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Dear Editor,

This letter is overdue and was prompted by Sean Dietrich’s column “Meet Your Local Librarian”.  When I was 5 in 1952 in late summer, I was taken to the Carnegie Library on Selma Avenue in Selma by my Mother, Bertie Harris Box. We had just moved to Selma in April.  My summer had been taken up by an emergency appendectomy, so the library was a wonderful experience for me.  Mother, who had only gone through 8th grade during the Depression, loved to read and I will forever be grateful for her introducing me to libraries! The Carnegie Library here was awesome…I still remember those steps going into that sacred building!

I remember Mrs. Blaylock, the librarian, but more than likely there were others before her that I do not remember.  They were always very helpful and much appreciated.

Yes, libraries have changed through the years, accommodating online services and providing computers and printers and research equipment for use by the public if needed.  The Selma Dallas County Library was built on the site of the Wilby Theater which was there in 1952 when I learned about downtown Selma.  I would like to thank Becky Nichols, a friend and younger classmate from Albert G. Parrish High School, for her guidance and love for our library.  I know there were others before her, between her and Mrs. Blaylock, and they are all appreciated. Our city has been very blessed with forward thinking librarians and still is in Becky Cothran Nichols.  I love her interest, her knowledge, and her caring work for many years in providing great programs for the children each summer and during the school year, promoting interest in reading early on in their lives.  That is definitely getting them off to a good start. And thank you, thank you, Becky, for Big Fish and the greatest Children’s Department ever!  You are surely a child at heart!

Lunch at the Library series has given us opportunities to meet published authors and benefit from their writing and knowledge. In 2012 at a presentation, I met Dr. Henry Langhorne, author, poet, friend of Dr. and Mrs. Caldwell DeBardeleben, poet laureate of West Florida for about 10 years. He was a cardiologist practicing in the Pensacola area but was from Uniontown and born in Selma. That lunch at the library meeting gave me  opportunity to correspond with Henry Langhorne as a poet and he advised me as I published a book of poetry in 2015.  Becky also made room for unpublished authors to meet using the library.  Through this friendships were formed with Afriye WeKandodis, Earnest Smith, Letha Dillard, and Connie Parr Rockwell. From that library meeting a local writer’s group met at By the River Center for the Humanities for over a year.  This could happen again!

I have so appreciated any well run library after growing up in Selma, going on to college in TN, and landing back in Dallas County. Fond memories of the library at David Lipscomb, libraries in Nashville and Donelson, Tennessee, and have you ever visited the library at Orange Beach? The latter is awesome and has a great view…also, they freely repurpose donated jigsaw puzzles!

In the Dietrich article, Sean mentioned a New York Times publishing an article  about librarians facing a crisis. Well, that is New York for you. This is the south and we benefit from our libraries and forward thinking, caring librarians. Take note. We thank and appreciate our librarians and our great libraries and all the workers and volunteers who make them all they are for our communities.

Sincerely yours,

Gail Box Ingram

Valley Grande, AL