PANAMA CITY — Her perfectly alto voice reaches the highs and lows of children’s books when she does story telling.
“In the great green room there was a telephone and a red balloon and a picture of a cow jumping over the moon,” Sandra Pierce said rhythmically while reciting part of the children’s picture book “Good Night Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown in her office at the Bay County Public Library on Tuesday.
Pierce, the library’s Youth Services librarian, has worked at the library for 36 years. Although she initially planned to become a social worker, she is convinced becoming a librarian was her calling in life.
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Her father, Smith Pierce, who had a third grade education, would take Pierce and her siblings to the library when he wasn’t traveling for work. Though the lag between library trips often resulted in late returned books, it was those extended time periods with borrowed books that helped grow Pierce’s insatiable appetite for reading.
“The library is a solitary place; but not so solitary — you have the whole world in your book,” Pierce said. “Reading takes me to another world, another level, a different place.”
And, post-college, her first job was at a library at Naval Support Activity Panama City. The head librarian at the time, an African-American woman named Myrtle Rhodes, encouraged Pierce to become a librarian. Pierce went to graduate school at Florida State University and became a librarian.
“I wanted to save the world,” Pierce said, regarding her desire to become a social worker. But “I was built to be a children’s librarian.”
“And I am so glad to be walking in my calling,” she added.
Influencing children: While hosting 12 children’s storytelling services per month, Pierce has taken the hands of thousands of local children and ushered them into the literary world. A photo album on her desk is filled with family photos from individuals and families that have kept in touch with Pierce over the years.
Brian Lindsey, 32, originally from Panama City, started working at the library under Pierce when he was 16 years old.
“Sandra instilled great values into me that I cherish till this day,” Lindsey said. “I don’t know where I would be today if I was never given the chance to work for Bay County Public Library, specifically in Youth Services.”
Lindsey is now in his second year in the University of Washington’s Masters of Library and Information Science program and currently works as a library associate in Seattle, Washington.
Elaine Everette, children’s program specialist at the Bay County Public Library, has worked with Pierce for more than 30 years. She said Pierce has had a lasting influence on children.
“We have children that have grown up at the public library,” Everette said, noting they often return to visit as adults. “That’s the kind of influence she has on them.
“She is professional, considerate and always a wonderful person,” she added.
However, it’s not a one-way street. The album on Pierce’s desk includes photos she had taken with several visiting authors, from Bill Martin Jr. (“Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”) and Walter Dean Myers (“Slam!”), to Alex Haley (“Roots”) and most recently Kwame Alexander (“The Crossover” and “Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band.”)
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“I’m constantly meeting new people, so I just hope I inspire someone to read,” Pierce said.
Having read so many good books, Pierce wouldn’t pin down a favorite author or book. Instead, she offered a few words of inspiration.
“I would tell anyone to find something you love and then work on doing that,” she added.