This week we remember a tremendous member of our Bossier Parish Library Family: Vickie Hardin. On Thursday, October 4th she passed away, and still words are hard to come by as I try my best to honor someone to whom I owe a great debt. Many of you began reading our library column when Vickie started writing it, and now I will use it in an attempt to honor her.
Vickie spent 18 years with us at the library, starting part-time in our History Center and working her way up to full-time while earning her Bachelor’s Degree and then Masters in Library and Information Science; no easy feat, let me say, especially when your oldest child has just stared college and your youngest is still in high school. She became BPL’s first Outreach Specialist, a role that she embraced fully and used to create partnerships with our community that we still benefit from today. It is through this position that also she developed our homebound services, originated this weekly column, and planted the seeds for what would blossom into our Community Engagement Department which I am lucky enough to be a member of today.
She was mentor and friend to us all; always had a spare moment to listen when you needed an ear and a kind word (or a push in the right direction). She guided me when I joined this department, and began taking on many of her duties as she prepared for retirement. I am grateful every day for all that she taught me, and for the time I got to spend with her.
We celebrate her life and are thankful for the gift we were given in being allowed to know such a special lady. Our sorrow and joy are intertwined in our memories of her. What a beautiful person, and what big shoes she left for us to fill. Thank you for the lessons, Vickie, we’ll do our best to make you proud.
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” -Winnie the Pooh
Coming Up:
Aulds 742-2337
Wed., Oct. 24 @ 4:00p.m. – LEGO Club, ages 6-12
Benton 965-2751
Thur., Oct. 25 @ 4:00p.m. – Hotel Transylvania Monster Party, all ages
Bossier Central 746-1693
Sat., Oct. 27 @ 10:00a.m. – Lawyers in Libraries, ages 18 and up
East 80 949-2665
CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS – Thank you again for bearing with us, we hope you’re pleased with the end results!
Haughton 949-0196
Tues., Oct. 23 @ 11:30a.m. – Craft Hour, ages 18 and up
History Center 746-7717
Mon., Oct. 22 – Tues., Oct 30 – Early Voting in the History Center’s Meeting Room
Plain Dealing 326-4233
Mon., Oct. 22 @ 3:30p.m. – National Color Day Crafting, ages 6-12
Tooke 987-3915
Sat., Oct. 20 @ 12:00p.m. – Fall Carnival, all ages
New Materials:
•The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson & Eugene Yelchin (YA Fiction; Book)
•Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 by Ryan H. Walsh (Non-Fiction; Book)
•An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris (Fiction; Book, Audiobook)
•Into the Raging Storm: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of the El Faro by Rachel Slade (Non-Fiction; Book)
•A Little Piece of Light by Donna Hylton with Kristine Gasbarre (Autobiography; Book)
• MacGyver: Season 2 starring Lucas Till & George Eads (DVD)
•On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden (YA Graphic Novel; Book)
•Swing by Kwami Alexander with Mary Rand Hess (YA Fiction; Book)
•Unstoppable Moses by Tyler James (YA Fiction; Book)
•War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwell (Fiction; Book)
