User:WestportLibrary

History
In the Beginning

The Westport Library’s roots date back to February 4, 1886, when a group of enthusiastic book-lovers formed the Westport Reading-Room and Library Association. The group received books, periodicals, and monetary donations from townspeople and set up two rooms over the Nash Pharmacy on the south side of State Street (now the Post Road). Mrs. Frances A. Gray was the first librarian, serving without pay!

On July 25, 1905, a special town meeting convened to discuss plans for a new library building. The town’s citizens voted to accept a gift from a native son, the philanthropist Morris K. Jesup, of a parcel of land on State Street and $5,000 to support a new library building, estimated to cost $20,000 altogether.

Mr. Jesup specified that “The Library shall be called ‘The Westport Library.” He also tied his gift to the town giving $1,000 annually “to be used for the expenses incident to the proper conduct of this library, especially for the salary of a librarian and other expenses attending the care of a library building, including water, repairs, heating, lighting, cleaning, etcetera.” Mr. Jesup was not to see his library (that some sources say ultimately cost $75,000) to completion. He had died in January 1908, only three months before the dedication ceremony that some 300 citizens attended including Mrs. Jesup, who toured the building still bare of books and signed the deeds conveying the building to the Westport Library Association.

The First Decade - An Artists' Colony and Mrs. Sherwood

The year 1916, saw Westport emerge as a colony for working artists, illustrators, painters and writers. The town offered them inexpensive country living with an easy commute to New York City’s advertising and publishing industries. During the same year, Edith Very Sherwood was appointed Head Librarian. Her tenure would last through two world wars and bring the Westport Library great distinction for the support of the arts. Mrs. Sherwood, already devoted to art herself, made it her mission to build a reference collection that would serve the unique needs of the resident artists. Under her leadership, WPL developed along a different path from other typical small town libraries. Its resources for artists and illustrators and later for writers dwarfed the holdings of public libraries in communities anywhere near Westport’s size. During her tenure, she expanded the library’s reference services for the general public growing circulation to about 50,000 books a year. She also established a Children’s Department.

The 30's, 40's, and 50's...

1935 marked the first expansion of the 1908 building which would prove helpful since the library became a headquarters for collecting books for overseas troops during WWII. Edith Very Sherwood, the artists’ librarian, left her post in early 1944 and died following a long illness on New Year’s Day, 1945.

Times were changing: Smoking was banned in the library in December 1949. Patrons commented that the library was the last place you could now sit quietly and smoke a good cigar!

In 1951, The Westport Public Library became the first library in the state to use microfilm to take an image of each book borrowed.

An addition to the library was completed in 1956.This new modern brick structure extended toward the Saugatuck River. This was also the year that Albert Dorne, Head of the Famous Artists School, donated his pictorial resource files of over 500,000 items. The collection is still in use today.

The 60's and 70's...

The 1960’s saw the installation of the library’s first photocopier (1963) when it cost $.25 and took 30 seconds to print a page!! (We’ve come a long way, baby.) A new Reference Room opened as part of a remodeling project in 1965 increasing shelving by 25% and seating by 100%. Yet in 1969 the RTM determined that the library was still bursting at the seams.

More liberal library policies were adopted in the 70s : Younger children once required to write both their first and last name in order to get a library card, were now allowed to receive a card by just writing their first name and middle school students who were previously restricted to the children’s department, could now use the adult section too!Another 70s innovation, the Mail-a-Book service, for homebound users, began in 1977 and continues today.

A New Library for the 80's and 90's

By 1982 the library offered the DIALOG online retrieval system for newspapers and magazine articles, business and scholarly information. Between 1973 and 1983, films became such a large part of the collection that it demanded its own space: it was separated from the rest of the library above a Chinese restaurant called West Lake. In 1983 fund raising efforts were underway for a new library adjacent to Jesup Green. The library site selected had once been a landfill which caused controversy. However efforts went ahead led by Ralph Sheffer. The cost of the project was 4.6 million dollars. Major gifts came from James McManus, the Higgins family, Paul Newman’s charity, Newman’s Own, Arnold Bernhard ( founder of Value Line) and Lucille Lortel among others. The new library opened its doors to the public on Sept. 8, 1986.

In 1992, the new library was enhanced by a Library Riverwalk and Gardens. There were lamps, benches and shrubs along the river bank and a sidewalk of bricks with donors’ names. Meanwhile inside, Robert Lamdin’s WPA mural “The Pageant of Literature, was restored and prominently displayed.

The library crossed a digital threshold in 1994 by closing the card catalog! The system of filing cards which had served libraries from the time of Melvil Dewey was replaced by the OPAC (the online public access catalog).

After the 1986 expansion, a mere decade later, in 1996 another expansion was underway. During this time, it was discovered that the library had settled unevenly in several places and engineers were called in to remediate.

Today and Beyond

Maxine Bleiweis was named director in 1998, replacing Sally Poundstone. Since the addition was not complete, Maxine had the opportunity to innovate. And so the “As You Like it Café” was added to the lobby where it was and still is an aromatic, much used meeting center. “Warm and Wired” was the theme for the new customer focused library and the community streamed back. Circulation climbed 60% in the first year following the addition. In 2002, the library went wireless, offering access to laptop users. In 2007, wireless printing followed. Now, with coffee in hand, library users take their laptops outside and work along the river!

Today, programs have become a huge library draw; people come not only for books and scholarly pursuits, but also for social reasons, digital reasons, community offerings and entertainment. Now, in 2009, as we see our popularity grow, we also see our space strained. And once again, the need for growth and expansion is the part of our history that is, without question, repeating itself.