Author's Success: Another Dream Fulfilled Through the Library
August 24, 2012 — Thank you, Perry Posey, we couldn’t have said it better.
The inspiring story of your journey to becoming a writer, as told in the Aug. 23 News-Leader, showed how the library is not only an information source, but a transformational force.
For readers who missed it, Posey was in his 70s when realized he needed to learn how to type. He took a free class at the library district’s computer skills training center, the Edge Community Technology Center inside the Midtown Carnegie Branch Library.
Then he used his new skill to produce five manuscripts. He doesn’t own a computer, so he typed the manuscripts on a public computer at the Library Station. When he needed help formatting his work, library staff showed him how.
At 76, Posey has self-published his first book, “Buffalo Gal,” the fulfillment of a life-long dream. A second manuscript is with an editor now.
Posey dedicated his book to the library staff and the Missouri Career Center, which also helped him. Library Station staff member Tysha Shay accepts his thanks, but adds that staff members were “just doing their job.” And that’s true.
To customize a phrase first offered by a national library expert: “The Springfield-Greene County Library District is not in the library business, it’s in the Greene County business.” The Library exists to help build the community and its people.
Looking for a new skill that could put you on a path you’ve always wanted to take? You could start where Posey did, at the Edge Community Technology Center.
Training coordinator Jazy Mihalik says she’s seeing a new kind of student at the Edge. This student is taking a class to get to a greater goal: build a Web page, organize digital photographs, sell stuff on E-bay. Many want to master their new technology with a self-paced instructional software on iPad tips and tricks, learn 3D and animation or learn to take better photographs.
“We’re also getting baby boomers who are retiring and getting ready to do all those things they wanted to do, and they’re taking a class so they can finally do it,” Jazy says.
Like Posey, you can fulfill a dream, or you just learn to type, at the Edge. For a complete list of classes call the Edge at 837-5011 or visit thelibrary.org/edge.
Kathleen O’Dell is community relations director for the Springfield-Greene County Library District. She can be reached at kathleeno@thelibrary.org.