| James Weldon Johnson Community Library | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 27°45′09″N82°38′58″W / 27.75251°N 82.64946°W | |
| Location | 1059 18th Ave. South St. Petersburg, FL 33705 |
| Branch of | St. Petersburg Library System |
| Other information | |
| Website | splibraries |
The James Weldon Johnson Community Library is a public library located in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is a branch of the St. Petersburg Library System, which services a large area in southern Pinellas County, Florida.
James Weldon Johnson Community Library is a member of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative and the St. Petersburg Library System. Library patrons may borrow books, CDs, DVDs, audiobooks, magazines and request items be put on hold from libraries throughout Pinellas County. In addition, Interlibrary loan requests are available to patrons on the library's website or in person.
Free Wi-Fi is available, as well as public computers. Printing, copying, scanning and fax service is available for a small charge. Remote printing is currently not available at this time within the Saint Petersburg Library System.
Prior to the President Barack Obama Main Library renovations, there were two meeting rooms available for library patrons to reserve. Patrons could apply for meeting room access on the library website. Meeting room use is limited to non-profit organizations engaging in library related activities or in educational, cultural, intellectual, charitable, and/or community related activities. [1]
As of March 24, 2023 these rooms are currently unavailable to the public because they are used for staffing offices.
As of March 2016, the library has a seed library where patrons can use their library card to check out various vegetable and plant seeds. [2]
The James Weldon Johnson Community Library has a makerspace which was officially unveiled to the public at the 2023 Literacy Festival. The makerspace contains technology, equipment, and software such as sewing machines, Raspberry pi computers, microphones, and the Adobe Creative Suite.
Programs for adults, teens, and children are offered at the library. The regular programs currently include weekly story times, the S.T.R.E.A.M. Club for Grades 3-5, Dance, Baby, Dance! for infants up to 18 months with a caregiver, and Teen gaming. There are also special events that include various guest speakers. [3]
A computer literacy course is also available for patrons at the South Community Library within the St. Petersburg Library System.
James Weldon Johnson Community Library is named after James Weldon Johnson, native Floridian author, educator, civil rights activist, head of the NAACP.
His song "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is considered by many to be the "Negro National Anthem." [4]
The history of James Weldon Johnson Community Library is part of African American history in St. Petersburg.
Andrew Carnegie intended for the library he funded in St. Petersburg to be racially integrated when it opened in 1915, but the city refused black residents access to the library. In 1944, the city began allowing blacks into only the basement of the Carnegie library. Mrs. S.M. Carter, wife of a pastor, formed an interracial committee and lobbied the city for funds to open a black library. [5]
On April 1, 1947 the James Weldon Johnson Library opened in a leased space on 1035 Third Ave. S. The original location was a 1,025 square foot room on the ground floor of the Masonic Lodge. It served the community at the Third Avenue location until 1979, when it was closed because of the city’s urban redevelopment project, which displaced hundreds of black residents from the Gas Plant area. [6]
In 1981, the James Weldon Branch reopened in the newly built Enoch Davis Center at 1111 18th Ave. S. Of the city’s five public libraries, the Johnson branch was the only one housed within the confines of another building. [7] In 1990, there were rumors that the library was going to be closed due to funding cuts. [8] Community leaders formed the James Weldon Johnson Friends of the Library, Inc. and circulated a successful petition to save the library. In the summer of 2002, the Johnson Branch Library moved into its current location at 1059 18th Ave. S, adjacent to the Enoch Davis Center. The $2.7 million, 14,500-square-foot building housing about 40,000 volumes was the materialization of the dream of the Enoch Davis Expansion Task Force. [9] The current building was designed by Canerday, Belfsky + Arroyo Architects. [10]
The Friends continue to support the library and host the Annual James Weldon Johnson Community Library Literacy Festival each March.
Pinellas County is a county located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 959,107, which makes it the seventh-most populous county in the state. It is also the most densely populated county in Florida, with 3,491 residents per square mile. The county is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area. Clearwater is the county seat. St. Petersburg is the largest city in the county, as well as the largest city in Florida that is not a county seat.
Clearwater is a city and the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa and north of St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 117,292. It is the smallest of the three principal cities in the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metropolitan area, most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay area.
Dunedin is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Dunedin is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area and is the fifth largest city in Pinellas County. The population was 36,068 as of the 2020 census.
Gulfport is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, bordering St. Petersburg, South Pasadena, and Boca Ciega Bay. The population of Gulfport was 11,783 at the 2020 census. Gulfport is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metropolitan statistical area.
Pinellas Park is a city located in central Pinellas County, United States. The population was 53,093 at the 2020 census. The city is the fourth largest city in Pinellas County. The City of Pinellas Park was incorporated in 1914. It is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay Area.
James Weldon Johnson was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. In 1920, he was chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer. He served in that position from 1920 to 1930. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novel and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of Black culture. He wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing", which later became known as the Black National Anthem, the music being written by his younger brother, composer J. Rosamond Johnson.
St. Petersburg College (SPC) is a public college in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and one of the institutions in the system designated a "state college," as it offers a greater number of bachelor's degrees than traditional community colleges focused on associate degrees. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and enrolled about 29,000 students in the fall of 2018.
