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| The Windham Public Library was opened in December 1971 and will be celebrating its 50th anniversary throughout the year. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE |
“We are celebrating our anniversary for four months with a special recognition of the library in early April during National Library Week,” Jen Alvino, Director of WPL said.
Alvino also said that due to the pandemic, the celebrations will be passive with no large gathering and fanfare as would be the preference. It will, however, include a special display in the library lobby highlighting various fun facts and interesting historical information with photographs from years past.
“We will also include in our celebrations, special posts on
Facebook, monthly special newsletters, and take-home puzzle sheets highlighting
the historical trivia of the library to name a few events. All this will occur
with a final celebration of a special re-dedication in April.”
Although officially dedicated 50 years ago in April, the books
made their new home in the newly constructed building in December 1971 from the
Windham Center Circulating Library. The circulating library was located on
Windham Center Road at the Route 202 intersection (across the street from
Corsetti’s) until it was moved from that spot in 1973 to its current location
on the grounds of the Windham Historical Society.
“Our library’s history is very interesting as it has involved a big community effort of interested and committed volunteers who wanted to share resources with the rest of its townspeople,” Alvino said. “The dedication of those volunteers shows just how much this town wanted a library.”
Two special devoted families from the WPL’s past include the
Rogers and Cooper families of Windham. Jean Cooper Reeves, former assistant
librarian for about 10 years shared in a letter written to the Friends of the
Library a few memories of the past, including an example of the efforts it took
to keep up a volunteer circulating library.
“It was around 1940 and the old library was run by volunteers,”
Reeves wrote. “Lynwood Rogers and his wife Alice lived across the street from
the library, which was only open on Thursdays. Each Thursday morning, Mr.
Rogers would take wood over to the library and start a fire and then Alice
would show up and run the library for the day. Volunteers were the foundation
of the library.”
Reeves also shared in the letter that Maine author Stephen King,
who lived in North Windham at the time, was a member of the book selection
committee.
WPL was built by Leon Cooper and his son Leon Cooper, Jr. Myrle
Cooper, who was a proofreader for the Portland Press Herald and a graduate of
the University of New Hampshire was the first paid employee and director of the
newly established WPL.
Other directors through the years include Allison Heath, Joanne
Kellouge, and Inese Gruber who retired in 2013 after 25 years. Gruber, who now
lives along the shores of North Carolina, took time to share her excitement
about the WPL’s 50th celebrations.
“I am so happy the library is still thriving and is an important
part of the community,” she said. “The library is an integral part of any town
and the community’s dedication to it increases its value. Windham is very lucky
to have the Town of Windham’s support. Not all municipalities support a library
like this and include it as a part of their budget. Volunteers were also core
to the library while I was a director – from shelving books and more to allow
the professional staff to do their job.”
Community dedication and support continue to be essential to
WPL’s success today.
“We are so lucky to have not only dedicated staff who love their
jobs and the patrons we serve but we also have a great group of volunteers,”
Alvino said. “This includes The Friends of the Library who donate their time to
help the library in many ways.”
The Friends of the Library, who currently consist of Sherry
Andre, Susan Dries, and former children’s librarian Laurel Parker, have
supported the library since 1972 and have provided financially for various
programs such as the children summer reading programs, author reading programs,
book deliveries to seniors, a monarch butterfly program, and the Cornerstones
of Science program. In addition to helping establish a variety of services, the
friends provided important machinery to assist with data retrieval and research
such as with microfilm and microfiche devices.
“In the mid-1990s we purchased the library’s first computer,”
Parker said. “It was a very basic computer that cost $5,000. You could get something
for only $500 by today’s standards but we were pretty excited then because it
was more than what we had – which was an electric typewriter that would store
memory.”
In the past 50 years, there have been many steep advancements in
technology and the WPL continues to grow with the everchanging world. But what
hasn’t changed over the years is meeting the needs of its townspeople, serving
the requests of the community who continues to support this house of knowledge.
“We are always looking for new ideas and love hearing from our
patrons on what they like to see added to the programs we offer,” Alvino said.
“The history of this library has been steeped in community dedication and
support and we plan to continue this tradition for the next 50 years.”
Follow the latest celebration events and other programming by perusing their website at www.windham.lib.me.us or by following them on Facebook. <
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