Find Your Artistic Inspiration at The Wittliff Collections

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This is the first in a series of articles and videos showcasing exceptional libraries across Texas.

Library name: The Wittliff Collections, Texas State University

Location: The 7th floor of the Albert B. Alkek Library on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas

Hours: Monday – Friday: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday: 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Admission is free. Plan your visit.

Learn more: Watch our video for an in-depth look at the Wittliff.

What makes this library special: The Wittliff Collections are both an archive and a museum. The Collections celebrate the cultural heritage of Texas, the Southwest and Mexico, in nine galleries. It includes material related to literature, writing, photography, music, TV and film. Highlights include material from the King of the Hill TV series, a music archive of Texas icon Willie Nelson, treasures of Mexican photography, and much more.

What to look for as a first-time visitor: People come from all over the world to view the Wittliff’s Lonesome Dove Collection. It’s the production archives of the 1989 American Western epic TV miniseries, adapted from the 1985 novel by Larry McMurtry. You can view costumes, scripts, props and images, all in excellent condition.

“We always have the Lonesome Dove archive on display because it’s so popular,” said David Coleman, Director of The Wittliff Collections. “We have generations of people coming here for that, visitors who come from many different countries. Germans love their cowboys, Japanese love their cowboys, the myth of the cowboy is ever-present and popular.”

The Collections also include items from hundreds of musicians, including an iconic hat from Stevie Ray Vaughan. Notably, it is the home for the literary archive of Cormac McCarthy, who is widely regarded as one of the great American novelists (All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian, The Road and more.)

“Cormac McCarthy scholars from many countries come here to do research for books, articles, presentations and films,” said Katie Salzmann, Lead Archivist for The Wittliff Collections. “And the Willie Nelson series that was just done (the 2023 documentary Willie Nelson & Family, on Paramount +) included a lot of our material from here.”

History of this library: The collections began as the Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University in 1986, when founders Bill and Sally Wittliff donated the papers from author and folklorist J. Frank Dobie, which included diaries, journals, manuscripts and memorabilia.

“We were founded as a place where young creatives could get inspired,” Coleman said. “Bill was a visionary, but he had also begun as a frustrated writer. He wanted to show young people that even great masters struggle with putting a paragraph together or putting a story together. It doesn’t just pour out of the heavens, it takes work.” The collections started off with writing, and then expanded into photography, music, TV and film.

“Bill was an amazing person and would always tell young people, or even older people, who had the ‘itch to create but not yet the courage,’ to start creating. Just start. The more you do it, the better it will become,” Coleman said.

When you see these world-class writers coming from the places that you know, world-class music that comes out of your hometown, it’s inspiring to see people make art from the place that you live.

– Steve Davis, literary curator (retired)

Audience for this library: In addition to professional scholars conducting research, The Wittliff Collections are an oft-used resource for Texas State University faculty and students. The Wittliff has partnerships with The Center for Texas Music History, the MFA in Creative Writing program and The Center for the Study of the Southwest, all located at Texas State. “We are very open to working with faculty, and getting students exposed to primary sources – someone’s original letters or notes – can really be a cool experience for people,” Coleman said.

Worth noting: The Spirit of San Antonio exhibit, on display at The Wittliff until May 16, 2025, celebrates the writers and musicians of San Antonio. “When you see these world-class writers coming from the places that you know, world-class music that comes out of your hometown, it’s inspiring to see people make art from the place that you live,” said Steve Davis, the longtime Literary Curator at The Wittliff Collections who recently retired after 30+ years at the library. Items in the display include materials from author Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories), as well as items from Percy Jackson & the Olympians series author Rick Riordan, and selections from the extraordinary Ramon Hernández Tejano Music Collection. The latter includes photographs and recordings from Selena, Flaco Jiménez and more.

And one last thing: “I would say if you haven’t been to the Wittliff, it can take a while to get here and park, but I tell you, it’s worth it,” Coleman said. “Once people walk through the doors, they are really overwhelmed by the beauty of our spaces – we have nine galleries – it’s a beautiful, warm, inviting space where you can discover amazing treasures from the cultures of the Southwest.”

