Library lights the future

A hundred years ago your community probably didn't have a public library, but if you poke around in your town's history you'll probably find out that there was a community group, most likely a women's club, who had a circulating library. That is going on right now in Marblehead, Ohio, with a vigorous town committee that is buying the old 1914 quarry hospital building in the middle of downtown Marblehead to renovate it into a library/community resource center that will be the jewel of the Marblehead Peninsula.

We own a home up there, and several times I've donated books to the library's bookstore, Ex-Libris, located in the Kukay building [raises money through donated books]. The library committee has some gift ideas for Christmas--books about the area. I have a lot of them already--many authored by locals. The most recent is "My Sweetest Libbie" by Jean Gora, which tells the story of life in Put-in-Bay, Lakeside and Detroit circa 1886 and 1887 through the love letters of Libbie Magie and Alex Bruce (no relation). Web site is www.marpenlib.org and they've just issued a newsletter, MPLC Connection, which will probably end up on my premiere issue blog.