Windsor Public Library
Encyclopedia
Windsor Public Library is a library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 in Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...

, Canada. It has ten branches and serves the city of Windsor through Children's, Young Adult, and Adult programs, services and collections. Its main branch is on Ouelette Avenue.

History

The year of 1894 marked the opening of Windsor's first free public library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...

 which was located in Lambie's Hall in the building that now stands as the former Windsor Star
Windsor Star
The Windsor Star is the regional newspaper of Windsor, Ontario , and is owned by the Postmedia Network Inc. Since 1923, the publication's main office is located at 167 Ferry Street in the downtown area...

building. After one year of operation the library had 5,245 volumes available to the public. This library remained Windsor’s sole library until the turn of the century when discussion began that the Lambie Hall Library was inadequate for the people of Windsor. On July 25, 1900 a formal request was placed to Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...

 to help establish a new library which would be up to date and would have the means to accommodate the people of Windsor. A $20,000 donation was received and a site was selected to begin the process of erecting Windsor’s new library. The library was set to be built at the corner of Park and Victoria. Once construction began, it became clear that $20,000 was not a large enough budget and in June and July 1902, Mr. Carnegie took it upon himself to give a further $7000 towards the project. Windsor’s Carnegie Library
Carnegie Library
Carnegie Library, Carnegie Public Library, Carnegie Free Library, Carnegie Free Public Library, Andrew Carnegie Library, Andrew Carnegie Free Library or Carnegie Library Building may refer to any of the following Carnegie libraries:- California :*Carnegie Library , listed on the National Register...

 officially opened its doors to the public on October 16, 1903. This library soon became the city's main reference library
Reference library
A reference library does not lend books and other items; instead, they must be read at the library itself. Typically such libraries are used for research purposes, for example at a university. See List of closed stack libraries...

 due to its vast collection of materials.

Again, Windsor came across the same problem which it had encountered before; as time passed, the library quickly became inadequate for the needs of the city. Built when Windsor had a population of 13,400 it was a revolutionary building which could serve up to 100,000 people, but by 1945 the population had almost reached 120,000. The quality of service that the Carnegie Library was able to offer was dwindling but the city was unable to make a change in location at this point.

In 1965, a proposal for the construction of a new downtown library was made that would cost $1,692,000. As Dennis B. Atkinson wrote to the Windsor Star in 1966, "It is a disgrace that a city the size of Windsor should have to struggle along with such a poor, out-of-date and cramped library." Though changes had been made to Carnegie Library in 1969 to improve accessibility to the building, provide extended hours, abolish some fees that had been put in place and coin operated photocopying was made available to the public in order to enhance the all around state of the library. It was at this time in the mid 1960s that the Library Board made the decision that a new building was required in the post-war period and the citizens of Windsor heavily supported this idea.

By 1971 a site had been selected for the location of the downtown library. It was to be located on the east side of Ouellette Avenue
Ouellette Avenue
Ouellette Avenue is one of the main North-South Roads in Windsor, Ontario, and acts as its Main Street. the road diverges from Dougall Avenue south of Downtown Windsor, travelling northward over the Essex Terminal Railway/CP Rail tracks, before terminating at a turnaround and parking lot at Dieppe...

 on the site that was formerly the home to the Ursuline School of Music. The design for the new library was done by architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

s Johnson and McWhinnie who hailed from Windsor and the construction costs of their designed reached $24.88 per square foot. The construction of this building was to start as soon as financial approval was received from the Ontario Municipal Board
Ontario Municipal Board
The Ontario Municipal Board is an independent administrative board, operated as an adjudicative tribunal, in the province of Ontario, Canada...

. The expected total cost was $3 million. January 1972 marked the ground breaking ceremony of Windsor’s Main Library. This library is to act as a resource center for the public of Windsor. An emphasis was placed on the multi-media approach with future possibility of change or advancement kept in mind. The library boasted two special services: The Languages Center and the Bookstore. Some of the other services offered by the new library were as follows: an information center, family reading center, arts and recreation center, literature and history section, film center, science and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

 section, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

, religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

 and social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

, archives and assembly and meeting rooms with capacity for up to 300 people. The Carnegie Library and the new library erected in 1972 were not the only libraries available to the citizens of Windsor. By 1969, there were eight existing branches of the Windsor Public library and today there are ten. This figure does not include the community archives or museums.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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