Calling All World Travelers
Calhoun-Gordon County Library Launches Summer Reading Program
Readers of all ages will travel the globe this summer as Calhoun Gordon County Library presents "One World, Many Stories" during their summer reading program. Children will explore places from Oceania to Russia through through stories, crafts, music, dance and other activites. The 2012 Summer Reading Program is open to young people, preschool through young adult, with programs prize drawing, story hours, reading books and more. Families are encouraged to read to their younger children and bring them to the programs as well. Those children wishing to participate in listing the books they have read will be given a reading log. Each week those children who have completed five (5) books will be entered in the weekly drawing.
"One World, Many Strories" begins Wednesday, June 1, 2012 at 1:30 pm with Magic Down Under starring magical entertainer, David Ginn. Please check the events calendar for June for other dates. There will be sign-up sheets at the front desk at the library for crafts programs. For more inofrmation call the library, 706-624-1456.
All programs are free of charge.
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Press Release
CALHOUN-GORDON LIBRARY TO CELEBRATE ITS 100TH YEAR
Literacy Council Hosts ‘Library Month, Checking Out the Century’
The Calhoun-Gordon County Library is celebrating its 100th year.
A month-long observance of this Centennial Celebration kicked off in April when The Calhoun-Gordon Council for a Literate Community hosted an event designated as “Library Month, Checking Out the Century.”
A number of activities are planned for the month, beginning with a reception on Tuesday April 5. Invited guests include city and county officials, including Mayor Jimmy Palmer who will present a proclamation declaring April as Library Month in Calhoun. Other notables expected to attend include Library board members, Friends of the Library representatives and public school principals and officials.
Also expected as a major program-celebration attraction are officials of the Calhoun Woman’s Club, the organization most responsible for establishment of the downtown library in 1911, a full century ago. Business was done then in a log cabin with fewer than 1,000 books. Today, 100 years later, the library can boast of more than 90,000 volumes in a building opened in 1968. It also includes a genealogy department, computers available for public usage, reference materials, videotapes DVDs and CDs available for check out and numerous other capabilities.
Other events to mark “Library Month, Checking Out the Century,” include the annual essay contest among all levels of public and private high school students 1-12 and home-schooled students. Essays will utilize Great Books and Authors as their subject. Winning essayists will get books donated in their names to the library. Winners will be announced at the end of April
A side feature will be a survey of leading Calhoun and Gordon County citizens regarding favorite books and authors, with answers published in The Calhoun Times.
The highly-anticipated Amnesty Day, at which time readers may turn in overdue books without penalty, will this year be observed April 1 – All-Fools Day. No joke. “That’s just how it happened to fall,” says Calhoun-Gordon County Library Manager Diane Cronon with a laugh.
Northwest Regional Library System President Joe Foresee will appear at reception to share in the celebration and to give updates on current system-wide happenings. Foresee is expected to touch on the recent affiliation with PINES, a nearly statewide check-out system which allows patrons to request and attain books from other NRLS member libraries. The local library became a branch of NRLS in 1957.
The month’s event will also include promotions featuring the genealogy department and the usage of computers, including the ability to produce resumes, apply for jobs and conduct research projects, among other possibilities. The library building will observe the month with posters and banners and will have a Century Table on which books and other items from 1911 will set.
Friends of the Library will conduct its annual book sale during the month. That will take place, however, at the Court Street building near the depot, Thursday, Friday and Saturday April 14, 15 and 16, with sales hours as follows: Thursday, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Saturday ($1 per bag day) 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
“The literacy council sponsors Library Month for a number of reasons,” says Wayne Minshew, executive director of The Calhoun-Gordon Council for a Literate Community. “However, the primary reason is for public awareness, to remind public officials, patrons and other folks who have an interest in the library that it is in excellent hands with a capable staff of knowledgeable people and that it maintains an extensive number of volumes and other usages open free to the public.
“The public library serves a valuable need to the community, and this is our opportunity to observe that and to salute its staff for a job well done.”
Calhoun-Gordon County Library Chronology
- 1911 - Calhoun-Gordon County Library Established at Current Site by Calhoun Woman’s Club
- 1924 - The library book count reached 969
- 1957 - - Library becomes branch of Northwest Regional Library System headquartered in Dalton
- 1967 – Construction of new building began; the working library moved to a section of the Calhoun First National Bank at the corner of Court St., and North Wall St.
- 1968 – The new library, with 20,000 volumes, opened, Jan. 19
- 1988 – Ground-breaking ceremonies were held in February to begin construction of additional space to include a meeting room and children’s wing; working library was moved to Stephens High School while construction was underway; other books boxed and stored
- 1989 – Estimated volumes reached 40,000; library staff increased
- 2010 – A total of more than 90,000 volumes are housed
- 2011 – Library joins PINES.
