library. It's a treasure. And ask them to stock books you'd like to read.
Happy reading!
