A Titan Retires

I realize I write a lot about the Decatur Book Festival--its energy is infectious, the reach wide. But before there was the Festival, there was the quiet, highly effective director of the DeKalb Library System, and I'd like to give Darro Wiley our thanks and appreciation. After 15 years leading this crown of the metro Atlanta cultural life, Darro retired this fall, but only after creating a whole new experience for Atlantans centered on books, literature, and knowledge.

I was chair of the Village Writers Group when Darro became director of the Library. For many years the VWG was supported with space to meet at the Decatur and then the Avis Williams library, and we were partners in the effort to have the longest running Atlanta area writers group open to all writers (Atlanta Writers Club at that time allowed only well-published writers.) Along with Village Writers president emeritus Helen Friese, I met with Darro and we succeeded in reopening the Local Writers Room, a small secure space in Decatur Library that had been created to enable a local writer to have extended time and place to write a book. (VWG friend Terry Kay had had to rent a motel room to write his first books). Subsequently, Alyson Landrum,another VWG member, myself, and Amanda Gable among others created their first works there.

During my writer group leadership, Darro asked us to nominate someone to the first Board for the Georgia Center for the Book. At that time, only John Slaughter had published a book, so he was our nominee. Little would I or others dream that this Center, a part of the Library of Congress program to promote the reading, production, and consumption of the handy little multi-paged device you hold in your hand and display on your bookshelf, would become the birthhome of the Decatur Book Festival!

An initial effort of the Georgia Center for the Book, led by Bill Starr, was to host authors from all over the world reading from their books. During its long run on the stage at the Decatur Library--and other venues as well--the reading series has brought so many hours of pleasure and knowledge for patrons all over Atlanta, not to mention opportunities to buy books and speak with the authors. The Center also created and updates the list of "25 Books Every Georgian Should Read," co-sponsors the Southern Literary Trail and carries on the Georgia Literary Festival, a moveable feast of authors with a local slant in every part of the state.

Darro led the expansion of the DeKalb Library System's online presence--going on its website is still a seamless experience--and diverse services to patrons in the form of computer workshops, programs for kids to seniors, and service to literacy patrons, especially, grew to unprecedented levels. I remember encountering some of the literacy patrons as I wrote in the Local Author's Room. I remember more than once an older gentleman working with a tutor in the small room next to me was making labored sounds of basic words. I might have thought it an interference, but I rededicated myself to writing. I'd been given the gift of reading at an early age, and I wished him the same enjoyment of the written word.

The DeKalb system's footprint has been expanded terrifically, with existing structures adding dramatic square footage, and services to the entire county growing greatly. Stark budget realities now face the county's library system. It will be up to new leadership and us, the reading community, to deal with this challenge. May the same creativity that inspires writers to imagine worlds for us to live in help fashion a new future for this important living resource, the DeKalb Library system.

Thanks, Darro, for all you did!