“It was a dark and stormy night” – so begins the often-parodied phrase written by the English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who also happens to be the person who chose the books that were sent over to New Westminster with the Royal Engineers.
They were the group sent by the British Government to maintain law and order among gold seekers and to establish a capital for the new colony.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the New Westminster Public Library, which has been over the many years, a centrepiece of learning, engagement and connection in this city.
It was started all of those years ago by new immigrants, and continues in a large way to be a place where new Canadians gather for information and understanding.
“So they set off in 1858 to establish the city,” explains community services librarian Debra Nelson. “When the Royal Engineers disbanded in 1863, some of them stayed on and the collection of books stayed with them, and the idea was that some of them would establish a library or a reading room.”
The library got an early boost from Queen Victoria, when she decided she wanted to send a copy of her late husband’s (Prince Albert) speeches to the public libraries of her more important colonies. The New Westminster Public Library was opened in 1865 in anticipation of the book of speeches.
Amazingly, the library still has that text, which managed to avoid getting sizzled in the Great Fire of 1898 because it had been at the home of an alderman during the fire.
In those early days, the library had books by authors still beloved today – Mark Twain, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens.
“It’s funny how those names are so common now,” says deputy chief librarian Susan Buss.
The first modest library was set up in the former Mint and Assay building. Eventually, it was time to expand.
By 1892, residents managed to get enough funding to open a new civic building that included a place for the library, along with government offices and a mechanics institute.
Then tragedy struck six years later. The Great Fire of 1898 swept through downtown New Westminster, decimating the area, including the library.
But from the ashes arose a new building with an interesting connection. Around the turn of the century, high-profile philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was giving out funds to help build public libraries. Carnegie had a rags-to-riches story and credited libraries with helping him find education, says Buss.
“Because public libraries were so important to him and his learning, he saw this as a way to give back to the community,” she says. “And so the Carnegie libraries are famous throughout North America. They all kind of look the same – had a style he wanted them to look like.”
With the Carnegie funds, a new library was built in 1903 but didn’t open until 1905, because it took time for the city to come up with the operating funds.
Today, there is still the Carnegie Community Centre at Main and Hastings in Vancouver and, of course, the famous Carnegie Hall in New York City.
The Carnegie building served as the city’s library in downtown New Westminster.
“It was there until the 1950s, but then we had outgrown the space,” Nelson says.
A civic campaign was launched in the 1950s and the new building was built uptown, an area that was just beginning to blossom as a retail centre with the opening of Woodward’s. The library opened in 1958 (it was later renovated in 1978).
“And that was significant because the library was downtown before then, and they made the decision to move it uptown,” Nelson says, noting the significance of the move from the then bustling downtown to quieter Sixth Avenue.
But it wouldn’t stay quiet for long. Eventually, uptown became a more prominent commercial area for many years.
The library remains in that location today, where it serves thousands of residents looking not just for books, but for music, films, computers, language support, historical information, and, and on, and on.
Today, the library is what it has been since it opened in a forest near the banks of the Fraser River – a place to go and learn, engage and gain understanding.
With the advent of the digital age, some people question the future of libraries, but Nelson and Buss say New Westminster’s library has embraced and even thrived in this era by offering e-books, computer classes and access to computers to help with digital literacy.
“Our one-on-one (computer training) sessions are full all of the time,” Nelson says.
On Sunday mornings, when the library is closed and the computers are available “which is not that often,” Buss says, seniors and teens come together. The students teach the seniors some digital skills.
Library reference staff, who were the original Google, once fielded all the obscure questions that we now just type into a simple search engine.
But people are still turning up to the library; it’s just that what they are asking for has changed.
“They are still here asking different questions that they themselves can’t find on the Internet, or they don’t have computers at home and they want us to do it, or they come in and they have to fill out a form, and it has to be done online, so they come in and use our computers, so we are doing a lot of working helping people on the technology side,” Nelson says.
New immigrants are also taking advantage of the resource-rich library.
According to a recent survey, the library is one of the top places new immigrants go to get information, Buss says.
But books are still the heart of the operation. They still draw people in, captivate them and have kept them coming back for the last 150 years.