The Winnipeg Public Library is a public library system in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Branches provide programming for children, teens, and adults. The Library also contains an Outreach Department which works with the community, as well as people who cannot visit the library directly. Outreach also promotes the library to communities that are under represented in the library.
The Mirror Lake Community Library is a Carnegie library built in 1915 in Beaux-Arts style. It was one of ten Florida Carnegie libraries to receive grants awarded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1901 to 1917. Steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie provided funding for more than 3,000 Carnegie libraries in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The library is significant to the city's history as the first permanent home of the public library system and embodies the transformation of the city in the second decade of the twentieth century from a pioneer village to a city with viable cultural institutions.
The Jacksonville Public Library is the public library system of Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It primarily serves Jacksonville and Duval County merged areas, and is also used by the neighboring Baker, Nassau, Clay, and St. Johns counties. It is one of the largest library systems in Florida, with a collection of over three million items. A division of the city government, the library has the third largest group of city employees, after the city's fire department and sheriff's office. There are twenty branches and a main library in the system.
Loudoun County Public Library (LCPL), with more than 200 employees, both professional and paraprofessional, serves the citizens of Loudoun County, Virginia. There are 10 physical branches, plus Outreach Services, which delivers books and other resources to the disabled, elderly and homebound.
Markham Public Library (MPL) is a library system operated by the municipal government of the City of Markham in Canada. There are eight branches in the city, serving about 250,000 residents in Markham. The libraries are managed by the Administration Centre, located at 6031 Highway 7.
The Largo Public Library is a public library located in Largo, Florida, United States. Located next to Largo Central Park, it serves a community of over 75,000 residents.
The Tampa–Hillsborough County Public Library System (THPL) is a public library system based in Hillsborough County, Florida. THPL is part of two larger library networks, the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, and the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative which includes Temple Terrace Public Library in Temple Terrace, Florida, and Bruton Memorial Library in Plant City, Florida. There are 33 branches of the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative. Services provided by the THPL include internet access, public meeting room spaces, interlibrary loans, a Bookmobile, a Cybermobile for Spanish speakers, technology classes, adult literacy programs, and downloadable eBooks. Drive-thru windows for returns and hold pick-ups are located at the Jimmie B. Keel and the Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Libraries. In 2017, THPL introduced the new HAAL Pass, which gives access to certain library resources to all students in the Hillsborough County Public Schools System. Students use their student ID number to use different online databases, borrow up to three physical items and read eBooks. The Tampa–Hillsborough County Public Library System is also a part of Hillsborough County government. On January 1, 2018, the library cooperative became one of the largest in the country to go fine free. Overdue fees for borrowed materials were eliminated with the implementation of the "Just Bring It Back" initiative. In 2019 the cooperative received the FLA Library of the Year Award. Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library was recognized for its community focused initiatives as it "reorganized its staffing model and eliminated overdue fines, yielding $1 million in savings while increasing access to library resources and expanding opportunities for community engagement through unique, scalable programs."
Enoch Douglas Davis (1908—1985) was an American reverend, author and civil rights activist who spent the majority of his life in the town of St. Petersburg, Florida. A native from Burke County, Georgia, his family moved to St. Petersburg in 1925, and he began his religious career when he gave his first sermon in 1930 at Bethel Community Baptist Church, which was then known as Second Bethel; he was made the church's official pastor two years later. At the time of his retirement in 1984, he had served as reverend for Bethel Community for over 50 years, making him at the time the longest-serving pastor in the history of St. Petersburg. As an author, his works include Toward the Promised Land and his autobiography, On The Bethel Trail.
Mercy Hospital was a hospital located at 1344 22nd Street South in the city of St. Petersburg, Florida. The hospital was the only primary care facility for the African-American community of St. Petersburg from 1923 to 1966. It was designed by the local architect Henry Taylor, which has also designed other important structures such as the City Comfort Station, the Vinoy Park Hotel and the Jungle Country Club Hotel. It was constructed by Edgar Weeks in July 1923. Mercy Hospital not only served as a medical facility but also as a site for protesting against the segregation of the other hospitals in the city during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1994, it was declared a Historic Place. The city purchased the facility in 1998 due to a lack of redevelopment and deterioration.*change site Then the city leased the facility to Community Health Centers of Pinellas, Inc., which also runs the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Medical Center.
A library makerspace, also named Hackerspace or Hacklab, is an area and/or service that offers library patrons an opportunity to create intellectual and physical materials using resources such as computers, 3-D printers, audio and video capture and editing tools, and traditional arts and crafts supplies. In the field of library science, makerspaces are classified as a type of library service offered by librarians to patrons.
The St. Petersburg Library System is a free public library system for residents of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, located in Pinellas County. The St. Petersburg Library System is part of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative and consists of 7 branch locations.
The Clearwater Public Library System (CPLS) is a public library system with five branches that provides service to the citizens of Clearwater, Florida and Pinellas County. The library system was founded in 1911. It is a member of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative.
The North Greenwood Library is a public library that is part of the Clearwater Library System which, in turn, is part of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative. Located at 905 N Martin Luther King Jr. Ave, its current Branch Manager is Christa Smith.
