Generations of Olds and area library patrons, staff, volunteers and community members gathered at Olds Municipal Library on June 6 to celebrate the facility’s 60th anniversary.
Among the crowd gathered for the evening open house was one of the community institution’s first librarians, a former Olds Elementary school teacher now elderly in his years, children, grandchildren, and adults with memories of the library as preschoolers.
The evening was filled with expressions of gratitude.
“I’d like to thank all the former and current staff, the volunteers now and that have made this library so popular and so valuable … and all the families and all their families and the other community members for all their support over the years,” said Dwayne Fulton, a Mountain View County councillor who sits on the library board and co-MCed the evening’s program with Town of Olds councillor Heather Ryan.
Dianne Powney, president of the Olds IODE chapter took those gathered on a trip back in time to 1954 when the IODE began work to establish a new library in Olds and promote community interest.
In 1958 the old Bank of Commerce building became available and was offered to the IODE as a home for the new library. In 1959 an appeal for donations brought in over $1,100 -- “a lot, back 60 years ago,” said Powney, adding $500 of that came from the IODE while another large amount came from government.
On June 6, 1959 the library officially opened.
The first library had a collection of 1,000 books, was open for a total of eight hours a week and a family membership was $2. Over 4,000 books were circulated in the first six months and 170 families took out memberships.
At the time, the focus was on books and engaging readers, said Fern Olson, 97, who was one of the first librarians at the community institution.
During the open mic part of the evening she said she “spent 10 of the best years of my life in the old library.”
She started a storytime hour at the library, a program that continues to this day and is attended by Olson’s great-grandson.
Mary Hayes, who was born and raised in Olds, said one of her first memories is of the Olds library when it was located in the former Bank of Commerce building. As a preschooler, she used to go there with her mother who was a volunteer.
“I remember sitting underneath the big oak table, I think it’s in the library somewhere here, and watching the patrons walk by. If I was lucky enough to go upstairs to the bathroom, it was up, up, up a winding staircase. And the doors were big and the windows were coloured glass. A perfect place for the imagination of a child,” she said.
As a teenager, Hayes volunteered at the library. She was then hired in 1984 to entertain children.
“And it was working here that I discovered storytelling, so I have a lot to be thankful for,” said Hayes, who is a professional storyteller.
Hayes spoke of Lee Street, an IODE member who held book cataloguing parties in her living room when the library first opened, and of Helen Smith, who was a motivator in getting the community’s second library built on the footprint of the existing building. The existing building was built in 2010.
Mayor Michael Muzychka addressed the crowd saying that early on in his mayoralship, he was asked why the town is funding libraries as “books are a dead media."
“Well, you know what? This library is a case study in changing that whole ideal,” said Muzychk, adding the library’s offerings are more than just books and include digital media and programming for all ages.
Current library manager Leslie Winfield has been at the library for nearly two decades and said it has changed a lot over the last 17 years. She thanked past and present staff and board members for the “wonderful” changes that have taken place.
MLA Nathan Cooper sent regrets in not being able to attend. Fulton read a message from Cooper that underscored the library’s importance.
“The benefits of literacy are self evident. It opens the doors to higher levels of education, allowing people to earn more financially and they would live longer and healthier lives. Studies show that one per cent improvement in national literacy can boost our economy to $32 billion. That’s a pretty good number.”
