{"id":2218,"date":"2020-04-20T10:14:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T14:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=2218"},"modified":"2020-04-20T10:14:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T14:14:32","slug":"for-the-love-of-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2020\/04\/20\/for-the-love-of-libraries\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Love of Libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the Love of Libraries<\/strong>— Since National Library\nWeek runs from April 19 through April 25, now is a fitting time to celebrate\nthe many ways in which the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library contributes to\nCharlotte\u2019s community of readers and writers. \nEven though all of the library branches are closed because of the\ncoronavirus outbreak, our public library is still providing online support to area\nreaders and writers, and the library is still participating in National Library\nWeek.  For more information about the\nCharlotte Mecklenburg Library\u2019s celebration of National Library Week, please\nclick on the following link:  https:\/\/cmlibrary.org\/blog\/national-library-week-2020<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whenever\nI talk with Charlotte writers about the public library, they all have stories\nto tell.  However, for the purposes of\nthis blog post, I am focusing on three writers whose connections with the\nCharlotte Mecklenburg Library have especially deep roots.  One of these writers is Jeffrey Leak, whose\nbooks include Racial Myths and Masculinity in African American Literature <\/em>and Visible Man: The Life of\nHenry Dumas. <\/em>Another is my\nwife, Nancy Northcott.  Her fiction includes\nThe Herald of Day<\/em>, the first novel in a historical fantasy trilogy,and\na novella in Welcome to Outcast Station,<\/em> the first volume in a science\nfiction series.<\/em> Both Jeffrey and Nancy grew up in the Charlotte area,\nand their library connections go all the way back to their childhoods.  The third writer is community historian Thomas\nHanchett, whose books include Sorting Out the New South City:  Race, Class and Urban Development in Charlotte,\n1875-1975<\/em> and Charlotte and the Carolina Piedmont.  <\/em>I asked each of these three authors to\nsend me a paragraph about their experiences with the Charlotte Mecklenburg\nLibrary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is what\nJeffrey sent to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I have a long-standing appreciation for\nthe public library. I grew up near what is now Northwest School of the Arts,\nriding my bike in the summer to the library, then located on LaSalle Street,\nnow located on Beatties Ford Road. My journeys there were the result of an\nultimatum from my mama: “if you come in my house one more time, you’ll be\nin till this evening.” Tired of me running in and out, Hattie Leak told me\nto make up my mind. Inside or outside. Heat or AC. More times than not, I chose\nthe former. The librarians understood my dilemma, sometimes even including me\non their lunch-run to Hoyles or Mr. C’s, less than a block away. but the main\nthing they gave me was access to books and the encouragement to read them.\nAfrican American history and culture came alive in that welcoming space. From\nreading there, I always wanted to travel to the northeast where figures like\nBenjamin E. Mays and Zora Neale Hurston had gone. These black librarians took\nmy curiosity and interests and, like the story of Jesus and the feeding of the\nfish to the multitudes, multiplied them. I don’t have any data to support this\nclaim, but I think my reading skills actually improved in those pre-teen\nsummers. What I do know is that my education has taken me to points in the\nnortheast, including Maine and New York City (the respective places associated\nwith Mays and Hurston), Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. Oh the places I have\nbeen! But I’ll always know that much of what I have been blessed to experience\nstarted at the library on LaSalle.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is what\nNancy sent to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As\na geek child, I didn\u2019t fit in with my more athletic, outdoorsy neighbors. I\nfound a haven in the Davidson Public Library. I loved to ride my bike down to\nMain Street, check out as many books as the bike\u2019s basket would hold, and pedal\nhome to start reading. Mrs. Wally, the librarian, often had recommendations\nready when I walked in the door. She knew I loved science fiction, history,\nhistorical fiction, mysteries, and YA romance, and her suggestions ran the\ngamut. I reveled in the imaginary journeys those books provided. The library\nwas also special to me because my father and I often went there together. Those\ntrips were the one activity only the two of us shared. Every couple of weeks,\nafter supper, he would ask if I wanted to go. I always jumped at the chance.\nYou can bring home so many more books when you have a car! During those visits,\nI regularly read the comic strips in the back of <\/em>Boys\u2019\nLife magazine. I wanted a subscription,\nbut my mom nixed that on grounds of my not being a boy. When my dad and I went\nto the library, I always took the latest <\/em>Boys\u2019 Life off the shelf and read the comics in the back. He knew but never\ncommented, so that also was just between us. I check out much less fiction than\nI once did, but I love having the library available for research\nmaterials.  It\u2019s probably fair to say I\nwouldn\u2019t have become a writer if the library hadn\u2019t stimulated my imagination\nall those years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is Tom\nsent to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I\u2019m researching the history of a\ncommunity, the local public library is always my first stop. I\u2019ve used history\ncollections in dozens of cities nationwide and I can tell you for sure that the\nRobinson-Spangler Carolina Room is among the best in the U.S. Arriving in\nCharlotte back in 1981 to research older neighborhoods for the Historic\nLandmarks Commission, I went directly to the original Carolina Room. It was\nthen a single room staffed by a single person, Mary Louise Phillips. I wasn\u2019t\nsure what she would make of a this 26-year-old non-native, barely able to find\nCharlotte on a map, asking so many questions about Myers Park, Biddleville,\ncotton mills, land development. But she welcomed me in. The Carolina Room has\nbeen a home-base ever since.  Today I\u2019m\ndelighted to be finishing my term as the Carolina Room\u2019s first\nHistorian-in-Residence, thanks to the vision of Library CEO Lee Keesler. In\npartnership with fellow community historian J. Michael Moore, we\u2019ve just\ndebuted a how-to website of tools, tips and weblinks for researching your house\nor neighborhood in Charlotte  CharlotteHistoryToolkit.com<\/a>.  More work I\u2019ve done over the years, drawing\non the Carolina Room, can be found at my website www.HistorySouth.org<\/a>.\nAnd while you\u2019re on the internet, check out the Carolina Room\u2019s own rich\nwebsite, www.CMstory.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the\nresponses I received from Jeffrey, Nancy and Tom reveal, the Charlotte Mecklenburg\nLibrary has played a significant role in these writers\u2019 lives.  In a sense, the public library can be seen as\na reoccurring character that plays a variety of roles in the individual stories\nof Charlotte\u2019s readers and writers, but it is also a central character in the\noverarching narrative of Storied Charlotte.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the Love of Libraries— Since National Library Week runs from April 19 through April 25, now is a fitting time to celebrate the many ways in which the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library contributes to Charlotte\u2019s community of readers and writers.  Even though all of the library branches are closed because of the coronavirus outbreak, our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[42,41,40],"class_list":["post-2218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte","tag-carolina-room","tag-charlotte-history","tag-libraries"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2224,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions\/2224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}