| Westport Public Library | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Established | 1908 |
| Location | 20 Jesup Road Westport, CT 06880 Map It |
| Access and use | |
| Population served | 26,508 |
| Other information | |
| Director | Maxine Bleiweis |
| Staff | 90 |
| Website | http://www.westportlibrary.org |
| Phone number | 203-291-4800 |
The Westport Public Library in the town of Westport, Connecticut, was originally established on February 4, 1886, by members of the Westport Reading-Room and Library Association.[1]
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The group received books, periodicals, and monetary donations from townspeople and set up two rooms over the Nash Pharmacy on the south side of State Street (now the Post Road). Mrs. Frances A. Gray was the first librarian, serving without pay.[1]
On July 25, 1905, a special town meeting convened to discuss plans for a new library building. The town’s citizens voted to accept a gift from a native son, philanthropist Morris K. Jesup, of a parcel of land on State Street and $5,000 to support a new library building, estimated to cost $20,000 altogether.
Mr. Jesup specified that “The Library shall be called The Westport Library.” He also tied his gift to the town giving $1,000 annually “to be used for the expenses incident to the proper conduct of this library, especially for the salary of a librarian and other expenses attending the care of a library building, including water, repairs, heating, lighting, cleaning, et cetera.” Mr. Jesup was not to see his library (that some sources say ultimately cost $75,000) to completion. He died in January 1908, three months before the dedication ceremony, attended by 300 citizens, including Mrs. Jesup, who toured the building, still bare of books, and signed the deeds conveying it to the Westport Library Association.
In 1916, Edith Very Sherwood was appointed Head Librarian. Her tenure would last through two world wars Mrs. Sherwood established a Children’s Department and reference collection that would serve the unique needs of the resident artists that came to Westport. And circulation grew to about 50,000 books a year.
1935 marked the first expansion of the 1908 building which would prove helpful since the library became a headquarters for collecting books for overseas troops during WWII. Edith Very Sherwood left her post in early 1944 and died following a long illness on New Year’s Day, 1945.
Smoking was banned in the library in December 1949.
In 1951, The Westport Public Library became the first library in Connecticut to use microfilm to take an image of each book borrowed.
An addition to the library was completed in 1956. This new modern brick structure extended toward the Saugatuck River. This was also the year that Albert Dorne, Head of the Famous Artists School, donated his pictorial resource file of over 500,000 items. The collection is still in use today.
The 1960s saw the installation of the library’s first photocopier (1963) costing $.25 and taking 30 seconds to print a page. A new Reference Room opened as part of a remodeling project in 1965, increasing shelving by 25% and seating by 100%. Yet in 1969 the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) determined that the library was still overcrowded.
More liberal library policies were adopted in the 70s: Younger children, once required to write both their first and last name in order to get a library card, could now receive a card by just writing their first name. Middle school students, who were previously restricted to the children’s department, could now use the adult section. The Mail-a-Book service, for homebound users, began in 1977 and continues today.
By 1982 the library offered the DIALOG online retrieval system for newspapers and magazine articles, business and scholarly information. Between 1973 and 1983, films became such a large part of the collection that they demanded their own space. They were separated from the rest of the library. In 1983 fund raising efforts were underway for a new library adjacent to Jesup Green.
The library site selected had been a landfill which caused controversy. However, efforts went ahead led by Ralph Sheffer. The cost of the project was 4.6 million dollars. Major gifts came from James McManus, the Higgins family, Paul Newman’s charity, Newman’s Own , Arnold Bernhard (founder of Value Line) and Lucille Lortel among others. The new library opened its doors to the public on Sept. 8, 1986.
In 1992, the Library added lamps, benches and shrubs along the river bank and a sidewalk of bricks with donors’ names. Robert Lamdin’s WPA mural “The Pageant of Literature, was restored and prominently displayed in the Great Hall of the Library.
The library in 1994 replaced the card catalog with the digital OPAC (the online public access catalog).
After the 1986 expansion, in 1996 another expansion was underway. It was discovered that the library had settled unevenly in several places and engineers were called in to remediate the situation.
In 1998 Maxine Bleiweis succeeded Sally Poundstone as director. The “As You Like it Café” was added to the lobby where it became a much used meeting center. Circulation climbed 60% in the first year following the addition. In 2002, the library went wireless, offering access to laptop users. In 2007, wireless printing followed. Library users are able to take their laptops outside the building. Programming has expanded and people come not only for books or videos, but also for social reasons, community offerings and entertainment.
It was reported in 2000 that the library's average 1,200 visitors per day on a circulation of 578,379 items ranked the library as the second busiest in the state of Connecticut per capita.[2]