Grand Forks & District Public Library - Grand Forks, British Columbia
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T0SHEA
N 49° 01.934 W 118° 26.447
11U E 394687 N 5432038
Grand Forks & District Public Library is located at 7342 5th Street in the downtown area.
Waymark Code: WMGW0W
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 04/14/2013
Views: 2
We visited the library looking for historical information on the heritage buildings in the area. The staff was friendly and helpful. Following is some of the story of the library:
Regular library services to Grand Forks residents began in 1946. Before that time very limited service was available. In 1920 some 350 books were housed in the City office on the second floor of the old fire hall. In the 1930's Miss Henslaw set up a private lending library.
In 1945, Ray Orser organized meetings and made a survey of the district as to the desirability of public library service. The result of his work was the Certificate of Incorporation of the Grand Forks Library Association from the Registrar of Com-panies on May 7, 1946, with Reg Heaven as the first chairman. Pat Gasston now serves as the present chairperson.
"1946. Ray Orser was chief librarian. This was a rather op-timistic title when one considers there were no books, no money with which to purchase books and no place to put them if they had any books."
A crowded room in the old post office served as the first library with Marjorie Reynolds as the librarian, a volunteer position she held for 17 years.
The library continued to grow and, in 1964, a new library was opened in the museum building (now the Chamber of Commerce office). It was not too long before the library outgrew these premises.
The concerted efforts of the library board and the Friends of the Library, resulted in a modern 6000 square foot library at a cost of $515,000, of which $392,500 came from the Slag Fund, a heritage from our pioneers.
From the book Grand Forks - The First 100 Years
Grand Forks & District Public Library Offers:
Free WIFI, use of meeting rooms, and use of their vast book collection.
Our Collection
"We have more than 32,000 items available for borrowing and in-house use.
Special collections for Mystery, Western and Science Fiction within our General Fiction collection.
Magazines and Newspapers
Videos and DVDs
Audiocassettes, Compact Discs and PlayAway- Fiction & Non-fiction
Music CDs
Large print books
Reference books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, local history, and government documents
Books, magazines, videos, and audiocassettes for children and teens"
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