The Owl Library & Book Store

08/31/2026

🚨 ONE FINAL PUSH — AND WE NEED YOUR HELP SPREADING THE WORD! 🚨

Last year, you all helped us take A Land Remembered far beyond what we ever imagined. Teachers, Extension agents, agricultural organizations, parents, producers, and friends shared the program across Florida — and it took off.

Can we do it again? 🌴🐄📚

Registration is wrapping up for A Land Remembered: Where Cattle, Conservation, and Beef Come Together! — a 6-week classroom program for 4th grade, 5th grade, middle AND high school students!

Using Patrick D. Smith’s A Land Remembered, students get to experience Florida’s history while connecting it to the agriculture and natural resources that still shape our state today.

📖 Daily reading from A Land Remembered
🌱 ELA, science, math & social studies connections
🗺️ Journals, maps, worksheets & vocabulary
🐄 Pioneer life + modern ranching
✏️ Real-world writing activities
🎥 PLUS a one-day statewide livestream on February 26, 2027!

And we need YOUR help getting this into the hands of teachers.

You may not be a teacher — but you probably know one. Share this post. Tag an educator. Send it to your local school. Drop it in a homeschool group. Share it with your 4-H families. Send it to that teacher who loves Florida history.

One share could put this program in front of an entire classroom of students. ❤️

🔗 REGISTER HERE:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=-KBNDTFKdk2s5gpiMx4bhLlLEGE0DK1LruOuG4GP70ZUMFhGRFhNUzc5UUFBS0pYRDUxMjRMTjFFWS4u&utm_source=chatgpt.com&route=shorturl

📧 Questions? [email protected]

Help us make Florida’s story go viral one more time. 🌴🐂📚

07/25/2026

Both of our physical stores in Marathon and Perry have closed as of 2024.

If you are interested in special order/antiquarian or rare books, please text or message me. Thanks!🦉

01/17/2026

📚 First Public Lending Library

In 1778, the township of Franklin separated from Wrentham and was incorporated as a new town. “Exeter” was the first name proposed for the new town, but was later changed to honor Benjamin Franklin. An unknown person wrote to Benjamin Franklin in 1785 requesting his acknowledgement of the town named in his honor, and suggested the donation of a bell for the steeple of the town’s meetinghouse. In response, Benjamin Franklin wrote to Dr. Richard Price of London and requested a selection of books to be gifted to the townspeople in place of a bell, with “... sense being preferable to sound.”

The books arrived in 1786 and were housed in the existing parish library of the Congregational Church, under the leadership of the Reverend Nathanael Emmons. Debate soon emerged over rightful access to the books, as use of the parish library was limited to those who attended the Congregational Church at the center of town, called “subscribers” to the library. Thus, inhabitants who lived far from the town center and attended congregational churches of other communities closer to their homes were unable to use the books.

During a town meeting on December 24, 1789, a resolution was reached creating two groups of books: the parish library available to subscribers only, and the books donated by Benjamin Franklin for use by all townspeople. The collection expanded in 1811, when a “social library” was established with additional books that could be lent out to the public, in exchange for six pence in annual library dues. The new books are listed in addition to Franklin’s books in the town’s first printed library catalog, A Catalogue of those Books in Franklin Library (1812). With that, the Franklin Library became the nation’s first public lending library.

📷: The current housing for the books gifted by Benjamin Franklin to the town at Franklin Public Library Official Site Library. (Image Source: Sharon Brody, WBUR).

08/29/2025

Book: The Proud Highway https://amzn.to/47Wwi8y [ad]

08/23/2025

“Biblio tourism” is trending, and these hotel libraries around the world will help travelers get on board.

08/22/2025

07/07/2025

It’s Shelfie Sunday!

Another reminder that vellum is one of the biggest compliments you can feed to your bookshelf

06/27/2025