Wanda of the Golden Dawn

To help celebrate the 90th birthday of Wanda Potts, MPL Indiana Room Librarian Emeritus, we offer a poem, which we have made into a video (included on our YouTube Channel's Program Trailer playlist, among others).  Here's the "video poem."

Happy 90th, Wanda!  We hope you enjoy today's celebration at the Library to which your life's work has been devoted.  Here are some photos from the big event.

A Birthday Celebration for Mooresville's True Historical Treasure Trove

Next Saturday (June 11, 2011), Wanda Potts will be celebrating her 90th 29th birthday at a party hosted in the Community Room of Mooresville Public Library (Mooresville, Indiana).  It is open to the public.  Bring the gift of your questions for Wanda.  I'll explain presently.

Some of my readers may not know (or know of) Wanda, so allow me to elaborate.

MPL Indiana Room

The MPL Indiana Room and Wanda Potts are interchangeable.  Wanda was the Indiana Room Librarian from 1966 to 2002 (although a local newspaper article a decade ago said she started working in that position in 1967, but I think that's slightly off the mark). Virtually EVERYTHING contained in this collection, which is devoted to genealogy as well as state and local history, was assembled by Wanda, with the help of a few assistants and volunteers over the years.  Our Library has this material entirely because of her dedication and diligence in preserving the community's historical records. Quite simply, she is the town historian par excellence.  No living individual knows as much about the history of Mooresville, Indiana (and surrounding communities) as Wanda.

Wanda Potts (the 1998 Recipient of
the Mooresvillian of the Year Award)

Most of us have some detailed knowledge of our hometowns, especially when we were growing up.  But can you tell me what business occupied the southwest corner of a central downtown intersection in your hometown?  In 1938?  1913?  1882?  1968?  Pick any date you like.  Do you remember that level of detail about your hometown?  Wanda does.  She remembers more historical information about her hometown than most of us retain about our own lives. She is the living, breathing history of Mooresville, and that makes her an invaluable treasure.  How do you know where you are if you don't recall where you've been?

Wanda as "Sweet Rosie O'Grady"

(From the 1943 Movie Starring Betty Grable)

Movie Poster (1943)

I wonder if Wanda had Lloyds of London insure her legs for a million dollars, as was done for Betty Grable's legs?  I wouldn't be surprised.  Those are pretty nice legs, so a library colleague tells me.

How was I able to track down these historical tidbits?  You guessed it. Wanda's 3,000-plus vertical files in the Indiana Room Collection had the corroborating details.  You just have to know where to look.

Wanda's birthday party will be a joyous affair, with fond recollections of the good ol' days.  But we need your help!  We want YOUR questions about Mooresville history--questions that only Wanda could answer--to ask her at the celebration.  Email your questions (please type "Questions to Wanda Potts" in the subject line).  If you visit the Library, we have a question box (using old-fashioned, but reliable, 3" x 5" note cards--Wanda would appreciate the low-tech approach) on the circular book display across from the new books (for adult readers) bookshelves.  Write down your questions and drop those cards into the box.  What could be easier?

We hope to see you at Wanda's celebration.  There will probably be some food--always a good reason to visit the Library--but, most importantly, you will be sharing the wisdom and life's work of a pillar of our community.  That, my friends, is well worth the price of admission, which is free, of course.  We are a public library, after all, and the information and research assistance we provide in our Indiana Room Collection is due entirely to Wanda Potts.  So, thanks are definitely in order.

Watch our program trailer (above) to see some of the photographs Wanda Potts safeguarded in our historical collections.

Here is another of our program trailers, this one promoting the Library's self-guided walking tour of downtown Mooresville, Indiana, made possible, once again, by Wanda's resources in the MPL Indiana Room.

In this program trailer (above), we learn why Wanda's work is so significant.

One of the number one records of 1939, when Wanda Potts graduated from Mooresville High School, was "Stairway to the Stars," performed by Ray Eberle (vocalist) and Glenn Miller and his Orchestra (recorded June 26, 1939).

A Tremendous Marketing Force for Public Libraries

Fans of Tober, the Thorntown (Indiana) Public Library Cat, may have noticed that his blog viewership has now surpassed 80,000.  That is an amazing audience for a public library serving a community whose population is well under 5,000 (according to the 2009 estimate, it was 1,627; it was 1,520 in the 2000 U.S. Census).  Residents of western Boone County served by TPL certainly have a fabulous library facility, resources, and staff available.  But, then, the same could be said for public libraries in general.  What makes TPL stand above others is Tober.

Tober the Thorntown Library Cat

promotes a recent booksale

(photo courtesy of Tober's Blog)

The most famous American library cat,  Dewey Readmore Books (1988-2006), late of the Spencer (Iowa) Public Library, has millions of readers worldwide, thanks to several bestselling books about Dewey written by librarian Vicki Myron.

Library felines attract a following, which makes them a potent marketing force.  They are patron favorites who can promote library programs, events, resources, and activities as effectively, if not more so, than even local or regional human celebrities.  As a goodwill ambassador, Tober has no equal in Hoosier public libraries.  Tober's online postings are a must-read for his many blog followers.  "He" writes clever, imaginative articles that subtly advertise the library and its resources.

