It’s already that time of year again, when all of the area first-graders get to visit the Selma-Dallas County Public Library — many for the first time —— to receive their very own library card.

First-graders from Cedar Park Elementary School shuffled into the library Wednesday morning where they got to hear Selma City Schools Superintendent Angela Mangum read “The Enormous Potato” before receiving their library cards.

“I feel so very special to have an opportunity to interact with children and to read to them, to model reading, to engage them in reading, I think that opens up a world of opportunity,” Mangum said. “I’m very thankful to have the opportunity to partner with the public library to engage children in reading and get them library cards and to really turn on and ignite the love and passion for reading, and hopefully it will be a life long endeavor.”

The Welcome to Your Library program has been going on for nearly 15 years now, and Library Director Becky Nichols said it’s one of the best times at the library.

“It is an annual exciting event; the kids look forward to it, we look forward to it,” Nichols said. “It is so exciting and so fun filled and the result is, not only do we have new library card members, but we have families of those first-graders that are also going to become library card members and that might multiply the usage of the library which is what we’re all about.”

Over the course of the program, between 650 and 700 first-graders will make their way to the library via school busses and leave with the card that declares them members of the library.

“My first year’s class graduated this year and I still have students saying … I remember when we went to the library to get a library card. I didn’t even think we were making that much of an impact, but we really are,” said Felicia Tinker, school counselor at Cedar Park and Meadowview Elementary School.

Before the students heard the book, Nichols had them follow along repeating what she said and making the motions that she did.

“The more you read, the more you know, the more you know the more you grow,” the students said repeating after Nichols.

Although it’s the first-graders that took home a library card, Nichols said it’s about more than just them.

“What we hope is that they will come, and they’ll bring grandmother and grandfather and brother and sister and everybody else because we’re ready for them,” Nichols said. “What I want the community to know the most about this is this introduces the children and families to a resource that are free to everybody and open to all of them, and the more its used, the smarter they’ll get.”

Mangum along with Dallas County Superintendent Don Willingham are two of the celebrity readers, but Nichols said this year they are focusing on bring in law enforcement.

“This year, a neat little component is we’re honoring our law enforcement,” Nichols said.