Come to the Thonotosassa Library History Roadshow!



Thonotosassa Branch circa 1990



CELEBRATING...

Thonotosassa Branch Library

June 22, 2013

10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

10715 Main St.
Thonotosassa, FL 33592-2831

A look back... 

After years of library service from the bookmobile, the Thonotosassa Branch Library opened in July 1989, serving the Thonotosassa community and surrounding areas in northeastern Hillsborough County. 

  


Tampa Tribune photo of construction, 1988

This 8,000 square-foot library facility was the sixteenth branch of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System, created with the close collaboration of the Friends of the Thonotosassa Library*, the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library Board, the Board of County Commissioners and Hillsborough County staff. 

It was constructed, furnished and stocked with funding provided by the U.S. Government's Community Development Block Grant program and designed by the architectural firm Fletcher, Valenti & Chillura, Inc. 

Since its opening 24 years ago then it has served patrons living in this rural section of Hillsborough County with convenient access to books, magazines, DVDs, music and recorded books for all ages and interests. It also provides Internet access and a regular schedule of programs, including Story Time for preschoolers, a summer reading program for school-age children, after school homework help for students and computer classes for all ages. 

Do you have a library memory to share?

Tampa Tribune photo, 1989

Did you ever attend a special program, story time or a computer classes at the library? Have you had a positive experience with library staff or accessed information at the library that improved your quality of life? Did you ever use bookmobile service before the library was constructed? Even if you are new to the area and have just started using the library, we want to hear from  you!

We invite Thonotosassa Branch Library patrons, past and present, to come and share their library memories and memorabilia so that we may digitize them for the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library archival collection. For more information about Library History Roadshow events call: 813-273-3652.

* There currently is no Friends of the Library chapter for the Thonotosassa Branch Library. Anyone interested in helping start a group to support the branch should contact the Friends of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library, Inc. at 273-3616.

Austin Davis Public Library 20th Anniversary Celebrated

Austin Davis Public Library and the Odessa community celebrated their 20th anniversary on May 18, 2013.  Attendees enjoyed a fabulously delicious cake supplied by the Friends of the Austin Davis Library, as well as storytelling, singing and a historical photo exhibit about the Citrus Park-Keystone area and its library history.

The Library History Roadshow crew were on site to digitize the Friends' scrapbooks and photographs and to video-record attendees' library memories for the Tampa-Hillsborough County Library History archival collection. Check out some photos from the event!

Special thanks to the Austin Davis Public Library staff and to the Friends of the Austin Davis Library for their hospitality in accommodating the roadshow team. Thank you also to all who attended and contributed their library memories to be preserved for generations to come!

Below, retired Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library librarian and current President o fthe Friends of the Austin Davis Library,  Virginia Blair gives insight into her experiences as a librarian, the library's early beginnings and its development into a hub of cultural activity for the community.

Odessa native Frances Barksdale, whose family has contributed to the library's Community Tree, recalls this rural area's first library -- the Citrus Park Keystone Library (1979-1993) -- which was located in Fox's Corner shopping center.  Frances knew the Davis family personally and shares her story of how Mrs. Davis's influence was the driving force resulting in a generous donation from W-D Charities, Inc. for the construction of this library in Keystone Park in the early 1990s.

James Ligertwood is a former neighbor of Austin Davis. He relates this fun anecdote; demonstrating the personable nature of Mr. Davis.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this roadshow.  Please mark your calendar for these up-coming events: 

• The next roadshow is June 22nd, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Thonotosassa Branch Library . 
• The Centennial Celebration of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System will take place January 1st, 2013 at the West Tampa Branch Library!

Celebrating 20 Years of the Austin Davis Public Library

Come share your memories of the Austin Davis Public Library!
(Formerly the Citrus Park-Keystone Branch)

Austin Davis Public Library

May 18th, 2013

10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The region was first serviced by the bookmobile until June 6, 1977, after library director Leo Meirose recommended to county commissioners that a library branch open at Fox's Corner Shopping Center on Mobley Road in Odessa.  This library was known as the Citrus Park-Keystone Branch Library, known for its quaint, neighborhood feel that catered to its rural community. Do you remember this storefront library?

After nearly 15 years of library service at this location, county commissioners continued to grapple on how to fund a new library building adequate for the rapidly growing region.

 It was not until 1991 that the Friends of the Citrus Park-Keystone Library's rally-cries for a full-service library brought the cause to the attention of M. Austin Davis, co-founder of the famed Winn-Dixie grocery chain. In response, W-D Charities, Inc. donated $1.1 million dollars for the construction of a new, 10,500 square-foot public library for the Citrus Park-Keystone region, which now bears Austin Davis's name. 

The Austin Davis Public Library, located at 17808 Wayne Rd. in Odessa, FL (just east of Gunn Hwy on Wayne Road) was dedicated May 23rd, 1993.  Read more about the library's history here!

Come share your personal history of the Citrus Park-Keystone Branch/Austin Davis Public Library!

The Library History Roadshow invites its community to bring their local library-related photos, memorabilia and memories to digitize for the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library History Archive on May 18th from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. 

