Category Archives: Williamson County
8th Annual Tennessee Poets Day
Celebrate the 8th Annual Tennessee Poets Day on April 27, 2024, with the Williamson County Public Library System.
(Franklin, TN) – Calling all poetry enthusiasts and aspiring poets! Join the fun at the 8th Annual Tennessee Poets Day event on April 27, 2024, organized by Poets from the Neighborhood (PFTN), and held at the Williamson County Public Library. This free, all-ages event is sure to inspire!
The event kicks off at 10 a.m. with a welcome from TN Poets Day founder, Dr. Veera Rajaratnam, followed by keynote speaker, Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson. Share your own poetic musings during open-mic sessions at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Hear lecturers: Tennessee Poet Laureate Margaret Vaughn, renowned poets Jeff Hardin, JoyPoet Veeraja R., David Harris, Annette Sisson, Henry L. Jones, and others. Enjoy song performances by award-winning singer and poet Kathryn Adams. The authors’ book signings at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. will be the perfect addition to your poetry experience.
Come by to gather inspiration, meet poets, and enjoy some literary entertainment!
The Williamson County Public Library System’s Main Library is located in downtown Franklin at 1314 Columbia Avenue. For more information about library programs or services, call (615) 595-1243 or visit wcpltn.org. Sign up to receive library events and announcements via email by visiting: https://bit.ly/WCPLSenews. The library can also be found on Facebook, Instagram, and X via @wcpltn.
System-Wide Solar Eclipse Viewing Party
Join us at any of our Library Branches on April 8 from 1-3 p.m. to view the best eclipse for the next 20 years.
A local NASA Solar System Ambassador will be presenting live at the Main Library in Franklin’s Children’s Department Activity Room plus broadcasting to all our library branches in Bethesda, College Grove, Fairview, Leiper’s Fork, and Nolensville.
After the presentation, families at each location will receive one pair of solar eclipse glasses* to share for viewing the most complete eclipse since 2017, weather permitting. If it’s cloudy, we will have the NASA live feed of the eclipse for everyone’s enjoyment.
*1 pair per attending family while supplies last
WCPLtn: Discover Learn Succeed
The Williamson County Public Library is located in downtown Franklin at 1314 Columbia Avenue.
All library programs are free and open to the public. Learn more about this event or other library programs and services by calling 615-595-1243, extension 1, or by visiting the library’s website at http://wcpltn.org. The library e-newsletter provides library news about programs like this and more. Sign up to receive it via email.
Photos, screenshots, and videos may be taken at library events and activities for library use and publicity. Anyone not wanting to have their photo taken should notify library staff at the time of the event or activity.
Williamson County Library Foundation Fundraiser
Love Our Libraries 2024
LOL is a community celebration to benefit the Williamson County Public Library system (Bethesda, College Grove, Nolensville, Franklin, Leiper’s Fork, and Fairview). With a goal to raise $40,000, the proceeds from this year’s event will fund reading programs, educational resources, and more. The 2024 event will include a moderated conversation with local author J.T. Ellison followed by a Q&A- all moderated by Jeremy Finley. VIP tickets include a meet and greet with the author and an autographed book.
This in-person gathering will take place on Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 1314 Columbia Avenue, Franklin, TN 37064.
5:30 pm: VIP entrance time for a meet and greet with author, J.T. Ellison. The author will personalize a copy of her book for you. Tickets: $100
6:00 pm: Entrance time for standard tickets. Pick up a drink and a snack and head to the rotunda. Tickets: $60
6:30 pm: Moderated author talk with J.T. Ellison, Q & A session, and a chance to win a live auction item of having naming rights for a character in J.T. Ellison’s upcoming book!
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm: Wander the library to the various food and drink stations and see what the Williamson County Library has to offer you!
Note: This event is for guests 21 and older.
About J.T. Ellison
J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 30 novels, and the EMMY® award winning co-host of the literary TV show A WORD ON WORDS. She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker. With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. Her titles have been optioned for television and published in twenty-eight countries.
About Jeremy Finley
Jeremy Finley is the EMMY and Edward Murrow-winning chief investigative reporter for WSMV4 Investigates. He is also a co-host of A Word on Words, and is an author of the well-reviewed “The Darkest Time of Night” and “The Dark Above.”
Supporting the WCLF is crucial as it provides essential funding for programs like summer reading to a current service population of 160,004 citizens. Public libraries play a central role in promoting literacy, education, and community engagement. Summer Reading programs, in particular, help prevent learning loss and strengthen literacy skills. By contributing to the foundation, we ensure that these vital programs and more can continue to thrive and grow; benefiting individuals of all ages and enriching our communities by fostering a culture of lifelong learning. When you invest in the WCLF, you invest in the future of our communities, ensuring that access to knowledge and the opportunities it brings remain accessible to all.
