The Atlantic
The public library system in Brownsville, Texas, has a long history of inventing and then reinventing itself to be of, by, and for the people.
The public library system in Brownsville, Texas, has a long history of inventing and then reinventing itself to be of, by, and for the people.
The library story began modestly at the end of the 19th century, with the personal collection of Irish-born U.S. Army Captain William Kelly, who had settled in Brownsville and become a renowned businessman, proponent of Brownsville’s first public schools, and a civic activist. His daughter Geraldine recollected later in the Brownsville Herald, “He had a very fine library, which he used continually and loved.”
In 1912, a group of Brownsville’s intellectual and high-minded women calling themselves the Learners Club started the town’s first subscription library. (Other women’s clubs have been promoters of early libraries: In 1905, the women's club of Dodge City, Kansas, inspired some of its prominent citizens to ask Andrew Carnegie if he would support building one of his libraries in Dodge City. He did.)
A decade and a half later, the Learners Club and the city teamed up to transform the Brownsville subscription library into a public library in a larger space. It moved a few more times over the next decades, before partnering with Texas Southmost College and locating the public library on its campus. There they stayed until 1991.
Then, with the city’s support, the Brownsville public library pivoted toward its modern era.
Jerry Hedgecock, who has been with Brownsville libraries since 1993 and is now the director of the Public Information Services Department in Brownsville, described to me how the library was able to start back in the 1990s, in effect from scratch, with the driving mission to make the library a go-to destination for the residents of Brownsville. They erected a new building and ushered in new ideas and new programs.
In 1912, a group of Brownsville’s intellectual and high-minded women calling themselves the Learners Club started the town’s first subscription library. (Other women’s clubs have been promoters of early libraries: In 1905, the women's club of Dodge City, Kansas, inspired some of its prominent citizens to ask Andrew Carnegie if he would support building one of his libraries in Dodge City. He did.)
A decade and a half later, the Learners Club and the city teamed up to transform the Brownsville subscription library into a public library in a larger space. It moved a few more times over the next decades, before partnering with Texas Southmost College and locating the public library on its campus. There they stayed until 1991.
Then, with the city’s support, the Brownsville public library pivoted toward its modern era.
Jerry Hedgecock, who has been with Brownsville libraries since 1993 and is now the director of the Public Information Services Department in Brownsville, described to me how the library was able to start back in the 1990s, in effect from scratch, with the driving mission to make the library a go-to destination for the residents of Brownsville. They erected a new building and ushered in new ideas and new programs.
Library plans were farsighted; they were creative and intended to reflect the culture of the town and region; and they were executed efficiently and also patiently, adding projects piecemeal, year by year. With a line item in the municipal budget supporting them ($4.8 million in 2019), a library foundation that contributes to capital projects, and the still vital Learners Club and a Friends group pitching in, the library evolved.
To read rest of article, click on link: https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2019/08/public-library-and-people/595480/
13 comments:
Juan why dont you do an article on Hedgecock and the other businesses he runs on city time, think its time for him to be exposed or if he is not then he should say so. Too much talk about him working on other projects and not city business or city projects while at work, time to be exposed. The truth shall set you free-mr hedgecock.
@ 9:25 a.m.
Please go and fuck yourself. You must be one of the little-ass peons who works there. Get to work!
How much did he spend on this fake gimme a raise and let me stay here propoganda
So why is the city hiring people with degrees and highly incompetent? Start hiring people with GEDs and highly competent.
Are there any engineers and or planners and or city managers out there with GEDs this city is looking for YOU.
Where is GED Hedgecock with the discrimination at the Southmost library? He sends his Mexican puppet Juan el perverso to screw his own people.
I have a kindergarten degree. can I get a high paying job at library
Can't drive any where in this shit city. Its a red light horror story. Every where you go RED LIGHTS. Traffic jams galore its a daily ocurrance. Every time you get a red light call the city manager just maybe he'll figure it out.
Promote that GED library director to ASS CITY Manager that's where they sent all the incompetent employees with GEDs and PHd and kindergarden degrees...ALL making 80+k a year.
We need engineers with GEDs to fix the traffic problem and the pothole problem and a city manager with a GED to run this city. Where's that I've been here 50 years, he insisted that every city employee have a degree even el pobre janitor, pinche mamon...
Public education, libraries, literacy and public health was brought here by the Anglos. Now all the locals only want to piss on their history. This place owes it's very existence to Anglos. If trey had not come here all the whiners would still be living in jacals and working as peons for the wealth few.
You have the ex HR director still making $86,000 a year, the ex planning and zoning director still making $90,000 a year and now we have the newly promoted Goverment affairs director with no employees or budget to manage probably making $80,000 to $90,000 a year. What a waste of taxpayers monies, total alignment? Total mismanagement that is.
The public library was bult by general escando in the mid 1750 pendejo gringo guey.
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