Magness Library kicks off new program

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

Magness Library’s Mary Robbins, left, and library board chairperson Pat Bigbee look over some of the thousands of books available at the American Book Company during a recent visit to the facility located in Knoxville. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

Warren County will get a chance to support Magness Library this week when the library kicks off its “Adopt A Book” program. This program matches the donations of businesses, organizations and individuals with the resources of the American Book Company located in Knoxville to provide new books for the library.

For every purchase of a book with these donations, Adopt A Book and American Book Company will donate a new book of equal value to the library. Magness will be able to personally choose its books from American Book Company’s inventory of more than 10,000 titles.

“I’m really excited about the Adopt A Book program,” said library director Mary Robbins, “and the potential that it has to help Magness Library to expand our collection. The quality and quantity of the books we’re going to have available for us is just tremendous, and it’s also a wonderful opportunity for the community to support the library and to have a stake in what’s happening there.”

The Adopt A Book program has already aided several Middle Tennessee libraries, including Crossville in Cumberland County, and Franklin, Bethesda, Fairview and Nolensville in Williamson County, to expand their collections extensively.

Robbins said the library will be concentrating on improving some specific areas of its current collection.

“The main categories that we’re concentrating on are children’s, young adults, large print and reference,” she said. “We really need to expand our reference collection, and this will be a big help to us.”

The program is simple. Packets are mailed out to local residents giving them a chance to make tax-deductible donations of various levels, though any dollar amount is acceptable and much appreciated. Donations will be acknowledged with a plaque or certificate and the individual’s name and/or designated name will be imprinted inside the cover of one of the library’s new books.

“I just think it’s a wonderful program,” said library board chairperson Patricia Bigbee. “We are so lucky in this community because of the support that we get from the municipalities and the county, but we try to focus a lot of that on our staff. We have a wonderful community support of a lot of gift books and memorial books, but even with that, we really need more books. That’s what it’s really all about. So this gives us an opportunity for the community to participate and help us get those books.”

Bigbee said the program is open to anyone, and everyone can make a difference.

The packets are self-explanatory and give the particulars of participating in the Adopt A Book program, but for more information, or to help organizing groups to help with the program, contact the Magness Library at 473-2428.