For more information, www.wilcolibraryfoundation.org
Williamson County Cold Weather Shelters
Pastor Kevin Riggs runs the Williamson County Homeless Alliance (WCHA). WCHA provides emergency shelter through local churches when the temps drop below 32 or above 92. In addition, during the weekday, WCHA offices are used as a day shelter where people can come and take a shower and wash their clothes and get on a computer. WCHA offices are located at 511 West Meade Blvd. Our homeless hotline number is 615-499-0071.
Starting Friday, January 12, and going on for several days. There will be an emergency shelter every night, at least until Saturday, January 20th. People needing shelter need to be at the WCHA community center at 233 Natchez Street at 5pm. We will eat dinner there and then go to the designated church for the night:
- On Friday (Jan.12), we will be at Historic Downtown Presbyterian Church.
- On Saturday (Jan. 13) we will be at First Presbyterian Church off of Franklin Road by the golf course.
- On Sunday (Jan. 14) we will be at Christ Community Church.
- On Monday and Tuesday (Jan. 15-16) we will be at Franklin First United Methodist Church.
- On Wednesday (Jan. 17) we will be at the Church at West Franklin on Hwy. 96 W.
- On Thursday (Jan. 18) we will be at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
- On Friday (Jan. 19) we will be back at Historic Downtown Presbyterian Church.
- On Saturday (Jan. 20) we will be back at First Presbyterian Church by the golf course.
If it snows significantly, things will change. If it snows, and driving is hazardous, the emergency shelter will be at our offices at 511 West Meade Blvd. until the roads clear up.
WCHA offices at 511 West Meade Blvd will be open during the day as a shelter/warming center.
Food For Fines 2024
Williamson County Public Library System is excited to announce its “Food for Fines” program, from December 20 to January 20. This initiative allows patrons to help their community while reducing library fines.
Library users may bring nonperishable food items to any of the six county library locations and in return, have $1 in fines forgiven for each donated item. People can clear library fines up to $10 with a 10 item limit and also support local families in need. The Library is donating the food to Graceworks, a local nonprofit, to help stock their food pantry.
We believe in fostering a sense of community and wanted to provide our patrons with a meaningful way to give back,” stated Leila Blakely Luckett, Patron Services Manager. “The Library Food for Fines program allows us to come together as a community to make a positive impact during the holiday season.
Donated items are being collected at all library branches during regular operating hours. Acceptable items include nonperishable food supplies such as canned goods, pasta, rice, and other packaged goods with unexpired dates.
WCPLtn: Discover Learn Succeed
The Williamson County Public Library System’s Main Branch is in downtown Franklin at 1314 Columbia Avenue. Library Branches are in Fairview, Bethesda, College Grove, Nolensville, and Leiper’s Fork. For more information about library programs or services, call 615-595-1243 or visit the Library’s website at http://wcpltn.org. Sign up to receive Library events and announcements weekly via email by visiting: . The Library is also online as @wcpltn on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, WordPress, and Twitter.
National Author’s Day
November 1st is National Author’s Day. It is a day to celebrate all authors—from the NYT bestsellers to the local independent authors publishing their first books. In the Special Collections Department, we love supporting our local authors.
The Local Author Collection began in 1979 when Mrs. Mary Govan Steele, the mother of William O. Steele, donated several books by authors from Williamson County to catalyze the collection. To build on her gracious donation, the Williamson County Council for the Written Word began identifying authors from the area and expanded this collection. The Council published its first directory of authors in 1993 with 130 names, and in 1998, that number reached over 250. The Council for the Written Word worked diligently to support authors with writer’s workshops, book launches, and receptions held at Landmark Booksellers in Downtown Franklin.
Around this time, community powerhouse and Library Director, Janice Keck joined the Council. With her membership, the Council began to integrate with the Williamson County Public Library. Initially, Keck merely advertised events at the library that might interest local authors from book talks to writing lectures. However, by 2010, Keck’s influence within the Council had grown. President Dave Stewart authorized for the Council to host its fall writer’s workshop at the library.
Other movers and shakers within the Council were Chairman Emeritus Bill Peach, Chairman Nancy Fletcher-Blume, President Kathy Rhodes, President Dave Stewart, Secretary Louise Colln, and Council Historian Eddie Moth.
The Williamson County Council for the Written Word was most active in the early 2000s, representing authors at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville as well as at the Main Street Festivals here in Franklin. In 2011, with the death of Janice Keck, vice president of the Council, the Council for the Written Word disbanded. At that point, the Williamson County Public Library took over the Local Author Index and management of the Local Author Collection.
