Windsor Public Library is a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

system in

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It has ten branches and serves the city of Windsor through Children's, Young Adult, and Adult programs, services and collections. The central branch is located at the

Paul Martin Sr. Building The Paul Martin Sr. Building is a 6-storey Art deco low-rise office building in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, located on the west side of Ouellette Avenue between Chatham Street and Pitt Streets. Building The building, originally known as the Domin ...

on Ouellette Avenue in downtown Windsor.

History

The year of 1894 marked the opening of Windsor's first free

which was located in Lambie's Hall in the building that now stands as the former ''

Windsor Star The ''Windsor Star'' is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays. History The paper began as the weekly ''Windsor Record'' in 1888, changing its name to the ''Bo ...

'' building.Windsor Public Library. (1973). Souvenir Brouchure Commemorating the Opening of Windsor's New Public Library. rochure After one year of operation the library had 5,245 volumes available to the public. This library remained Windsor's sole library until the turn of the century when discussion began that the Lambie Hall Library was inadequate for the people of Windsor. On July 25, 1900 a formal request was placed to

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

to help establish a new library which would be up to date and would have the means to accommodate the people of Windsor.The New Building. (1953). Carnegie Library Windsor, On. 1903-1953. Fifty Years of Service. Shell-Mex and B.P Limited. (pg 10). A donation was received and a site was selected to begin the process of erecting Windsor's new library. The library was set to be built at the corner of Park and Victoria. Once construction began, it became clear that $20,000 was not a large enough budget and in June and July 1902, Mr. Carnegie took it upon himself to give a further $7,000 towards the project. Windsor's Carnegie Library officially opened its doors to the public on October 16, 1903. This library soon became the city's main

reference library A library is a collection of Document, materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or electronic media, digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a ...

due to its vast collection of materials.Inadequacy of the Carnegie Building. (1945). A History of the Windsor Public Libraries, 1937-1944. rochure Hume, Anne: Author. (pg. 2). Again, Windsor came across the same problem which it had encountered before; as time passed, the library quickly became inadequate for the needs of the city. Built when Windsor had a population of 13,400 it was a revolutionary building which could serve up to 100,000 people, but by 1945 the population had almost reached 120,000. The quality of service that the Carnegie Library was able to offer was dwindling but the city was unable to make a change in location at this point. In 1965, a proposal for the construction of a new downtown library was made that would cost . As Dennis B. Atkinson wrote to the ''Windsor Star'' in 1966, "It is a disgrace that a city the size of Windsor should have to struggle along with such a poor, out-of-date and cramped library." Though changes had been made to Carnegie Library in 1969 to improve accessibility to the building, provide extended hours, abolish some fees that had been put in place and coin-operated photocopying was made available to the public in order to enhance the all around state of the library. It was at this time in the mid 1960s that the Library Board made the decision that a new building was required in the post-war period and the citizens of Windsor heavily supported this idea. By 1971 a site had been selected for the location of the downtown library. It was to be located on the east side of

Ouellette Avenue Ouellette Avenue (most commonly pronounced Oh-Let, pronounced by French-speakers as 'Wellette') is one of the main North-South Roads in Windsor, Ontario, and acts as its Main Street. The road diverges from Dougall Avenue south of Downtown Win ...

on the site that was formerly the home to the Ursuline School of Music. The design for the new library was done by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s Johnson and McWhinnie who hailed from Windsor and the construction costs of their designed reached $24.88 per square foot. The construction of this building was to start as soon as financial approval was received from the

Ontario Municipal Board The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) was an independent administrative board, operated as an adjudicative tribunal, in the province of Ontario, Canada. It heard applications and appeals on municipal and planning disputes, as well as other matters sp ...

. The expected total cost was $3 million. January 1972 marked the ground breaking ceremony of Windsor's Main Library. This library is to act as a resource center for the public of Windsor. An emphasis was placed on the

multi-media Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

approach with future possibility of change or advancement kept in mind. The library boasted two special services: The Languages Centre and the Bookstore. Some of the other services offered by the new library were as follows: an information centre, family reading centre, arts and recreation centre, literature and history section, film centre, science and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

section,

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

and

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

and assembly and meeting rooms with capacity for up to 300 people. The Carnegie Library and the new library erected in 1972 were not the only libraries available to the citizens of Windsor. By 1969, there were eight existing branches of the Windsor Public library and today there are nine. This figure does not include the community archives or museums.

Services

*Information and reference services *Access to full text databases *Community information *Internet access *Reader's advisory services *Programs for children, youth and adults *Delivery to homebound individuals *Interlibrary loan *Free downloadable audiobooks

Branches

The Windsor Public Library operates 10 branches across the city.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Public libraries in Ontario Buildings and structures in Windsor, Ontario Culture of Windsor, Ontario Education in Windsor, Ontario Libraries established in 1894 1894 establishments in Ontario

History

Services

Branches

See also

References

External links