Port Credit 2010

PCR

Port Credit: Our Community, Our Library

The Port Credit Public Library was established in 1896.1 The Women’s Christian Temperance Union called a meeting in October of that year in order to encourage Port Credit residents to sign a petition in support of a library.2 There were thirty-three initial petition signers.3 Some of these men and women were sent out to canvass the town in order to obtain more signatures and collect donations to help start the library.4

Library Board members
Ida Lynd and William Shaw

The library continued as an association library for many years. In 1952 Port Credit ratepayers voted by a margin of 784 to 167 in favour of the library becoming a public library supported through taxes.5 This was a major change in the history of the library because it turned the Port Credit Association Library into the Port Credit Public Library and allowed for the library to receive more financial support from the government.6

	Throughout its history the Port Credit Public Library moved many times to accommodate a growing community and an expanding book collection. Originally the library was run out of the teachers’ room at Riverside Public School7 .
Riverside Public School

The library moved to other temporary locations, but in the 1920s it found a more permanent home in the Orange Hall which was located on the property of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church8 . It resided in the Orange Hall for some time, although the building was moved off the church’s property to an area behind the fire hall. In May of 1956 the library moved again9 and library services were offered in a number of additional temporary locations.

Formerly the Orange Hall

	In 1962 the Port Credit Public Library was finally relocated into the building created specifically for it in Memorial Park, after the Town of Port Credit Council granted permission for its construction in 1961.
Opening Ceremonies, 1962

The entire town pitched in for the move. Members of the Library Board used their station wagons to help move the library’s contents to the new location and young borrowers pulled wagons filled with books into the new building10 . This facility at 20 Lakeshore Road East is where the Port Credit Public Library has remained ever since.
	Unpacking and Sorting, 1962

The influential involvement of the people of Port Credit was especially evident from the time of the library’s inception in 1896 until 1927. Some residents were directly and constantly involved with the library whereas others did what they could when they could. Local people gave their time, money and support in order to establish and maintain library service.

In the beginning it was the people of Port Credit, along with members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, who signed the petition to get the library started. These initial library supporters spent hours going door-to-door in order to gain more support for the library and acquire donations for the library fund. Mr. McFarlane and Miss Goggin collected money from the families who lived on the east side of the Credit River, and Mrs. Gray and Miss Hamilton collected money from those who lived on the west side11 . Their efforts would produce $110.25 in donations12 , which is equivalent to more than $2,000 in today’s terms13 . Considering that Port Credit was a town of about 650 people at the time, this was a significant amount of money to be donated14 . This type of fundraising continued for years as the residents of Port Credit continued to support the library.

Crossing the Credit River

The people of Port Credit made other donations as well. In December of 1896, for example, the library was given all twenty-five volumes of the Britannica Encyclopedia by Mr. V. Parker15 . Other individuals contributed their time in order to stage and support library events. One such event was a concert that featured performances by talented local residents who were not on the Library Board. Concert patrons were the people of Port Credit who helped raise money through ticket sales16 .

The Port Credit Public Library was not the only library in the area that attempted to raise money by putting on social functions. The Streetsville Public Library also organized concerts, but in the end they were not successful as fundraising programs17 .The Port Credit Public Library’s events, however, were successful due to the supportive townspeople and so the Library Board continued to organize these activities.

Streetsville Public Library

Public interest in the library is clearly indicated by the number of members the library acquired. By May of 1897 the library had 130 members and 114 of these were borrowing books18 . This means that within the first seven or eight months of the library’s foundation, about twenty percent of the town’s citizens were library patrons19 . Buying memberships and using the library were the two most effective ways to maintain the operation of the library services. If people did not use the library or support it with the purchase of memberships then it would be seen as a hopeless venture, and efforts taken to maintain the library would have quickly faded20 . This is yet another example of how the people of Port Credit were crucial to the longevity of the Port Credit Public Library through the support they gave.

Above all it was the Library Board and the people directly involved in the library’s functions who guaranteed the organization’s success. By volunteering their time, they helped the library cut costs. They mended the books, met monthly to discuss what the library needed, bought the books, met with and wrote letters to different organizations for grants, canvassed the city for donations, and so much more21 .

It is interesting to note that compared to other local libraries, the Port Credit Public Library’s librarian was making substantially less. The Streetsville Public Library librarian, Miss Lilley McKindsey, made thirty dollars a year, which was actually a reduction of ten dollars from the year before22 .

In 1897 the librarian in Port Credit, Miss E. L. Wright, was so supportive of the work that she donated her yearly salary of twelve dollars back to the library23 .

Rosetta Shaw (left) and Library Board Member Ida Lynd

Compared to other communities, the people of Port Credit seemed to be more involved and much more supportive of their local library. Local residents were essential for the success and prosperity of the Port Credit Public Library and they are why the library still exists today. Without them the library would have run out of money, the books would have fallen into disrepair, and the library would never have become what it is today. Many libraries survived due to public support until the government funded them, but the Port Credit Public Library seems to be unique in the amount of support the community gave it. It is this uniqueness that gives the Port Credit Public Library a special place in the history of Port Credit.

I’d rather be reading, 1962

1. Port Credit Library; A History 1896 – 1962, copy of pamphlet #10 (n.d.), 1.

2. Port Credit Public Library Board Minutes, 1896 – 1920 (n.d.), 1.

3. Port Credit Library; A History 1896 – 1962, copy of pamphlet #10 (n.d.), 3.

4. Port Credit Public Library Board Minutes, 1896 – 1920 (n.d.), 4.

5. Port Credit Library 1886 (96) – 1974 (n.d.), 3.

6. Port Credit Library; A History 1896 – 1962, copy of pamphlet #10 (n.d.), 2.

7. Ibid.,1.

8. Port Credit Library 1886 (96) – 1974 (n.d.), 1.

9. Port Credit Library; A History 1896 – 1962, copy of pamphlet #10 (n.d.), 1.

10. Port Credit Library 1886 (96) – 1974 (n.d.), 4.

11. Port Credit Public Library Board Minutes, 1896 – 1920 (n.d.), 4.

12. Ibid., 5.

13. Bank of Canada, “Inflation Calculator,” Bank of Canada, http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/inflation_calc.html
(accessed May 16, 2010).

14. Port Credit Library 1886 (96) – 1974 (n.d.), 1.

15. Port Credit Public Library Board Minutes, 1896 – 1920 (n.d.), 6.

16. Ibid., 67 – 76.

17. Mary Manning and Reverend T. O. Jones, A Village Library: The Story of the Streetsville Library 1854 – 1959
(Streetsville: W. G. Tolton, 1959), 7.

18. Port Credit Public Library Board Minutes, 1896 – 1920 (n.d.), 8.

19. Port Credit Library 1886 (96) – 1974 (n.d.), 1.

20. Port Credit Public Library Board Minutes, 1896 – 1920 (n.d.).

21. Port Credit Public Library Board Minutes, 1896 – 1920, 1920 – 1926, 1926 – 1939 (n.d.).

22. Mary Manning and Rev. T. D. Jones, A Village Library: The Story of the Streetsville Library 1854 – 1959
(Streetsville: W. G. Tolton, 1959), 12.

23. Port Credit Public Library Board Minutes, 1896 – 1920 (n.d.), 15.