Library invites Barren County residents to help ‘unearth’ local stories
Once completed, the journals will be added to the library’s local authors section, located near its Kentucky collection downstairs.
GLASGOW, Ky. — For the next two months, a community journal will be available at the Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library, inviting residents to share personal stories as part of an effort to preserve local history and mark the nation’s 250th birthday.
Amy Tollison, adult services manager at the library, said the project grew out of this year’s summer reading theme, “Unearth a Story,” which inspired staff to dig into local experiences and memories.
“I bought a box of composition journals like you would use in school,” she said. “On the first page of the journal will be a prompt that they can respond to in that journal. And there will be multiple journals, each with a different prompt to respond to.”
Once completed, the journals will be added to the library’s local authors section, located near its Kentucky collection downstairs.
“We would love to add to that, and these journals will go there, authored by anybody in the community that would like to give a response in those journals,” she said.
The journals are available near the circulation desk as patrons enter the library.
The effort is also supported by a Kentucky Humanities grant through Our American Story: Kentucky’s Voices, part of a statewide initiative encouraging communities to share local traditions and experiences as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary.
That program is connected to the national initiative By the People: Conversations Beyond 250, developed by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
The project is built around four themes — Remembering Together, Growing Together, Harmonizing Together and Moving Together — aimed at exploring Kentucky’s past, present and future.
Tollison said she selected “Growing Together” when applying for the grant, pointing to Barren County’s agricultural roots. Her prompts, she said, are drawn directly from the program’s discussion guide.
The journal project will run through July 31 at the Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library, located at 1530 S. Green St. in Glasgow.
