A crowd of about 150 people packed into the fourth-floor rotunda of the Headquarters Library in downtown Gainesville on Saturday to cap off the Alachua County Library District’s 40th anniversary celebration.
The event, held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., served as the grand finale to a monthlong string of festivities held at libraries across Alachua County.
Shaney Livingston, the library district’s director, opened the event with a speech commemorating its achievements. She pointed to both the district’s growth on paper and its impact on patrons over its long history.
“Today we celebrate more than bricks and books,” she said. “We celebrate the thousands of stories shared, friendships made, opportunities created and lives changed over the past 40 years because of this very library district.”
The independent tax district, which was first proposed by the Gainesville City Commission in 1983, was approved by 63% of Alachua County voters in a special referendum Oct. 15, 1985, according to a commemorative book of the district’s history given to attendees.
A Thursday press release catalogued the district’s expansion.
In its first fiscal year, the district’s five branches served about 175,000 residents and held more than 270,000 works in its collection. Since then, the district’s 12 branches have served X million and have nearly quadrupled its available inventory.
In her speech at Saturday’s event, Livingston detailed the electronic databases, e-books, wifi hotspots and other amenities the district has grown to offer.
“If I list them all, I will keep y’all here ‘til next Saturday,” she said.
She also noted the district is completely debt-free.
Based on an Annual Comprehensive Financial Report prepared by the Alachua County Finance and Accounting Department, the district paid off its remaining debt in 2018.
Livingston attributed the achievement to the hard work and commitment of library staff who “deeply care” about its patrons.
She invited the room to share in a round of applause for staff in the audience.
Following a prayer led by the Rev. Talia Raymond from the United Church of Gainesville, Mayor Harvey Ward took the podium to address the crowd, urging attendees not to take the library system for granted.
“This library district has always been a part of my life,” Ward said. “I absolutely would not be mayor of this city without this library district, without the opportunity to, as a child, roam the aisles and stacks of a library to find those dangerous ideas that make you think and make you understand we are all responsible for what we have and for what we hope future generations will have.”
Ken Cornell, the chair of the Alachua County Commission and the library district’s governing board, emphasized the district’s continued dedication to its core mission.
“We’ve never lost the thing that hasn’t changed since day one: a library card that costs nothing but opens up the world for our kids,” he said.
In addition to the speakers, eventgoers listened to performances from students from Caring & Sharing Learning School and musicians from the Santa Fe College Jazz Combo, who performed renditions of popular songs ranging from the African-American spiritual “Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round” to a contemporary twist on “Pure Imagination” from the 1971 film “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.”
Alachua County poet laureate E. Stanley Richardson and Cone Park Branch library manager Linda Cue jointly delivered a poem titled “Libraries are For Everyone,” which Cue wrote.
“Come on in and look around,” the pair read aloud. “You might be surprised at what you find. Come on in, try something new, something you never thought you could do.”
The program also featured special recognitions for current and former library staff, including three former facilities directors and staff members who organized the anniversary celebrations.
Beverly Bartlett, who formerly served as president, treasurer and board member of the Alachua County Friends of the Library, unveiled and dedicated a bronze bust of the library district’s first director, Ann Williams, who’s credited with expanding and modernizing the district.
Trup, Bartlett spoke about her late friend’s tireless work to improve the library system.
“Ann was the perfect library director,” she said.
The bust will be displayed in the Headquarters Library’s lobby, just outside the elevator doors.
Jack Williams, Ann’s husband, shared a few words with the crowd: “Thank you, everybody. Thank you.”
After the closing remarks ended and attendees filed out for refreshments, eventgoers wandered the library to make arts and crafts, watch a magic show, read to therapy dogs, or snack on snow cones, a few of the day’s offerings.
Nine-year-old Niral Ranjit and his 13-year-old sister, Niva Ranjit, sat down to watch the magic show. The siblings said they each came to the library for different experiences.
Niral said he comes to relax in a comfortable space.
“I think of a library as a safe, quiet place where I can just gobble up a book one after another.”
For Niva, she said she loves immersing herself in the books she finds.
“For a place like a library, for me, I guess I would say that it's a place where I can shift to a different world and different fantasies with all these different books and all these fictional places,” she said.
Former state Rep. Chuck Clemons, who now works as UF’s vice president for government and community relations, was one of the event’s keynote speakers. He reflected on the library’s next 40 years and how he hopes future generations will continue to take care of it.
“I think a lot of youngsters will be enjoying the shade of the trees that were planted 40 and 80 years hence, and I hope that they have the wisdom to pay that forward to the following generations because it's really the only way that we can pay back the pioneers,” he said.
Michael Briseño is a contributing writer for The Alligator.