  • Written by Michele Chan Santos, Coordinator, Texas Center for the Book

Creating a Reading Culture with the Texas Bluebonnet Award

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For 44 years, “Read Five: Then Decide” empowers elementary students to vote

By Michele Chan Santos

Coordinator, Texas Center for the Book

The Texas Bluebonnet Award (TBA) is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the United States and one of the only awards where the winning book is selected by children.

Each year, 20 books are chosen for the Texas Bluebonnet Award List. Schools and libraries around the state participate in the program, encouraging students to read a minimum of five books from the list. Last year, for example, more than 63,000 students voted, all from third through sixth grade. More than 1,100 schools, public libraries and homeschool groups participated. The TBA program is run by the Texas Library Association. The winning author (and illustrator, if a picture book is selected) are honored at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference every spring.

What makes TBA so special, and why has it survived—and thrived—over the decades? We spoke to Terri Harkey, Coordinator of the TBA program, to find out.

History of TBA

In the late 1970s, Dr. Janelle Paris, a professor in the Library Science Department at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, and Pat Wright, a librarian in Cypress Fairbanks ISD in Houston, launched an effort to create a state award for children’s literature, and the TBA was born. The first TBA winner was Ramona and Her Father, by Beverly Cleary, in 1981. (Here is the full list of winning titles, which includes books by Judy Blume, Kate DiCamillo and many other wonderful authors.)

How has the TBA program managed to stay successful and relevant through the years?

“I think the variety of genres that we try to incorporate in each list,” Harkey said, “has helped it stay meaningful. It’s not just picture books, it’s not just chapter books, it’s not just graphic novels—it’s all of those and more, a wide variety, and it encourages kids to read. We include many genres and then the quality of the books is always high.”

For the 2025-2026 list, for example, the TBA committee of librarians evaluated more than 1,000 books. “We really try to pick books that we feel kids will like and enjoy reading,” Harkey said.

The second key to TBA’s long success is student involvement, she said.

Every year at the Texas Book Festival, students announce the books selected for the list; then students across the state vote for their favorite book; the winner is announced in February, and in April, student presenters at the TLA Conference present the award to the winning author.

As a school librarian, you have to figure out a way to create a reading culture, because as a librarian that, to me, is your responsibility.

Terri harkey, texas bluebonnet award coordinator

How TBA benefits students and schools

Harkey is a retired librarian and instructional technology educator who worked in Texas schools for more than 25 years. She’s seen firsthand how participating in TBA built a reading culture at the schools where she was the lead librarian.

Each fall, the TBA list for the following school year is released (for example, in November 2024 the list for 2025-2026 was released.) This gives schools and students more than a year to read the books before voting by the January deadline for their favorites.  

“As a school librarian, you have to figure out a way to create a reading culture, because as a librarian that, to me, is your responsibility,” Harkey said. “Whether you’re using the Bluebonnet list, or one of the other TLA lists, you are creating a community by reading the same books.”

At her schools, Harkey created a “Bluebonnet Superstar List,” a posted list on the library door naming all the students who had read at least five books from the list. (The TBA program slogan is “Read Five: Then Decide” — there are 20 books on the list, but students need only to read five to be able to vote.) Students were highly motivated to read the books so they could be included, she said.

Schools across Texas hold Bluebonnet voting parties, where the third through sixth graders come to vote at their school library. For many elementary schools, the Bluebonnet parties are a highlight of the school year. They frequently feature blue refreshments (frosted cookies, blueberry muffins, blue Gatorade), as well as games and activities, often themed to match books on the list.

“The last year that I did it, I had 147 kids come to our TBA voting party,” Harkey said.

How to participate

If you’d like your school or public library to participate in TBA, but you are new to the program, a good place to begin is the TBA website which is full of resources for each title on the list, Harkey said. Resources include readers’ theaters, book trailers, author interviews, discussion questions and more.

For librarians attending the TLA Annual Conference, tickets are available for the TBA Author Session where the award is presented (the luncheon is $59 for members, $69 for non-members), as well as Speed Dating the Bluebonnets, where authors with books on the upcoming year’s list come to meet with librarians and discuss their books.

To register to vote

TBA has an instructional page with directions on how to tally student votes, enter them and submit. There is a $20 charge for each school to participate. More information is available on the FAQ page.

