Alabama Library Bookmarks

Back in October 2014 I posted a piece on "Bookmarks for Some Alabama Bookstores" featuring items from my collection. This time I'll share some bookmarks I have from Alabama libraries.

Most of these examples come from public or academic libraries. I've also included one from a museum and another from the Encyclopedia of Alabama. I've scanned both sides unless one side was blank. 

Bookmarks have been widely used by libraries since they are an inexpensive way to advertise services, hours, new programs and so forth. I suppose they may not be used as much these days, since the same information can be put on a web site or Facebook page. 

Bookmark histories can be found here and here.

The Alabama Public Library Service is a state agency supporting public libraries across Alabama.

Bailey Cove is one of the many branches of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.

The Alabama Virtual Library provides online database access to residents of the state. 

The Encyclopedia of Alabama is not a library, but it's such a wonderful resource that I wanted to include it here.

Bookmarks for Some Alabama Bookstores (2)

In October 2014 I posted the first installment of a series on bookmarks with some sort of Alabama connection. That post covered some of my collection from bookstores; this one covers the rest. A third post will include bookmarks related to libraries.

I've made some comments on individual bookmarks below.

Now the Alabama Booksmith

The Homewood location is still in business, with the same phone number

They added a fax number to this bookmark.

This bookstore opened in late 2004, according to its still-operating web site. Sadly, the store closed a year or two ago. I visited several times; by the end, the bookstore was more or less gone and only a coffee shop and cafe were left. The last calender available on the site is February 2013. 

The Books-A-Million chain began in 1917 as a newsstand in Florence, Alabama, and by the early 1960's expanded into a group of bookstores known as Bookland. Eventually there were 72 of those stores, mostly in the Southeast. I remember one in the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover until January 2007. There are still a few of these stores operating as a subsidiary of BAM. 

Books-A-Million, the Alabama-based chain now often known as BAM, has used bookmarks for job ads.

Apparently this store is no longer operating. 

This store, no longer in business, listed numerous services on their bookmark.

Lodestar was included on a site devoted to independent bookstores: "They feature books that support diversity, healing, and political change. The focus areas include world religions, women's studies, studies, psychology, recovery, alternative health and the literary arts." 

The Haunted Book Shop that operated in Mobile for many years is one of Alabama's legendary bookstores. The store is probably the only one in the state that has inspired TWO memoirs:

 Mobile's Haunted Book Shop : a sentimental reminiscence by Caldwell Delaney [1986] 

 The Spirit of the Haunted Book Shop : a history celebrating the 50th anniversary by Jack Pendarvis [1991]

UPDATE 9 January 2020: The Haunted Book Shop reopened in 2018. 

Inside the Haunted Book Shop, date unknown

Mostly a used paperback store, Betty's Books opened sometime in the 1990's. I remember visiting once before the store relocated to a small commercial area across U.S. 31. The store has changed ownership and several years ago became Books Etc. I've visited the current incarnation several times and always find something. The place is small but packed with goodies. 

[Added in August 2015; updated 9 January 2020: Bienville Books is now the Haunted Book Shop]

On a recent trip to Mobile I visited Bienville Books on Dauphin Street. I recommended the place highly. There are two stories of old and new books and many other goodies. I especially enjoyed the selection of titles related to Mobile and the rest of Alabama.

Another bookstore in the Birmingham metro now sadly closed was this one in the Colonnade retail development. According to the BhamWiki site, the independent bookstore opened there in 1992, later moved to Mountain Brook and finally closed on March 31, 2009. I visited the Colonnade location only once as I remember.

You can find entries on many closed bookstores in the Birmingham area at BhamWiki.

Bookmarks for Some Alabama Bookstores

This post displays a few items from my modest collection of bookmarks related to Alabama bookstores. I'll make a few comments along the way and intend to offer other selections in a future post or two featuring bookmarks for libraries and more.

First up are four different bookmarks from a Birmingham store thankfully still in operation, the wonderful establishment of Jim Reed. The first bookmark notes the store's current location on Third Avenue North; the other three date from the previous location on 1st Avenue South where 20th and 21st anniversaries were celebrated. 

I can recommend this store to anyone with the least interest in any kind of printed book. But others may enjoy it as well, since the shelves are filled with items beyond books--magazines, toys, and many other goodies from days gone by. Those of us lamenting the passage of print culture down the great digital black hole can renew our spirits here.

The bookmarks below represent stores once thriving but no longer with us. 

Shaver's was a very nice bookstore located near Huntsville Hospital. The store carried a combination of new and used titles and had a great selection of books related to Huntsville and Alabama history and culture. A profile of owner John Shaver and a photo inside the store can be found here. My brother and I always enjoyed a visit when we were in town and bought many books here over the years. Shaver's closed several years ago, and I believe he opened a booth in a local antique mall. 

I assume the bookmark below relates to the downtown Birmingham Loveman's store and is a reminder of how far books could penetrate our mass market culture back in the day. In addition to bookstores, book selections could be found at department stores and drug stores. The book racks in places like Wal-Mart and Target and some larger grocery chains such as Publix are the last vestiges and will probably disappear soon as well. 

This bookmark and business card advertise A Good Bookstore, which was a Huntsville institution for many years. The address given is the courthouse square downtown, the second location that I really don't remember ever visiting. I did go many times when the store was located in a small strip of stores just outside the Five Points Historic District where California Avenue becomes Andrew Jackson Way. The place was a beacon of culture in the late sixties for several friends and myself.  

The final three bookmarks are from two locations of one of Birmingham's legendary bookstores, Smith & Hardwick founded in 1934. The first item shows the North 20th Street address; the other two are the Clairmont Avenue address in Forest Park, across the street from the Silvertron Cafe. I visited that location a couple of times before the store closed a few years ago. Allen Dean Shaffer was one of the final owners; he died in 2012. He had retired as owner following a stroke in 2004. Shaffer had moved the store to Forest Park in 1990.

One thing we can conclude from these few samples is that many bookstores across the country must have ordered their bookmarks from the same source!

An article about another legendary Huntsville bookstore, Books as Seeds, can be found here.

A history of Birmingham bookstores is available here.

Bookmark histories can be found here and here.

Some interesting things booksellers have found in used books are described here.