At an event to mark the year-long, golden anniversary of a famed Modernist structure that late librarian Cleo Rogers made possible, leaders honored her legacy Wednesday before about 75 people at the Bartholomew County building bearing her name.
Jason Hatton, current director of the Bartholomew County Public Library, quoted David Lankes, the director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science, saying, “Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services (of which a collection is one part). Great libraries build communities.”
Hatton added, “ …I can tell you that Cleo Rogers lived by that (last) mantra. She was a true member of this community. She participated in service organizations, Columbus High School basketball fandom, her church and ways in which we will never know.”
Rogers died in 1964, five years before soon-to-be internationally known architect I.M. Pei completed the structure at 536 Fifth St. in downtown Columbus. But, for several years before that, Rogers worked alongside Pei and others on a bigger, more resourceful and certainly more modern library than the nearby Carnegie Library that preceded it.
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Hatton summarized that her “impact in this community has lasted far beyond her years upon this earth.”
A special plaque was dedicated to salute internationally celebrated Pei and Rogers. One of Rogers’ innovations at the time was the launch of the bookmobile bringing the library’s services out into the community.
Wednesday’s gathering, beginning with building tours at 10 a.m., to people creating plush doll likenesses of Rogers until 8 p.m., was part of the varied Cleo Turns 50 celebration that included resident’s videotaped memories, a Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives display, and much more.
Wednesday’s celebration also included a new library logo that harkens “back to our roots,” as Hatton said.
And coming in a few weeks will be a newly-designed website, meeting room reservation system, event calendar, and app, Hatton said.
The current building replaced the city’s original Carnegie Library that was built in 1903 at Fifth and Lafayette streets in downtown Columbus.
Bartholomew County Commissioner Carl Lienhoop remembers that small building as a youngster with good memories except for one: Two buildings away sat his dentist’s office, not a happy place for a young child, he joked during public remarks at Wednesday’s ceremony.
Jim Roberts, superintendent of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., reminded the audience that it was the school system which controlled the library during most of Rogers’ tenure, and the agency that hired her.
And former longtime library director Beth Booth Poor reminded people that the then-Cummins Engine Co. stepped up when the new library construction exceeded cost estimates and donated $800,000 toward its completion.
Near the end of the gathering, Hatton mentioned that, in his research about the library building’s dedication half a century ago, one official called Rogers’ vision and achievement, along with many community partners, as “her crowning achievement.”
Fifty years later, seems to echo loudly — and with continued relevance.