If you have additional questions, Harkey encourages you to reach out to a TBA Committee member, to her, to TLA, or a librarian in your area that has participated in the program before.

Transforming authors’ lives

Another benefit of the TBA program is the recognition it brings to authors. For debut authors who have a book on the list, it is a launching pad to greater recognition in the publishing world, and a way to connect with thousands of young readers.

When Susan Stevens Crummel won the TBA Award in 2010 for Help Me, Mr. Mutt! Expert Answers for Dogs with People Problems (written with Janet Stevens) “it changed her from being a math teacher to being a full-time author who visits schools,” Harkey said. “It changed her life.” (Help Me, Mr. Mutt! is a humorous picture book about a dog advice columnist – a fun read for dog lovers of any age.)

In 2024, author and illustrator Charly Palmer received the Texas Bluebonnet Award for his book The Legend of Gravity: A Tall Basketball Tale. This beautifully illustrated picture book is the fictional story of the Hillside Projects basketball team.

In his video accepting the award, Palmer said, “I am truly humbled, surprised and honored to receive this award. I never imagined winning this. I saw myself as an illustrator, not a writer. To write it in a way that children are inspired and chose it for the Bluebonnet Award is beyond my imagination.”

Wong Scholarship Winner Inspired by Public Library Service

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Lina Burklin is the recipient of the 2025 Martha Wong Scholarship, awarded by the Texas Library and Archives Foundation. This new scholarship opportunity supports students enrolled in a Texas library/information science or school library certification program with a reimbursable grant of $2,000 for tuition and/or textbooks. Burklin is currently working as the cataloguer at the Judy B. McDonald Public Library in Nacogdoches while earning her Master of Library Science degree from Texas Woman’s University. We enjoyed getting to know her and think you will, too.

Q: Congratulations on winning the Wong Scholarship! What does winning this scholarship mean to you?

A: I was surprised and just so honored that my application was chosen. I mean, I know there are many wonderful people pursuing library science degrees in Texas right now. It’s been a big encouragement, since I’m making a career shift from teaching into library science. And it’s helping me see that I’m in the right place, that I’m making a difference where I am, and it’s encouraging to have that recognized.

Q: What inspired you to become a librarian?

A: I’ve been a lifelong avid reader, ever since I can remember. As a teacher, I’ve always loved teaching literature and creative writing. It was time to do something new with my career [Burklin taught middle school for 14 years], and I was looking for something where I’d still be helping people, working with people, and educating. And there’s a whole lot of that in library science. And my grandmother was also a librarian.

Q: Tell me about your experiences working in a public library.

A: I love that you just never know what’s going to happen from day to day. I’ve done a little bit of everything, including shelving, book repair, book processing. Right now, I’m a cataloger, so I’m doing logging and processing. I’m also selecting some books, which is fun. I’ve been asked to do things from proofreading people’s resumes to tech support where people hand me their phone and ask me to make it work. People ask for book recommendations. I did have somebody come in and ask me to get him a divorce, and I had to explain I couldn’t do that, that’s not a service we provide [laughs]. I did help him go to texaslawhelp.org, to help him with the process. It’s just so many things, but it’s great. And I have some of the best coworkers.

We tend to think of libraries as connecting people with information, which of course they do, but we also do a lot of connecting people with resources. People who need help and they don’t even know where to start, will come to us.

Lina Burklin

Q: In your MLS studies at Texas Woman’s University, is there a favorite class or professor you’d like to mention? What has been the most rewarding part about your studies?

A: This is my third semester. [The MLS degree program at Texas Woman’s University is available entirely online.] And in my first semester, I took Dr. Aaron Elkins’ Foundations of Library Studies. And it was just so phenomenal. I feel like I learned so much from that intro course. And one of the things he does that I love is a weekly Zoom call with the class. And initially I was like, “Oh this is going to be so annoying.” But it became one of my favorite things. We’d get a chance to interact with him and with each other. He would lecture, and then we would break into small groups and get to talk with people. Just to talk to other people was huge.  

Q: Who are three of your favorite authors (living or dead)?

