Jefferson County Public Library Association Library Champion Awards 2013

Regina Ammon
Birmingham Public Library

Regina Ammon was an original charter and lifetime member of the Friends of the Birmingham Public Library. Since joining the Friends' Board in 2009 she has worked tirelessly to make the Friends a more effective advocate for the library. Regina has served as Vice-President of the Friends and currently serves as President. She volunteers regularly in the BPL Friends’ bookstore and serves as a one-woman hospitality committee providing refreshments and elegant table settings for library events. She often prepares and purchases food at her own expense and provides floral arrangements. By haunting estate sales Regina has amassed a fine selection of silver serving dishes for the Friends, all purchased at her own expense. She volunteers her time at events, setting up the tables and serving the food. As President of the Friends, she has launched a re-branding of the Friends’ logo, web site, and PR materials and is initiating a membership campaign this fall. This comes on the heels of a very successful spring membership drive that garnered more than 50 new members. Regina has contributed significantly to the BPL Foundation by serving as an ex-officio member of the Foundation Board and helping create a handbook for Foundation Board members. She has played a significant role in recruiting new members for the Library Foundation. As part of the BPL Archives’ Speakers Bureau, Regina gives talks on local history to Birmingham area organizations.

Brandy Dixon has been an advocate for the Bessemer Public Library for the last three years. She has hosted some of the most popular programming at the library for tweens and teens, and lined up local merchants to donate discounted or free arts and crafts materials for all age groups. Brandy even arranged an author visit. She tirelessly promotes the Bessemer Public Library attending conferences, such as the Annual Summer Reading Conference in Montgomery, to be able to better assist librarians as they planned a unique summer reading program.

Brandy Dixon’s contributions have helped keep a regular stream of active tweens and teens participating in programming at our library. Her contributions have also given youth an opportunity to try new things that they may not have tried before and increased their critical thinking skills. Brandy donates her time and talents, as well as financial assistance, to ensure our teen population has quality programming. While tweens and teens can be a difficult population to reach, Brandy Dixon’s contributions have turned our teen program into a mainstay at the Bessemer Public Library.

Tommy Daniel and his staff have served our library as the City of Hoover’s Public Works Department since 1991. They are responsible for every aspect of the library’s physical maintenance and improvement. Tommy can do anything! And actually has for the Hoover Public Library. He’s been instrumental in every major project we’ve had including the newest one, the Circulation Renovation desk. Tommy played an instrumental role in our two expansions. The thing that amazes us most about Tommy is his willingness to do just about anything we ask. The examples of his work are limitless: he’s had his men set up the Southern Voices tent and put together children’s caterpillars for the play area. They’ve painted, wired, done woodwork, fixed our drainage problems, and planted flowers. Need electricity or new computer and cable lines where we never thought we would? They will get it done if it is at all humanly possible. They have to bring in a giant sized lift to replace the light bulbs in the Plaza. Whatever the problem (be it carpentry, flooded dressing rooms or theatre rails) Tommy has always met our needs and advised us along the way. He and his crew have hung doors, built walls, assembled shelves and furniture, moved these items only to have to take them apart, move and reassemble them. In some cases, this process of reassembly and moving went on again and again until they made us happy! As librarians, we don’t know much about electrical, building, and plumbing problems and luckily, we don’t have to . . . because the library has Tommy. We wouldn’t have been able to do half the things we’ve done over the years without Tommy. Tommy is a library lover and it is apparent in his eagerness to make sure our building and facility stays up to date and in great working order. We couldn’t survive without Tommy Daniel on our side! With Tommy at the forefront of Public Works, we know the city we work in, live in, and love is in caring and capable hands.