This month, Orange County Library System welcomes Kelly Link, author of Pretty Monsters, for an event kicking off our NEA Big Read series. However, she is not the first esteemed author the library has welcomed in its history. OCLS has a long tradition of hosting compelling and best-selling writers dating as far back as the library’s inception.
To cite one example, veteran journalist Helen Thomas visited the library on September 21, 2007. During an event called An Evening With Helen Thomas, the venerated reporter read from her book Watchdogs of Democracy? The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public and discussed her interactions with past presidents and her experiences as a veteran of the White House Press Corps.
While Thomas sadly passed away in 2013 at the age of 92, her legacy of dogged reporting and unprecedented commitment to the truth lives on. Many of her books are still available for checkout in the collection of Orange County Library System, while her 50-plus years of reporting on the Executive Branch can be read through the library’s newspaper archive, Newsbank.
For more information about Helen Thomas’ visit to Orlando Public Library, and other notable moments in Orange County Library System history, visit orlandomemory.info.
