ST. ALBANS LIBRARY 100 YEARS OLD

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31327, 25 March 1967, Page 22

ST. ALBANS LIBRARY 100 YEARS OLD

The St Albans Public Library will hold its 100th annual meeting in its Colombo street premises on March 30. Representatives of the surburban libraries in Christchurch have been invited to the annual meeting and later a birthday cake will be cut The library was founded on May 24, 1867, when Dover street residents held a meeting to form a Mutual Improvement Association. On October 28 that year, the original Knightstown library was opened in a small hall. The secretary (Mrs B. A. Miles) said yesterday that the library was founded to teach people to read and write. A constitution was drawn up which forbade “all loud talking, swearing or profane language, practical joking, smoking or drunkenness” in the hall. It also provided that the association build facilities for billiards, chess, and cards Women were not admitted as

members. Today in the library in Colombo street there are still billiard tables and cards are played once a week. The building was used by Templars, Druids, Mormons, a drum an fife band, the Salvation Army, a dancing class, a gymnasium and the St Albans Political Association during the years it was at Dove rstreet The City Council offered a new brick building to the library in Colombo street in 1920 and in 1921 the library was moved to its present site. The minute book recorded the minutes of every meeting for the 100 years of its existence, Mrs Miles said. The library, the second oldest in Canterbury to the Canterbury Public Library, began with 436 books. Now there are 18,851 books and membership is 579. Mrs Miles said membership had been higher but television had reduced it.