A: Well, I was glad you asked for three and not just one, because that’s such a hard question. And even three, I had to really think about it. Brandon Sanderson (the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive) is one of my favorite authors, I love science fiction and fantasy. Rosemary Sutcliff (The Eagle of the Ninth) is a British author of historical fiction who has spoiled me for most other historical fiction. And J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings). The stories are just so, so powerful.

Q: What is a Texas book (by a Texan, or set in Texas, or both) that you’d recommend to our readers, and why?

A: I read very widely, and not specifically geographically, but I think I’d have to come back to Holes, by Louis Sachar. As a teacher, it was one of my favorite books to teach. And I loved it because my kids, for the first two sessions, were like, “This book is dumb, why are we doing this?” But then by the second or third time, they’d be like, “Don’t stop reading!” Because they were so into the story. I love the complexity of the story; I love that it’s about friendship, and the about the power of choices. What we do matters.

Q: In your scholarship application, you wrote very eloquently about the importance of libraries to a community. Could you share some of your answer with us here today?

A: Once I started working in libraries, I realized just how vital they were as a way of connecting people. We tend to think of libraries as connecting people with information, which of course they do, but we also do a lot of connecting people with resources. People who need help and they don’t even know where to start, will come to us. We share with them: here are organizations that can help you locally, these are places you can go. And libraries are also a way to connect with community, for example through our various programs. People meet at a library program who might not meet anywhere else, and find out they have common interests.

And in our culture, there’s just not a lot of places you can just go and be and you are not expected to buy something. And I also realize for a lot of our patrons, we’re the first people who have listened to them that day, it’s obvious. To get a chance to work with people who might not have anywhere else to go—I wish we could do more. Sometimes they just need to talk and have someone listen, and it’s such a privilege to be able to provide that.

Q: Where do you picture yourself five years from now?

A: I don’t have a specific place in mind, so much, but obviously I want to stay in public libraries. I’ve just really fallen in love with what we offer at public libraries and what we do. I’d like to gain some experience with reference work, but I hope I’m still cataloging in five years.

Q: Do you have a favorite genre you like to read and why?

A: I enjoy science fiction and fantasy for many reasons. I think the question “What if?” is so profound. What if this was the way the world worked? What if you could live on another planet, or what if magic was just part of the laws of science? Fiction gives you a way to see situations from a new perspective.

Q: What’s the first book you ever loved?

A: It’s a series: C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. My mom read those out loud to use when we were kids. I just love that world so much. I always hoped that somehow, I’d open a cupboard and be able to slip into Narnia myself.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ten Questions with Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston

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Photo by Cindy Elizabeth

Amanda Johnston is the 2024 Texas Poet Laureate, selected by the Texas Commission on the Arts. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter. Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications and she recently represented Texas at the National Book Festival. Praisesong for the People is her statewide poetry project celebrating everyday Texans; this project is supported by the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation. (It includes this beautiful tribute to bus drivers by Naomi Shihab Nye.)

In today’s TCFB blog, we get to know Amanda a little better:

What’s the first book you ever loved?

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. My mother gave it to me when I was very young, and I was drawn to the risk and play of it. I still read and enjoy Silverstein’s books today.

Your grandson is six years old, such a fun age for books. What is a book you enjoy reading together?

Little Rabbit’s Loose Tooth. My grandson is losing his baby teeth, and it’s fun to read about the soft foods Little Rabbit gets to eat, like ice cream and pudding, and the creative things you can make with a baby rabbit tooth while waiting for the tooth fairy.

What is your favorite taco in Austin?

That’s a hard question! My go-to tacos are the grilled chicken from Veracruz or the Democrat from Torchy’s.

What does being the Texas Poet Laureate mean to you?

It’s an honor to be Texas Poet Laureate and I love being in service to poetry, poets, and poetry lovers across the state. I’m dedicated to amplifying the work of other poets for the literary enjoyment of us all. I’m grateful to the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation for making my project, Praisesong for the People, possible. I’m moved by each poem that celebrates someone in Texas who positively impacted the lives of these poets. In the spring we’ll share writer guides by award-winning educators to encourage K-12 students to read, write, and share praise poems. I think it’s a beautiful way to engage with literature and spread kindness to the people in our lives.

