History:
The headquarters and largest branch in the South Georgia Regional Library System family tree is located in beautiful Valdosta, Georgia, also known as the Azalea City, boyhood home to the infamous Doc Holiday.
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Public Library enjoys a reputation as large as its more than 32,000 square feet. When it opened its doors in 1968, at a cost of $450,000, it introduced exciting new programs to the community. Such programs included everything from classes on how to save money, book reviews, holiday workshops, children’s cartoons and an annual pet show. These programs were a huge success due to the efforts of Roddelle Brantley Folsom, who joined the library staff in 1952.
An employee who began her library career as the “Bookmobile Lady,” Folsom was named to the post of Library Director in 1973. During her long tenure, and because of a massive $20 million building challenge launched by the state of Georgia, she witnessed not only the addition of permanent new facilities in Lakeland, Hahira, Lake Park, Valdosta and Statenville, but also saw to completion the 1995, $2.5 million expansion and renovation of library headquarters on Woodrow Wilson Drive. Before retiring after forty-three years of service, Folsom had seen the library grow from a book-only facility to a completely computerized library system that offered audio/visual items in addition to twenty-first-century-ready technology available to the public. The present day Computer Lab is housed in the Folsom Room, dedicated in 1996 to this beloved librarian.