Today, the Special Collections Department manages this collection and index of over 2000 works which is broken down into a circulating Local Author Collection and the archived Heritage Collection. To be a local author, you only have to be a Williamson County resident (or have a clear connection) and publish your book within the last three years while in residency in the county. Once you submit a donated and autographed copy of your work and complete the author biography form, you are all set to be included in our Local Author Index and join the collection.
In addition to keeping the Index, we also help local authors publish their work with Pressbooks, a professional publishing platform free to Williamson County Library cardholders. We provide one-on-one assistance to guide you through the self-publication process.
Every author is a local author somewhere. Today, on November 1st, the Special Collections Staff wants to celebrate and thank our authors that are local to us (and cheer on those that will become local authors here as well).
For more information about the Local Author Collection, click HERE
Celebrate Authors Day by reading some of the works of the authors that composed the Council for the Written Word:
Bill Peach—South Side of Boston (1995), The Eye of Reason (2012)
Kathy Hardy Rhodes—Pink Butterbeans (2005)
Louise Colln—War Trees (2016), Time Removed (2018)
Celebrating Our Successes: 20th Anniversary on Columbia Avenue
December 6, 2023 will be the twentieth anniversary of the Main Library in Franklin facility’s location at 1314 Columbia Ave. What started out as a small collection of books donated to the local American Legion Post at the Masonic Hall has become a library system encompassing five branches with a 50,225 square feet main location.
These humble beginnings officially began in 1937 when the American Legion and the Business and Professional Women’s Club joined forces and opened an experimental public library in a fifteen by twenty square foot room in the Post Hotel located on the Square. On June 29, the library opened to the public after several months of public fundraising within the community. Will Reese Mullens borrowed the first book.
The history of our library is a history of moves as the library consistently proved more successful than planners could imagine. In 1939, we moved to the Old Bank Building on the Public Square with a full-time librarian. However, not even ten years later, after World War II, the library rebranded itself as the War Memorial Public Library. With the rebranding came a new building. The library purchased the German House (211 Fair Street, now noted as 123 Fifth Ave N) and moved in January 1949. The library did not initially fill all of the rooms in the German House – several rooms were rented out to finance the mortgage on the building and renovations, but that reality would not last for long. While the library began opening branches at Fairview and Brentwood (no longer a branch associated with the Williamson County Public Library System), the library in Franklin was outgrowing its space. A new building was built to house the War Memorial Public Library in the 1970s at Five Points, 611 West Main Street.
West Main Street was this library’s home for almost thirty years. Across the street at the Five Points Post Office, the library had a vacation home in the form of the infantile Genealogy Department located in a back room in the building. Here, the library was incorporated as a county entity instead of a nonprofit in 1996. This marriage also came with a name change from the War Memorial Public Library to the Williamson County Public Library. Two years later, WCPL entered the digital age. The card catalog disappeared to be replaced with the OPAC (online public access catalog) system.
Staff worked to digitize the circulation system, and the Library Board of Trustees set out to begin searching for a new home for the ever-growing library. The new public library building fell in broader conversations about the growth of Williamson County and the revitalization of Downtown Franklin. Several sites were proposed: near the police station along Columbia Avenue, beside the Rec Center at Mack Hatcher and Hillsboro, and on Church Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue. However, in 2000, the old BGA campus south of the Carter House found itself in the running. It was on the Franklin Battlefield, but it had the appropriate size for future county projects in addition to the library. The decision was finalized in June 2001, and the county broke ground in May 2002.
The decision was finalized in June 2001, and the county broke ground in May 2002.
The new library building was the crowning achievement of the Library Director Janice Keck. Keck, who served as director from 1979 until her death in 2011. She worked diligently to bring the library system into the twenty-first century and to expand the library’s services across the county. Her work brought more branches into the library system—opening Nolensville, Leiper’s Fork, Bethesda and College Grove branches, and moving the Fairview Library. Keck connected the library to the community by bringing the Imagination Library, Passport to the World, and ALA exhibit programs to the library.
Columbia Avenue became the home of the Main Branch on December 6, 2003. This building saw a Smithsonian Exhibit in 2004 with the Key Ingredients: America by Food thanks to the Natchez Place organizers Pearl Bransford and Thelma Battle. The library hosted the Janice Keck Literary Awards in 2014, in honor of late director Janice Keck, to support and honor local authors in Williamson County. The Reference Department refurbished the computer center and opened a new Learning Center under Director Dolores Greenwald. This facility saw the shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic that had us all operating from home, the Children’s and Reference Department offering virtual story times and programs plus the Circulation Department implementing a Holds-To-Go library service. After the pandemic, the new Director, Jessica Jeffers came aboard in September 2022 and continues to move the library forward with outreach initiatives and new services such as the Children’s Department’s new Discover, Learn, Play Room.