The last time I danced was…

At the Furious Flower Conference at James Madison University. The conference is held once every 10 years and gathers Black poets from around the world. It was like a big family reunion and, much like a family reunion, there was music, dancing, and a lot of hugs, but there was also incredible soul-stirring poetry everywhere.

It’s an honor to be Texas Poet Laureate and I love being in service to poetry, poets, and poetry lovers across the state.

amanda johnston

Two things that make me laugh are…

Babies dancing and dogs acting like people.

What three authors (living or dead) would you like to have dinner with and why?

Lucille Clifton, Colleen J. McElroy, and Toni Morrison. The food and conversation would be epic!

Besides poetry, what’s your favorite genre to read?

Fiction, especially short stories. I am in awe of how a masterful writer can create a gripping story in just a few pages. Read short stories by LaToya Watkins and Jhumpa Lahiri. 

What’s one of your all-time treasured books to recommend?

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, is the autobiography and memoir of James McBride.

My favorite place in Texas is…

At home with my family, or at the library or an independent bookstore, or driving down a Texas highway in the spring watching a sea of bluebonnets roll by.

Little Listeners Program Helps NICU Parents and Babies Bond Over Books

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An innovative program at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston helps babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and their family members bond over books.

Founded in 2019, the NICU Little Listeners Program was created to encourage parent-child bonding through reading.

“Our main goal is to help normalize the stressful NICU experience by encouraging parents to read to and talk to their babies,” said Dr. Christina W. Wong, a pediatric hospitalist in the Texas Children’s Hospital NICU and founder of Little Listeners. “No baby is too small or sick to be read to or spoken to, especially by parents and family.”

The Little Listeners Program hosts an annual five-day Read-A-Thon in September to celebrate National Literacy Month, as well as NICU Awareness Month. The theme for this year’s Read-A-Thon, “Blast Off with Reading,” is based on a book written by a former NICU mother, Shawna Keyes. Her book, The Adventures of Asher and Rocket, is about her son’s journey in the NICU. The third annual Little Listeners Read-a-Thon is September 16-20, 2024.

Our main goal is to help normalize the stressful NICU experience by encouraging parents to read to and talk to their babies.

– Dr. christina W. Wong

Wong explained how such a simple act—reading to a baby—has so many benefits for both the child and the parent or grandparent.

“In an ideal situation, parents would have been reading and talking to their baby at home. Parents in the NICU often do not realize that they can read and talk to their child, most often because they are focused on their treatment plan. Also, parents may not realize just how beneficial it can be to read to their baby,” Wong said. “During a time when parents feel completely overwhelmed, reading is not only something that can become a special bonding time with their baby but is a fundamentally important act that will help their baby’s brain, language, and speech development.”

Babies recognize their parents’ voices over others, so having a parent reading and talking to them is beneficial, Wong said. “Consistent reading has been shown to have positive effects on weight gain and bottle feeds, both of which are very important to our NICU patients.”

Through philanthropic donations, the Little Listeners Program provides free bilingual books to NICU families, as well as bookmarks with tips on reading to your child.

The program is part of the services provided by the Texas Children’s Hospital’s in-house library, which has thousands of books in its collection. The library serves both inpatients and outpatients and their families at the main hospital campus in the Texas Medical Center. Books can be checked out and read by patients, or read on-site by siblings and family members, said Catherine Zdunkewicz, Texas Children’s Hospital’s Library Coordinator. Many books are also given to patients to take home. (The NICU babies are given brand-new books, as these are the safest for them.)

“The motto of the library is ‘a little something for everyone,’ and when we started it was just children’s books. But as we’ve grown, we have both fiction and nonfiction, we have chapter books for kids, we have story books and board books,” Zdunkewicz said. The hospital library is also a frequent destination for physical, occupational, and speech therapists and their patients. Melman, one of the hospital’s facility dogs, also meets patients there (photo above is of Wong, Zdunkewicz, and Melman at a recent event.). Fully supported by the Houston Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club, the newly renovated main library space is attractive and filled with books, puzzles, games, and DVDs.

September is a special time in the NICU, due to the annual Read-A-Thon to benefit Little Listeners. “I love to give books to babies, I love to give books to families,” Wong said.

