The new library building – in 1964

We found a really interesting brochure in our files the other day.  It’s a flyer that presented the arguments for building our current building back in the mid-60s.  Among the interesting tidbits:

•  “the new building is not pretentious, but it will give you a functional library of which you can be proud”
• it will increase the capacity of the library from 65,000 to 200,000 books
• the bookmobile will no longer have to park across the street and books be carried across to it
• there will be “individual study alcoves with typing permitted”
• it will have an elevator and air conditioning, unlike the previous building

Needless to say, our user’s needs have continued to change, and library services have continued to evolve, in the last 40+ years.  The new building that will replace this one will be equally modern and equally forward-looking, but no doubt our successors 40 or 50 years from now will find our ideas about our new building just as quaint as we find the ones from 1964.  If you’d like to see the whole brochure, we’ve scanned it and put a copy here.