Ada Public Library

By Monty Siekerman
It's the Ada Public Library centennial, so does that mean you should read a hundred books in celebration?

Nope, the library has a plan for patrons to read one book from each of the last decades. Those who accomplish the feat are eligible for a $25 Amazon gift card drawing.

Rhett Grant, new Ada Public Library director, shows his wife Jenny some of the historical documents describing the first 100 years of the library.  

He gave a talk on Saturday morning about the library's history, although he just came to town from a suburb of Atlanta just a few weeks ago.

History is one of his areas of interest, so although he is new to the community he has already learned a lot about where he works.

The Ada Icon is posting his history of the library in three parts this week. 

By Rhett Grant, Library Director
In 1953, the Ada Public Library, moved to its current location. The first patron to check out a book in the new building was two-year old Deborah Hull.

15,000 volumes were moved to the new building with the help of volunteers, such as Professors J.B. Ranny and L.E. Shaeffer; Fred Runser, Butch LaRue and Willis Brown. 

Trucks were supplied by Earl’s Hardware and the Gamble store. The sidewalk was completed by local contractor Grover McElroy. Other volunteer activities included preparing books for classification and stenciling classification numbers on the outside covers of books.  

By Monty Siekerman
Children love animals, all kinds, and whenever a group in Ada puts on an animal show the children attend in great numbers as was evident this week when the Ada Public Library invited Exotic Zoo to Ada.

Here, Javon Stacks passes around a Flemish Giant Rabbit for youngsters to touch gently.

This breed of domesticated rabbit can weigh more than 20 pounds. The Exotic Zoo is located near Detroit. Most animals there were born on the premises.