Local Library, Global Passport: the Evolution of a Carnegie Library. By J. Patrick Boyer. Toronto : Blue Butterfly Book Publishing, 2008. 370 p, ill.; $34.95 hardcover, $22.95 paper,
2008
marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Bracebridge Carnegie
library built with $10,000 granted by the philanthropist, Andrew
Carnegie. Patrick Boyer traces the evolution of local library service in
Bracebridge (and to some extent in adjacent Muskoka towns) from 1874
to the present day with a local/global perspective as an overarching
theme. The “library as community” and the library as “window on the
world” provides a dual historical view to trace the library’s activity
over 13 decades.
The author covers Bracebridge’s library history
from the founding of the mechanics’ institute in 1874 to the virtual
library of the 21st century in a series of chapters. In the pioneer days
of Muskoka, books and newspapers were scarce ingredients in the
promotion of intellectual life and the town’s political, business, and
educational leaders—Victorian males who believed in progress and
community development—established and promoted the town’s public
library. By 1901, the municipal council had assumed control of the older
institute and authorized a free public library supported by taxes. By
1908, the library board members and supportive citizens had erected a
Carnegie library on Manitoba St., a distinctive building that would
remain essentially unchanged for three generations. The “library as
place” represented a cautious and stable, sometimes censorious, locale
for residents to read about their changing country and world through
war, depression, and postwar expansion. Some have recounted their
library experience and how it helped them adapt and succeed.
Behind this interpretation, Dr. Boyer reveals that the library possessed an
internal “dynamic stability” that helped it survive, then thrive in the
second half of the 20th century. Its staff was prepared to apply new
technology and develop new resources; and its board members or local
politicians ready to finance new endeavours. In Canada’s Centennial
Year, the library was modestly renovated and in 1984/85 the Carnegie
library was completely restored and expanded to keep pace with the
town’s development. In the next two decades, the library’s catalog was
computerized and by 2005 the Internet was no longer a novel experience.
The virtual library, a portal to international knowledge, was set to
dwarf the previous century’s reliance on book collections as a window.
But, as Boyer states, the book remains alive and well-positioned to
entertain and inform readers.
Local Library, Global Passport
(now associated with Dundurn Press) recounts the work of many people who believed in the value of library
service. Quotes and illustrations provide a tangible view of the
library, its librarians, and trustees as well as local community
leaders. Various chapters offer insight into the library’s community
role as an important cultural resource linked to place and identity.
While Bracebridge provides the focus, its citizens — adults and
children, students, seniors, new Canadians, people in need of outreach
or special services, even local prisoners — are groups that the library
has sought to serve. Dr. Boyer, whose family has been closely related
to the library for many years, has successfully recounted the library’s
history and offers insights that can be applied to many small Ontario
town libraries. Along the way, his book is a good read and a valuable
addition to Ontario’s growing corpus of library histories even though
the primary source for his history, the minutes of library meetings for
several decades, disappeared without a trace many years ago.
After
a century of Dominion Days and Canada Days, the library continues as
an essential community asset, reason enough to celebrate every year.
Originally posted in March 2009
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