“With the Little Listeners program, we are able to do more than just give books to our patients; we can give these families something to do to engage and bond with their baby. When you see the families reading to the babies, especially during Read-A-Thon, and see just how much extra bonding is going on—it’s wonderful. The moms are reading, the dads are reading, the families are reading, the grandparents are reading. It just makes you feel so good,” Wong said.

If you are interested in donating to the Little Listeners program, you can do so at  www.texaschildrens.org/support. Under “Gift Designation,” please select “Specific Department or Program not listed” and type “Little Listeners Library” in the comment box. This will ensure that the Texas Children’s Hospital philanthropy department deposits your donation into the Little Listeners Library account.

More information is available on the Texas Children’s Hospital Libraries’ website.

Sam Houston Center Book Club Encourages Love of Books, History

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Photo of Sam Houston Center in Liberty TX

The new book club at the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center in Liberty gives participants a chance to discuss novels set in the world of museums, archives, and libraries in a unique setting that offers many opportunities to connect with local and regional history.

The Sam Houston Center Quarterly Book Club is halfway through its first year— the next meeting is Tuesday, August 27 at 6:00 p.m., when attendees will discuss The Lions of Fifth Avenue, a historical novel by Fiona Davis. The Lions of Fifth Avenue is set at the New York Public Library and involves the curator and her grandmother, missing library items, and a family story that spans decades. The book club meetings are open to everyone.

So far, the club has discussed The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes (based on the real-life story of the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky, who delivered books on horseback to families in Appalachia during the Great Depression) and The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. This historical novel is about J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, a Black woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white as she becomes one of the most powerful people in the book world of the 1920s.

Photo of Alana Inman and Sandy Pickett

 Alana Inman, Manager of the Center, began the book club “so people could grow accustomed to attending an event regularly, and that would allow us to foster relationships with repeat visitors.” Inman chose the museum and archives theme for the club: “I wanted to ensure that it’s still related to what we do here at the Center as an archives and a museum, because we’re more of a special library than a public library.”

Inman said, “This focus might mean that the character is a librarian. The setting could be a museum, or the story may, you know, involve finding or saving a historic record. Whatever the connection, the story chosen always brings us back to learning more about the impact of libraries, archives, and museums and the people that work in them—librarians, archivists, conservators, and museum curators,” Inman said.

Sandy Pickett is a regular attendee of the book club, as well as a longtime volunteer at the Center and Vice President of the Atascosito Historical Society.

“I would say that the eagerness and enthusiasm of those who participated has really been terrific, and there’s a very genuine openness to the discussion,” Pickett said. “No one hesitates to give their opinion, and if it’s not the consensus of everyone in the group, it really doesn’t matter. Everybody is welcome to their own opinion and feels very free to give it. And I really like that. I’ve also enjoyed getting to know some of the people. I’ve lived in Liberty almost forever, and I thought, ‘I’ll know everybody who comes into this little gathering.’ Well, no, there were people I had not met. I’m getting to know those people, and most of them are going to reach out to their other friends to encourage them to join. Certainly, I have enjoyed the books that Alana has chosen.”

Finding personal connections to history

The Sam Houston Center is a component of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and serves as the official regional historical resource depository for the 10 Southeast Texas counties of Chambers, Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Newton, Orange, Polk, San Jacinto, and Tyler. The Center’s primary mission is to collect, preserve, and provide access to historically significant state and local government records and publications of the designated region and secondarily to serve as a library of Texana and genealogical resources.

Inman said one occurrence that surprises many visitors is when they find a personal connection to their own family histories when doing research at the Center. “Often visitors who come here are from the Southeast Texas area. They end up seeing historic objects from their hometowns and from their home counties, and frequently we have something that does connect directly to the visitor—we may have their high school yearbook, or we have their ancestor’s land records,” Inman said. “Personally, I’m from one of our counties—Newton County—and I came across my mother’s engagement photo in a newspaper here. So that is always fun when we’re able to surprise people with a piece of their own past when they come to see us.”

