UNA’s Collier Library celebrated National Library Week April 11-15 with the help of authors Tom Hendrix and John Lee and the art exhibit by Carl Brackin Jr.

Tom Hendrix is the author of “If the Legends Fade” and John Lee is a UNA alumnus and the author of “When the Buddha Met Bubba.” Carl Brackin Jr. is a UNA alumnus and also the photographer of the exhibit “Stone & Steel.”

According to the American Library Association: “First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by American Library Association and libraries across the country each April. It is a tie to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries-school, public, academic and special-participate.”

Author Tom Hendrix lives in Northwest Alabama and has a stone wall he has been building for years dedicated to his great-great-grandmother’s journey, about which his book is written, and to all Native American women.

“The wall is my way of honoring my ancestors,” said Hendrix. “It has become a special place to many who visit it. The story is like the wall in that it belongs to all people.”

John Lee is a graduate of UNA and visited Collier library Friday, April 15 to speak about his book. John has published a total of 18 books, and this book “When the Buddha Met Bubba” is his first fiction piece. Lee writes under the name Richard “Dixie” Hartwell, and he has recently sold the screen rights to his fiction book which is based in the Shoals area and is planned to be filmed here.

Carl Brackin Jr. is the photographer of the “Stone & Steel” exhibit. “Since I have picked up my first camera I have been primarily drawn to photograph places that visually reflect the things of civilization, but without including actual human presence,” Brackin said. “These images are intended to be an environmental portrait of those places, not as man-made creations, but as if they naturally belonged, a living part of the land.”

This exhibit of photography has been transformed onto flagstone-surfaced tiles through image transfer, and then treated with an encaustic mixture of beeswax and paraffin.

Collier library celebrated National Library week for the second year in a row. “It is the committees’ goal to expand and make the celebration of our library better each year,” said Doris McDaniel, UNA Librarian and National Library Week committee member.