As we gather on September 28th to celebrate these twenty years on Columbia Avenue, we honor the support that keeps our books circulating, our collections growing, and our library system and services expanding. Thank you for twenty years here, and here’s to many more serving the literary and civic needs of ‘America’s Greatest County.’
20th Anniversary Celebration
Join the Library Board of Trustees as we recognize serving this community from this building for 20 years!
The anniversary celebration will be in the second floor rotunda on Thursday, September 28, from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson will make a special proclamation at 4 p.m. Refreshments will be served. This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Williamson County Public Library.
WCPLtn: Discover Learn Succeed
The Williamson County Public Library is located in downtown Franklin at 1314 Columbia Avenue.
All library programs are free and open to the public. Learn more about this event or other library programs and services by calling 615-595-1243, extension 1, or by visiting the library’s website at http://wcpltn.org. The library e-newsletter provides library news about programs like this and more. Sign up to receive it via email.
Photos, screenshots, and videos may be taken at library events and activities for library use and publicity. Anyone not wanting to have their photo taken should notify library staff at the time of the event or activity.
2023 “I Voted” Sticker Design Contest
Franklin Tomorrow in partnership with the City of Franklin and its Public Arts Commission is excited to announce its inaugural “I Voted” sticker design contest. Residents of Williamson County can participate by creating an original design for “I Voted” stickers that will be given to voters in Franklin in the October 2023 election.
“I Voted” stickers are an opportunity for citizens to show their civic pride after voting. In addition to the direct engagement with the contests from participants and public voting on the entries, these contests will also bring attention to other aspects of election administration, such as poll workers, voting options, and more.
Participants may pick up materials for their artwork at the Williamson County Public Library.
HOW TO ENTER:
- Eligible participants must acknowledge and agree to the official rules and guidelines before submitting their design.
Examples of “I Voted” design stickers from across the world. (USEAC website)
- Designs can be submitted online or via mail.
- DIGITALLY: Fill out the appropriate design entry form at the bottom of the Franklin Tomorrow website based on age (grade K-12 or adult).
- BY MAIL: Download this form and mail in your submission.
- One entry per participant.
Official Rules and Guidelines:
- All entries must consist entirely of the artist’s original, non-copyright artwork and may not include photographs or trademarked images.
- Design submissions and/or creations cannot use any artificial intelligence (AI) generated artwork.
- All entries should be non-partisan and not reference any candidate, political party, or political issue.
- Participants must be a resident of Williamson County, TN.
- Franklin Tomorrow reserves the right to disqualify any entry that is determined to contain inappropriate images, profanity, nudity, or violates the contest rules.
- By entering the contest, the artist is allowing the Franklin Tomorrow, City of Franklin and its Public Arts Commission, and the Williamson County Board of Elections to use, reproduce, edit, and/or publish in any medium or media, their submission in whole or in part, for any non-commercial purpose in perpetuity.
- Sticker is to be used for 2023 election held in Williamson County, TN.
DESIGN REQUIREMENTS:
- The phrase “I Voted” must be included in the design.
- May be digital or hard copy.
- Must be an original design.
- Artwork must be non-partisan (cannot favor a political party or candidate).
- May not include any copyright images.
- Artwork should be limited to 4 colors or less.
- Must be circular and limited to a 4-inch diameter sticker.
- Finalized sticker will be approximately 2 inches in diameter.
CONTEST PERIOD:
- Submit your designs beginning June 17, 2023. The contest deadline will be 5:00 PM, July 26, 2023.
- Franklin Tomorrow, the City of Franklin and its Public Arts Commission will put together a panel to review submissions and select up to five finalists.
- The winner will be determined by public online vote in consultation with the Williamson County Election Commission guidelines. Voting will be open from 12:00 PM (Noon) August 7, 2023 through 5:00 PM, August 21, 2023.
- Winning sticker will be announced on August 23, 2023.
Holiday Closing – Independence Day 2023
The Main Library and all WCPLS Branches will be closed in observance of Independence Day on July 4, 2023.
Don’t forget to pack your Williamson County Public Library card for your Fourth of July holiday! Library card holders can access our digital resources via the library website. The e-Library has a variety of items available online. We have books, audios, movies, graphic novels and comic books, music, magazines, and databases for the whole family to enjoy.
Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!
Helpful Holiday websites:
Grilling safety tips:
Safe use of fireworks safety tips
Fourth of July fireworks shows in Franklin, Brentwood, Williamson (tennessean.com)
Watch the Nashville Fireworks online: https://www.visitmusiccity.com/july4th
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