COLUMBUS – Gov. Mike DeWine recently reappointed Mount Vernon resident Carol Garner to serve another four-year term as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Ohioana Library. Garner, wife of retired Knox County Court of Common Pleas Judge Otho Eyster, served as the CEO for The Columbus Council on World Affairs for 20 years and is currently employed by Road Scholar as a group leader for their tours to Cuba.
The Ohioana Library Association was founded in 1929 by Ohio First Lady Martha Kinney Cooper to collect, preserve and promote the works of Ohio authors, artists and musicians. Today, the library’s holdings include more than 45,000 books by or about Ohioans; 10,000 pieces of sheet music; biographical files on notable Ohioans; personal papers of Ohio authors and artists and numerous scrapbooks created by Ohio civic and cultural organizations. The collection does not circulate, but is available for in-library use.
Today, a 28-member board that includes DeWine’s wife, Fran, as well as three governor appointees, governs the library.
Ohio’s rich literary heritage is evidenced by just a few of the authors who have called it home, including novelists Sherwood Anderson, Louis Bromfield, Zane Grey and Harriet Beecher Stowe; poets Rita Dove, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Nikki Giovanni and children’s writers Mildred Wirt Benson (Carolyn Keene), Lois Lenski, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Robert McCloskey and R.L. Stine.
“We do indeed have Daniel Decatur Emmett represented at Ohioana,” said David Weaver, executive director of Ohioana Library. “Including an 1863 copy of his song, ‘The Black Brigade,’ a biographical file for him, four biographies about him (including one that was published the year he died, 1904), and a 1938 play about Emmett, minstrelsy and how he wrote the song ‘Dixie.’"
Garner said it is an honor to represent DeWine as his appointee to the Ohioana Library Board.
“I look forward to continuing my work with the staff and other board members of Ohioana Library toward our goal to encourage and recognize the creative accomplishments of Ohio’s native sons and daughters,” Garner said.
