Hundreds Protest
Florida State Library Move
Some 400 librarians, historians, and patrons joined hands and encircled the R. A. Gray building in Tallahassee March 4 to protest Gov. Jeb Bush’s proposal to move the circulating collection of the State Library of Florida some 400 miles away to Nova Southeastern University. The crowd had moved to the building, home to the state archives and museum as well as the library, in the afternoon after staging a demonstration in the Capitol building during Bush’s “State of the State” speech to the legislature, the Orlando Sentinel reported March 5.
Secretary of State Glenda Hood greeted the protesters with a smile as she entered the building, where she has set up a new office to show her support for the move. Hood told reporters that opponents of the move had been swayed by “misinformation” spread by former State Librarian Barratt Wilkins and others, but she was drowned out by chants of “Save our library” and “Send Bush to Nova.”
The protesters included representatives of the Florida Library Association, the Florida Historical Society, and the Florida Genealogical Society. Some carried signs citing Florida statutes 257.01 and 257.04 that require the state library to be “located at the capital” and that all books and documents given to the state are to be placed in the state library for public use.
Pam Cooper, genealogy librarian at the Indian River County Main Library in Vero Beach, told American Libraries that 12 state senators and 25 representatives “squarely support” keeping the library in place, and that many had given the protesters a “thumbs up” as they filed in to hear Bush’s speech that morning.
Rep. Leslie Waters (R-Seminole) said in the March 6 Tallahassee Democrat that the House Commerce Committee was drafting a bill to move only the circulating collection to Nova and retain the archives and historic Florida Collection in Tallahassee.
Posted March 10, 2003.
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