Of course, most public libraries do not have resident felines or canines, although reading programs such as Paws to Read have effectively joined patrons and pets to boost reading and literacy.  Many public libraries, however, have other types of resident animals, including birds, fish, rodents, lizards, amphibians, and others.  These animals, too, could "write" blogs or tweets designed to inform and entertain library users.  For instance, Morgan the Library Bunny, at Morgan County (Indiana) Public Library, blogs, tweets, and posts to Facebook.

Public libraries without resident animals may also invoke this critter marketing technique.  Cauli Le Chat, feline roving reporter at Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library, has her blog, even though she doesn't live inside the library (rather, she hangs around outside and lives in a nearby neighborhood).

In an age of declining revenues, libraries need innovative strategies to educate and inform the public about their community value.  Resident (or non-resident, affiliated) animals may lend their voices, faces, and personalities to charm patrons and advertise library initiatives.  Ask yourself:  Who would you rather visit at your public library?  Tober or a human library representative, such as, say, me?  Well, that's not a fair comparison--Tober clearly wins, paws-down--but I think we might all agree that library cats, dogs, rabbits, parrots, or other wildlife would be clear preferences.

Congratulations, Tober, on reaching the 80,000 blog readership mark.  I can only dream of having so many blog followers.

National Historic Preservation Month

May is National (and Indiana) Historic Preservation Month.  To learn more about efforts to preserve our historic buildings, places, cemeteries, and cultural resources, please visit the Indiana Department of Natural Resources website.

North Webster (Indiana) Community Public Library has an ingenious approach to spotlighting the importance of historical cemetery preservation.  Each year the library holds a cemetery tour, in which personators portray deceased residents by their gravestones.  It personalizes the cemetery walk and hammers home the realization that the memories of these folks' lives are a significant weave to the fabric of our collective historical experiences.  It is a wonderful way to promote family history and preservation of vital historic sites such as cemeteries.  Please enjoy these videos from the 2010 cemetery walk courtesy of North Webster Community Public Library.

You Could Look It Up

In 1941 James Thurber wrote an amusing short story called "You Could Look It Up," in which a three-foot tall adult was a pinch-hitter in a baseball game, just so he could be "walked" (because the pitcher couldn't fathom the strike zone in someone so diminuitive).  This ploy was actually used in 1951 by the St. Louis Browns, with Eddie Gaedel, at 3 feet, 7 inches, going to bat (once in his major league career) against the Detroit Tigers.

There are many such curious historical tidbits lost to conventional histories.  Ripley's Believe It or Not has been a long-standing staple because of readers' appetites for the obscure, unusual, and peculiar.  Indiana has its own version of Ripley's in Indiana's Believe It or Not, by Fred D. Cavinder (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990).  Interestingly, the book was republished under the title Amazing Tales From Indiana (1990), prompting me to suspect that Ripley's may have threatened a lawsuit (or perhaps filed one) for trademark infringement.  Whatever the title, the book is a gem of Hoosier historical minutiae.  Its success brought forth a sequel, More Amazing Tales from Indiana (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), in which Cavinder delighted readers with more surprising historical facts that people probably didn't learn when studying Indiana history in the third or fourth grades.

Cavinder, who was an Indianapolis Star reporter for over three decades and editor of the Star Magazine for 16 years, handles the stories deftly with an entertaining and engaging prose.  Each story is short and sweet (most are less than a page in length), and the scope and variety will easily hold your attention.

Let's test your knowledge of obscure Hoosier history:

• Which Indiana county has the highest elevation?

I once lived there, so I know the answer, as will many of my readers.  But, in case you haven't had time to search the Internet for the answer, Cavinder tells us:  Randolph County, from or near which originate many Hoosier streams and rivers.

• (Almost) President John W. Davis

Dr. John W. Davis, of Carlisle, Sullivan County, Indiana, was a compromise candidate at the 1852 Democratic national convention.  He lost to Franklin Pierce by a single vote.  Pierce, as the Democratic candidate, won the election and became the country's 14th president.  It could just as easily have been Davis, which would have given Indiana a second holder of that prestigious office (Benjamin Harrison was the Hoosier state's sole American president; William Henry Harrison, his grandfather, was from Virginia).

• Where (and when) could you find magnetic water in Indiana?

If you had lived during the 1870s, you might have visited Jim Bailey's homestead near Plymouth, Indiana.  His water well produced an estimated 500 gallons a minute, and metallic objects became magnetized when placed into the water.  A compass needle would be affected if held within two feet of a bucket of Bailey's "attractive water."

• Whose grave was in the center of a Hoosier highway?

Nancy Barnett, who settled with husband William in Johnson County, Indiana, around 1821, lived on three acres of land near Sugar Creek.  When she passed, she was buried, pursuant to her last wishes, overlooking the creek.  As the decades passed, highway construction forced removal of the cemetery's graves--except for Nancy's.  Descendants of Nancy Barnett fought governmental projects for many years, and Cavinder included a photograph in the 1990 edition of his book showing Nancy's grave, complete with an official state historical marker, sitting in the middle of County Road 400 South (what was once Hill's Camp Road).  The road separates into two tracks to accommodate the interment.

Cavinder delights readers with dozens of similar historical tales.  If you are interested in Hoosier history and enjoy the offbeat and peculiar, then look for Cavinder's books (the ones mentioned above, plus many, many others about Indiana) at your public or school library.