The Spring Hill Public Library is celebrating its 40th year of being a part of the Spring Hill community and is inviting the public to celebrate this milestone at an Open House on Saturday, May 2, 2015, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 
With all the programs and patrons that use the Spring Hill Library today, it’s hard to imagine it all began with one young woman, Pat Selle, taking it upon herself to purchase and renovate the old two-room Freedman’s School on McLemore Ave in 1975.
Five years later, all the books were loaded up and moved onto a few shelves in the Kinnard Drug Store building on Main Street in 1980 and it was renamed the “Spring Hill Branch of the Maury County Library System.”
In 1992, it moved south to the former First Farmer’s and Merchant’s Bank on Main Street, now Jimmy’s Cleaners. At that location it was renamed the “Spring Hill Public Library,” an independent city library, as patron growth increased from both Williamson and Maury counties.
In 2002, the City of Spring Hill purchased Saturn’s 7,800 square foot “Center for Discovery” daycare building at the Library’s present location, 144 Kedron Parkway. It underwent an expansion the following year, adding 10,000 square feet. Over its forty-year lifespan, the Spring Hill Library has grown out of demand and a tremendous amount of volunteer effort. Besides hundreds of volunteers shelving and helping with programs, the consistent support of those that have been Friends of the Library and Board of Trustee members has kept the Library vibrant.
Initially run by volunteers, Gail Adkins is the fourth paid Head Librarian in the Library’s history, and her mother, Mary Fox Brown, was the first. Alan Couch, the current Director, says his passion is to make the Spring Hill Library all the more a community resource. “I hope we keep growing and become the go-to place for folks to meet up with others. Of course we always want to be a place of reading and learning but more and more we’re becoming the place the community looks to for life-enriching programs.”
On average each month there are 180 new library cards issued, 10,000 visitors, and 27,000 items checked out. Currently there are 34,000 patrons on record, about half from each of the city’s counties, Williamson and Maury.
Everything at the Library is free, of course, and available to all citizens. If you haven’t been to the Spring Hill Library yet, you’ll be interested to know they had 600 programs last year for adults, teens, and children. They offer for check out twenty 4G Wi-Fi Hotspots, 6,000 DVDs, and an up-to-date and ever-growing collection of popular and classic books and audiobooks and movies.
As plans progress for a 5th library location to meet Spring Hill’s growing and diverse community needs, the 40th Anniversary Open House on Saturday morning, May 2, is a great opportunity to walk down memory lane and reflect on how one woman, living in a small farming town, took the initiative to start a small library for her community. And now, thanks to her hard work and that of hundreds of citizens since 1975, this vibrant city — home to professionals, blue-collar workers, young families, and retirees — enjoys a busy library and community center.
For more information about the Spring Hill Library, go to www.springhilllibrary.org or call 931/486-2932.
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