Page 8, Wednesday, June 30th> 1971, WHITBY FREE PRESS B ro.o 1 inmu with Eileen Young A History of Brooklin Public Library SOCIAL NOTES * Some of the sidewalk on Baldwin St. has been laid and some of the curbside of the road. There were two huge si1abs of cement laid in the bridge, each weigh- ing one ton. * The Brooklin United Church Sunday morning services will be held at 10:00 a. m. dur i ng Jul1y and Augus t. * 'Religion in Life' badges were pre- s e n t e d to the following children and young people who met their requirements for 'Religion in Life' studies: Ralph Bo- ake, scout; William Boake, cub; Caro- lyn Disney and Debbie Drinkwater, Gui- des; Janet Hill, brownie; Casey Maarse cub and Heather Stewart, brownie. Rev. George Mundy presented these at the regular morning church service of the Brookl in United Church. * Promotion Exercises of the Brook- lin United Church junior & senior Sun- day school was held last Sunday show- ing the faithful attendance of children and young people, the supervising int- erest of the parents and the faithful & capable work of the teachers. * TheCongregational Strawberry Sup- per for the members of the Brookl1 in Un- ited Church and their friends was held on Wednesday evening of this week. * BrooklinHorticultural Society met the Christian Education Building June 23rd with a very good showing roses. at on of * Brooklin players Chuck Li and Larry Lloyd of the Brook lin Redmen of the Sen- ior "A" Lacrosse Association have been named all star players to the 1971 Ont- arioLacrosse Association all star team. Li, a forward for the Redmen was named to the first team while Lloyd, a defenseman was chosen for the second te arn. * The Brooklin Womens' Institute mem- bers and friends spent a day at Ontario Place attending a fashion show at the forum in the afternoon. 4-H Club Learn Farm Safety Brooklin-South Ontario 4-H community club June meetings of the 4-H clubs were all safety meetings, with the Brooklin club meeting at the Town Hall. Mr. Wright, aguest from the Ontario Hydro gave a demonstration on hydro safety, showing how a few fatal acci- dents could happen when proper pre- cautions are not taken. Mouth to mouth resucitation was demonstrated. Mr. Cook, another guest, told about the Canadian Standard Association and showed safety equipment for farms. Awards for members completing six projects were presented. A film, tlSec- ond Chance" was also shown on farm saf- ety. Ken Wilson, representative, agricultural assistant spoke on behalf of the Photo above shows the present Brooklin library constructed in 1961. Theearliest available record of the Brooklin Public library service in this community gives the date of April 19, 1897. This was known as the Associat- ion Library and depended on readers fees, mainly for the means of purchas- ing books. The books were housed in a large, front room on the second floor of the building now occupied by Sted- mans. This room was also the meeting place of the Whitby township council. The lateDaniel Holliday was the Town- ship clerk at that time, and for many years acted as the librarian. The total amount spent for books that first year was $36. 41. This sum paid for the 870 books of various classifi- cations, and the price of individual books ranged from 7¢ to $1. 40 each, the great- er number being 7¢ to 20¢ each. In 1909, minutes show that a commi ttee of Board members was sent to the town- ship council to ask for a grant for the library's purposes, but no record is a- vailable to tell whether a grant was giv- en, though it is known that l1a t e r on, council did make a grant to assist. In 1915 the Inspector of Public Lib- raries was asked to come to Brooklin to advise on the procedure to obtain a library building. No further mention is made of the outcome of such a visit, or if such a visit ever did take place. InAugust 1921, council was asked to state terms on which library accommo- dations could be granted in the base- ment of the Township hall, which had beendeveloped from the former Baptist farm safety council, as no representa- tive was able to be present. The door prize, a fire extinguisher was won by Jeff Lehman. The meeting was adjourned by Mr. Ric Jefferson. Church building. Satisfactory arrange- ments were made, and on September I7th of that year, the books were transferred to their new home. In 1916, Miss Marie Holliday was ap- pointed Librarian following the resig- nation of her father, whom she had as- sisted for several years. In 1921, Mrs. George Jones became Librarian, with Mrs. Grigg as her as- sistant, and these were the two ladies who carried on this work until 1943, when Miss Dixon was made librarian with her n i e c e , Miss McKeown, assis tant. 111 health forced Miss Dixon's retirement a few years 1later and Miss McKeown con- tinued in office until June 1960, when Mrs. Boyce was appointed to the posit- ion. Dec ision to change from an Associat- ion Library to a tax supported public 1 ibrary was made in the fall1 of 1958, when avisit from Mr. Angus Mowat, the dir- ector of Public Library Services at that time was made, and the decision was further sparked by a generous bequest from the estate of the late Miss Edna Burton. In the early spring of 1959, our town- ship council approved the appl ication for a tax levy for library purposes and the present library built in 1961, with W. H. Down, chairman; W.G. Manning, T r e a surer, Mrs. F. M. Holliday, Sec- retary;Mrs. A. Boyce, Librarian, Miss L. McBrein and Mrs. E. Draper. "St. Leo's Presents", an e v e n i n g of plays, singing and dancing to end the school year. Left to right: Angela Jac- o b s , Mary An n e Ve r ydt, Jackie Van Den Vas senberg, Henry Bykert and Robert Roche.