NORMAN – Recent improvements at the Norman Library have helped spruce up the little library while making it more accessible to patrons. They were made possible by a gift from Norman native Wanda Lee Graves.
A handicap accessible sidewalk was added to the square a few weeks ago to offer better access to the library. The library has been accessible to everyone for years thanks to a gate in the rear of the park fence. However, in times past patrons of the library often had to drive through the gate and to the library.
The new sidewalk allows visitors to the library to park at the rear of the park and access the library by wheelchair.
The sidewalk is just one of a handful of recent upgrades at the library. They also have installed new signs and there is now a picnic table adjoining the library.
All of this was made possible by a donation given by Wanda Lee Graves, a native of Norman. Graves and her husband, Steve Duscha, established a grant for the library last year through the Arkansas Community Fund.
Graves shared during a visit to the library last year that she had many fond childhood memories of the library.
Wanda was born on Polk Creek Road near Norman in 1933 to Beulah Bean Thornton Graves and Thomas Freddie Graves. Although she was the youngest of 11 children she recalled how everyone pitched in to work the farm from which they lived sustained themselves.
Although she moved from Norman at the age of 10, some of her fondest childhood memories sprang from the Norman Library. She remembers traveling to the library with her mother by way of horse drawn wagon. She and her mother would check out books and read them at home. Wanda stated that she learned to read from the books found at the Norman library.
After her mother’s death she moved to Detroit, Washington D.C. and California. She received an associates degree from Foothill College in Los Altos, California, a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University and a master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. She said that all her education was built upon the foundation laid from the books in the Norman Library.
She and her husband Steve Duscha had visited the Norman area with niece Sheila Johnson a few years ago. Sheila shared that Wanda was filled with delight to see the library still in use. After returning home, she and her husband decided to do something to ensure the library remains open for many years to come.
The result was a grant established by the pair through the Arkansas Community Foundation. The grant is to be used to make repairs, upgrades and to promote the library’s use in the community.
The Norman Library was first opened in the 1930s and is known as the smallest independent library in Arkansas. It is recognized as an Arkansas Historic Preservation Site and is still open to the public.
The library was built by the Norman Garden Club with most of the work being performed by members’ husbands. A large cable that can be seen along the top of the rock wall was salvaged from the river after it was abandoned there by a slate rock company.
Jean Lybrand and the other library volunteers invites everyone to stop by and visit the library Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1-4 p.m. It is a full service library which includes two public access computers and wifi. Anyone living in the Norman area can stop in and check out a book.
