"Athens has been moving houses since before the Civil War," explained Charlotte Thomas Marshall in Wednesday's program at the Richard Russell Special Collections Library auditorium to an audience of about 150, and 11 who watched online. Her soon to be released book The Tangible History of Athens with eleven other Athenian authors started out as research for an article on moved houses in Athens and ended up a 300 page well illustrated and researched book.
Over 200 images from the book, like this one of the president's house on Prince Avenue, rotated above the heads of four of these author-historians as they talked about the houses, parts of houses, the people who lived in them, and Athens' history.
Charlotte, along with authors Milton Leathers, Gary Doster, and University Archivist emeritus Steven Brown, urged others to put their stories on paper, using documents and photos they have in their possession, they find at the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library or the Athens Library's Heritage Room. "There are still many books to come out of the Hargrett," and the Athens Heritage Room, noted Steven.
"This kind of thing happens all over the U.S.," said Milton, explaining that this book could serve as a prototype for other communities.
You can learn why the color pink used to be masculine, why houses were moved, and all sorts of wonderful things about Athens, Georgia from this lively group of authors by listening to the archived program.
"Buildings change, faces change, but libraries remain much the same," began Kathryn Ames, Director of the Athens Regional Library System in Starting a New Chapter. Certainly the library has changed significantly from its beginning in 1913 with one room, 500 books and 200 readers. Today's new library has over 83,000 square feet, 200,000 books, over 66,000 readers, about 100 computers, and loads of video and audio resources. But the new library today still works to match people with the information they need just as the early libraries did--the people and the times have changed!
One library patron noted in the Thanks for the Memories project that "Librarians were the original computers." Maybe things haven't changed as much as we thought.
Director Ames and librarians Donna Brumby, Trudi Green and Sarah Reynolds offered a virtual tour of
various parts of our library spaces during this program. While it won't match your own actual exploration, you can see the study and meeting areas, the children's area, the interest centers, the cyber room, the special collections, the Heritage room, and some of the expensive equipment residents of Athens-Clarke County can use for free.
Many of today's programs had their roots in the early libraries: book clubs and children's story times
have been going on since the library began, only now we have them in spades! The library began outreach by providing books to people in the hospital, but outreach is extended now to Meals on Wheels and services for people without sight and many more.
The new library is a welcoming place, a place where everyone belongs, and all set for a couple of decades as a place to learn, exchange ideas or just enjoy.