There will be cake, compliments of the Friends of the Austin Davis Library, who are celebrating 20 years of the library!  Also, come see a historic Burgert Brothers photographic exhibit tailored just for this event. 

For more information about the Library History Roadshow, please call 813-273-3652.

National Bookmobile Day 2013

The National Bookmobile Day 2013 was April 17th. To help celebrate the occasion, the Library History Roadshow team followed both the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library Bookmobile and Cybermobile along their routes for the day. It was a beautiful day filled with great customer interactions! Check out some photos of the all-day event:

The Bookmobile Roadshow made stops at Acorn Trace Apartments, Rose Lake Estates, and Horizon Bay, while the Cybermobile Roadshow made a single stop at the Cordelia Hunt Community Center. At each location, video and audio recordings of Bookmobile and Cybermobile patrons were captured as they recalled their past experiences on-board the buses and with the mobile library staff, as well as spoke about the reasons that they keep coming back. Some of the people who took part in the Roadshow were newer to the mobile branches but were enthusiastic to share what they already enjoy about the service.

Because the mobile libraries visit several different stops throughout Hillsborough County, future ‘Roadshows’ are being planned at other stops. We encourage you to visit our mobile libraries and see what the buzz is all about!

Link to their schedules: Bookmobile | Cybermobile.

Video and audio memories will be available online starting January 1st, 2014 -- the kick-off of the Centennial Celebration of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library system.

A Brief History of Mobile Library Services in Hillsborough County

During the Depression, Works Projects Administration funds made the first bookmobile service possible.  In 1930, the Tampa Public Library began a "bookcar" service, delivering books to the community as a Traveling Branch. Soon after, it would become known as the Bookmobile.

In the 1950s, the bookmobile was known as the "Traveling Branch" and very popular among its users in neighborhoods like Sulphur Springs, Wellswood, Forest Hills, Ballast Point.

During the 1960s, the bookmobile served as a mobile neighborhood branch while library locations were being built or remodeled while also providing an extension of services to rural areas such as Wimauma, Riverview, Gibsonton, Thonotosassa, Odessa and Town N' Country.

The Cybermobile, a Spanish-language mobile library branch providing free library resources, services, computer classes, and programming throughout Hillsborough County was dedicated on May 11, 2006.  Its purpose is to bridge language and library usage gaps and to develop lifelong library users. Learn more about the Cybermobile.

Great turnout at the Harlem Branch Library History Roadshow!

The Library History Roadshow for the Harlem Branch Library was a great success!  Many thanks to the LHJ Law Firm for providing refreshments, to the Ada T. Payne Friends of the Urban Libraries and to everyone who came out to support the effort to collect memories of the Harlem Branch Library.  Check out the photos from the event!

There is little documentation of this historic African American library. Thus every audio and video recording that we collect is really special.  The only known image of the interior of the library and of Librarian Ada T. Payne is from a 1950 Tampa Tribune article (right).

Here is a list of our most wanted Harlem Branch Library items :

•  Photo of the exterior of the library location at 1404 Central Avenue (1925-1969)
• Invitation to the opening reception for the Central Avenue location.
• Photograph of the Harlem Branch Librarians:  Ada T. Payne, Lizzie Dansey (or Dawsey), Henrietta Maddox, Cancerina Martin, Adelle Samuel, and Jemi B. Brown.
• Harlem Branch Library card.

 If you or someone you know has any such of these items, please contact the library at 813-273-3652.

In the meantime, check back soon as we will post some of the video histories that were recorded!

Coming up next: Harlem Branch Library (1919-1969)

The next stop for the Library History Roadshow will honor the Harlem Branch Library, also known as the East Branch Library.  

February 23, 2013

10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Robert W. Saunders, Sr. Public Library

1505 Nebraska Ave.

Tampa, FL

The Harlem Branch of the Tampa Public Library opened in 1919 in the Harlem Academy and later, in 1923, at the Tampa Urban League building. This branch library closed when the Central Library on Ashley Drive opened in 1968 in downtown Tampa. 

We are interested in getting in contact with anyone who has any memories of the Harlem/East Branch Library.  It is the aim of the Library History Roadshow to collect and to preserve the historical cultural heritage of our community libraries, past and present. 

We will be recording video and oral histories, as well as digitizing your library memories and memorabilia for inclusion into the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library History archival collection, Tampa-Hillsborough County Treasures.  Please, come and share your story! 

Tampa-Hillsborough County Treasures, an online digital local history collection, will be unveiled for public access for the Centennial Celebration of the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library system on January 1st, 2014.  Save the date!

For more information, call 813-273-3652 or visit hcplc.org. 

Save the Date to Celebrate: January 1, 2014

Public libraries have been changing lives and transforming communities in Hillsborough County for nearly a century...

Tampa-Hillsborough Public Libraries'
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

January 1st, 2014
at the

West Tampa Branch Library
2312 W. Union St.
Tampa, FL 33607

The historic West Tampa Branch Library, located at 2312 W. Union St. in Tampa, opened on January 1, 1914. It is Hillsborough County’s first public library and one of 11 libraries in Florida funded by grants from the Carnegie Corporation. 100 years later, the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library system has grown to serve its community through its 27 locations.