The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Treasures of Our Memorial Library -- A Historical Look at the Friends of the Library On the eve of our Library's 50th Anniversary, it is perhaps appropriate to review the history of the Friends of the Library. Many of us will have read the book "Fulfilling a Dream" by Sally Carswell. Not only is it the definitive history of our Library, it is also a very good read. The book tells the story of the establishment of the West Vancouver Memorial Library, from the passing of the B.C. Public Libraries Act in 1919, through the Library's opening on Remembrance Day 1950 and on until 1990. Although a Public Library Association was established here in 1921, the effort petered out during the 30's due to the depression. In 1944 the community again got together to work towards the establishment of a municipal public library. It would seem that most of West Vancouver was involved in this project and "it was the largest community undertaking in the history of Greater Vancouver. " Once the Library was established, the Library Committee suddenly found that their job was finished. Not wanting to sit back, they formed the Friends of the West Vancouver Memorial Library whose purpose was to help the library in any way possible. The first documented record of their activities are the minutes of an executive meeting held on December 10, 1951. The issues discussed included the planting of donated bulbs; the programme for the future meetings with organization of films, puppet shows and story telling demonstrations; the establishment of fees and banking procedures; and a report by the "Shut In Committee". This latter activity continues to be an active and important part of the Friends activities with the delivery and collection of monthly selections of books and materials selected by our librarians for home-bound patrons. Reading through these minutes, it is obvious that the Friends had a very full and innovative programme running by the early fifties. By 1955, the Library was severely overcrowded and it was evident that an addition was urgently needed. The Friends set themselves the task of finding ways and means to help provide this necessary expansion. In May of that year, the Friends approached the Municipal Council with a proposition. If Council could provide $20,000, the Friends of the Library would obtain the additional amount to build the necessary extension. In 1957, the Library's first addition was officially opened. In July 1962, the new Jubilee Wing was officially opened, with the refreshments served by The Friends. By the late sixties/early seventies, the Library was again seriously short of space. In 1975 a three phase extension plan was drawn up and presented to Council, the first phase of which was formally opened in November 1977. The final extension was opened in 1993. This involved a huge fund raising effort in which the Friends played their part by contributing $21,000 to the building extension fund in 1990. So, you can see the pattern of operation of the Friends evolving over the years since 1919, but fundamentally based on raising funds and public awareness of the Library's importance to the community. Our purpose is to: • Assist and support the Board and Staff of the West Vancouver Memorial Library; • Ensure that the Library continues to recognize and respond to community needs; • Assist, if requested, to promote and extend the programmes and services of the Library within the community; • To provide hospitality at the Library's official and social functions; • Encourage gifts, endowments and bequests to the Memorial Library Foundation for use in developing library service and facilities. An important part of our role is to provide the small homely touches that preserve the Library's tradition as part of the West Vancouver "family" community so that we do not become a sterile business corporation. These include home baked cookies and the flower arrangements provided by one of our members using plants and flowers from her own garden. The Chief Librarian has (Continued on page 3)