Through Thick And Thin, Dade’s Library Perseveres For 80 Years And Counting
By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor
Photo by Lydia Berglar – The three most recent library managers attended the library’s 80th birthday celebration. Marshana Sharp (not pictured) filled the role for 19 years until fall 2021. Mindy Haworth (left) came after Sharp, leaving the role this summer. Since July of this year, Lydia Soucy (right) has followed in Sharp and Haworth’s footsteps, continuing to lead this pillar of the community.
As all of you who’ve followed along with the Friends of the Library and Dade County Historical Society columns know, Nov. 8 was the celebration of the Dade County Public Library’s 80th anniversary. Thank you to all who documented the library’s history, shared favorite books through the photo retrospective, and organized the celebration.
One sweet part of the gathering was having the three most recent library managers present. Marshana Sharp filled the role for 19 years until fall 2021. Mindy Haworth came after Sharp and left the role this summer. Since July of this year, Lydia Soucy has followed in Sharp and Haworth’s footsteps, continuing to lead the library with excellence, dedication, and a cheerful smile.
The speakers were Dottie Abercrombie (Friends of the Library president), Don Townsend (county executive-elect), Lydia Soucy (library manager), Donna Street (library board member), Leicia Eubanks (director of the regional library system), Leisa Cagle (library board chairman), and Linda Wilson (Friends of the Library member).
Speaking on behalf of the commission and county government, Townsend said, “We’re going to partner with you through thick and thin—I know y’all have had a lot of thin years in the last 15 years.”
Soucy recognized the four bookmark competition winners (see the Oct. 6 Sentinel).
Street recapped the storied timeline of the library (as covered in recent issues of the Sentinel) from the bookmobile through the black mold incident to the year and a half of four different locations all the way to today.
Photo by Lydia Berglar – Donna Street shares some of the fascinating history of the library at the Nov. 8 celebration.
She said, “The staff of this library has changed like the tide over the last ten or 15 years because, honestly, you gotta love this to do it because we can’t afford the kind of pay that other places pay.”
Cagle later added, “We struggle to stay financed…We talk about what we pay our employees. They could make probably one and a half times more at McDonald’s than what we are able to pay, so we are really on a shoestring budget, but we do appreciate our funding agencies.”
Noting that there have been more women on the library board than men over the years, Street said (to the crowd’s amusement), “Obviously, it’s been a passion for those of us—what is it? Childless cat ladies? There’s a lot of us that don’t have children, but we love children, and we love books, so we have spent a large majority of our lives trying to make sure that children get what they need, even if they’re not our children.”
Not leaving anyone out, she also recognized the men who served over the years to help sustain the library.
Street concluded, “We’ve come to the brink of losing this library more than once, but we have managed to maintain it because this community believes in this library.”
