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Having soldiered through a series of user-discouraging cold snaps, the South Cheatham Public Library rolls into Spring with a varied menu of events under the leadership of Jennifer Ensley, who assumed the director's post last August.
Ensley has a part-time staff of eight, including Rachel Zook, who serves as assistant director. Events scheduled to date:
March 22, 11 a. m. Protecting Your Home Against Pests, Servall Pest Control
Every Thursday, 10:30, Storytime with Miss Velvet Collier
April 15, 11 a. m. Cheryl Blanchard of Alzheimer's Tennessee will offer a followup to last year's presentation, “Normal Aging vs. Dementia.”
April 17, 5 p.m.-6:30 Registration for Kindergarten at Kingston Springs Elementary School (partnered by library)
April 22, 5:30 p.m. Art Show at Kingston Springs Elementary School (partnered by library)
June 12, Summer Reading Program, “Color Our World,” begins.
Ensley said all staff members are involved in choosing which books to add to the collection and which to discard. Even with regular culling, she noted, shelf space is still scarce.
The library's most recent book purchases include “Battle Mountain” (by C. J. Box); “The Lotus Shoes” (Jane Young); “Three Days in June” (Anne Tyler); “Paranoia” (James Patterson); “The Stolen Queen” (Fiona Davis); “Sandwich” (Catherine Newman); “The Boyfriend” (Freida McFadden);“The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime” (Vicki Delaney); and “Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash” (Alexander Clapp).
Streaming services have led to less demand for DVDs, although there's a small section still devoted to them. Ensley says there have been discussions about discontinuing carrying them.
Selling discarded books and DVDs has added substantially to the library's coffers, Ensley says, although she couldn't estimate how much. “One of the staff members here had the idea to wrap [the castoffs] into 'surprise packages' of four to five books or DVDs each for a dollar,” she said. In addition, there are shelves of giveaways and quarter-a-piece items on the library's back porch.
In honor of Women's History Month, the library currently has a section displaying books about and written by notable women. Among the titles: Julia Morris' “Women: History, Identity & Influence,” Loren Grush's “The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts,” Michelle Obama's “Becoming” and “The Light We Carry,” Clara Bingham's “The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed America 1963 – 1973” and Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz's “But Will You Love Me Tomorrow?: An Oral History of the '60s Girl Groups.”
Unlike the many libraries facing political opposition, Ensley says there have been no calls from the community to remove certain titles.
In November, Kandy Kapanka and Lana Foster resigned as president and treasurer, respectively, of the South Cheatham County Friends of the Library,an action that effectively dissolved the group. While efforts have been made to find replacements for Kapanka and Foster, no one has applied, Ensley says. In the interim, she is working with the Cheatham County Friends of the Library in Ashland City. “Hopefully we'll be able to reorganize local [FOTL],” she said.
Ensley deferred questions about the proposed new library to the Cheatham County Library Board.
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