Added Pickett, “Each visitor is going to experience something new or wonderful in their own way. It could be in the museum, or it could be in the records. I’ve been out here a long time, and I’ve given a lot of tours as a volunteer, and it’s wonderful when someone comes and brings their children and says, ‘I haven’t been here since the fourth grade, but I wanted my child to see it.’ It’s exciting when that happens.”

The next meeting of the Sam Houston Center Book Club is Tuesday, August 27, at 6:00 p.m. in the Center’s main building at 650 FM 1011 in Liberty. The following meeting is November 26, when the club will be discussing The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles; in this book, a young librarian in Paris in 1939 joins the Resistance when the Nazis occupy Paris.

Interested participants may obtain a copy of the novels through their local library or favorite bookstore to prepare for the conversation. For more information, contact SHC staff at (936) 336-8821 or via email at SamHoustonCenter@tsl.texas.gov.

The Sam Houston Center houses local government records, rare books, manuscripts, archival materials, photographs, and other media formats covering a wide range of Southeast Texas history. The holdings do not circulate but may be used in the Reading Room. The Center is also home to a museum and several historic buildings. The Center is open Tuesday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.



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Patrick Heath Public Library in Boerne Receives $694,000 to Expand Memory Lab, Preserve Local History

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The Patrick Heath Public Library in Boerne (in Kendall County, about a 40-minute drive from San Antonio) recently received the largest grant in the library’s 72-year history.

The Mellon Foundation, based in New York City, awarded the library $694,000, to be used over a five-year period.

The grant will fund an expansion of the library’s Memory Lab and its services. This lab was first established in 2018 with a Library Technology Academy grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. It’s a space where local citizens record their family histories and stories. The funding will also help enhance the public spaces used by thousands of patrons annually and includes new furnishings for the large main atrium space.

With the grant funding, the library will be able to:

  • Hire a full-time Memory Lab coordinator
  • Expand outreach to the community to utilize the Memory Lab
  • Develop gallery exhibits and work with local artists to bring art to life inspired by local history
  • Record history, family stories, music and recipes from a wide range of community members; to include in ongoing local and family history archives digitization projects

TSLAC funding planted the seed

Robin Stauber, Adult Services Librarian at Patrick Heath PL, said the Mellon Foundation learned about the library’s memory lab and reached out to see if library staff would be interested in applying for a grant to expand the lab and its work.

 “We had been doing some of this work since 2019 thanks to the TSLAC grant,” Stauber said. “Without that first smaller grant from TSLAC, we would not be in the position we are in now. Thank you, TSLAC!”

With the creation of their digital media memory lab, “we have extended our community’s ability to save their own family memories and collections in formats that make that knowledge easily accessible,” Stauber wrote in their grant application to the Mellon Foundation. “We believe deeply in the power of the human story to transform lives and community.”

Reaching out to the local Hispanic community to document the history of the area known as “the Flats,” as well as finding images, stories and resources from African American community members whose forebears resided in freedom colonies in the Boerne area are two goals of the project. Training other libraries to build similar efforts is also part of the plan.

Preserving the history of the area has long been a priority for Patrick Heath PL. An additional TSLAC grant (a TexTreasures Grant, FY 2024) allowed them to digitize the 1994-2010 printed issues of their local newspaper, The Boerne Star, and make them accessible through the University of North Texas’ Portal to Texas History.

Internet Café for all patrons

While a portion of the grant will go to the Memory Lab and related efforts, another portion of the funds from the Mellon Foundation will refurbish the lobby area and transform it into an internet café.

“We will make this area more of a gathering space,” said Natalie Morgan, Assistant Library Director. “Patrons enjoy catching up with each other. The café will be an outstanding location, with the all the windows everywhere” that bring in so much natural light. An adjacent gallery will feature artworks related to the Memory Lab projects.

Added Stauber, “We have a lot of people in here all day long. They are studying, working, we are well-loved and our furnishings show it. We are getting some new chairs, new tables, to freshen up our community gathering space.”

To be able to improve their library and extend the reach and depth of the library’s efforts to capture and preserve family and local history from all parts of the community is a dream come true for Stauber.

“Boerne is in a huge growth area; our population has seen explosive growth recently,” Stauber said. “When you are growing so fast, you always run the risk of losing that connection to who you are. This grant lets us keep these connections and make a well-rounded portrait of our community.”