Clarenville Public Library
Clarenville Public Library
The Clarenville Public Library has encouraged lifelong learning and the love of reading by providing books and other reading materials as well as fun activities from its current location on Manitoba Drive since the mid-1980s. Our community’s first library though was much more modest.
Here is a short history of our library from Saltwire in 2015:
The Clarenville Public Library: then and now
“The few people who met at the Odd Fellows Hall in Shoal Harbour on the 13th of April, 1945, had a dream: a public library for the Clarenville area. Times were tough in 1945, but so were those people. Determined too. One thing led to another, and it happened!
The Clarenville Public Library had its official opening on April 23, 1947. The building on Memorial Drive was the first of three locations occupied by the library in its 68 years.
This first library was small: 375 square feet. It was a novelty in the community, and visitors were few at first. Loaning books was its only function. It was open just a few hours a week. The librarian’s salary: $20 a month! Book holdings were small, only 166 books were borrowed the first month. But the idea caught on; by 1972, more space was needed.
That year, the library moved into 1,200 sq. ft. of surplus space in the new town hall. Membership continued to grow: other services (like NFB films) were now offered, and there was a spin-off effect when local schools began developing libraries.
By 1980, the library was open five days a week for a total of 25 hours. Book holdings exceeded 6,000 volumes, and borrowing was about 1,500 books a month.
The present library building on Manitoba Drive was officially opened on Nov. 3, 1984. Its 3,000 sq. ft., spread over two stories, provides much more shelf space for books. Current holdings are about 17,000 regular volumes. Also, the e-Library has really taken off in the last couple of years. Approximately 3,200 regular books are borrowed each month; about 38,000 each year. Thankfully, the book check-out/check-in process was computerized in 1996. The larger space enables the library to offer a wide range of special services and programs.”
Have you been to the Clarenville Public Library recently? You should check it out and check out something to read while you’re there.
