100 years of service

Friday, August 13, 2010

Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom A view inside a reading area at the Hollis Social Library. The library will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this coming August.

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Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom The front of the Hollis Social Library was added on to the 1910 building. The library will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this coming August.

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Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom The Hollis Social Library, built in 1910.

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Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom The children's room Tuesday, July 20, 2010, at the Hollis Library.

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Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom Franklin Worcester was instramental in founding the Hollis Library. The library will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this coming August.

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Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom Library Director Gaye Kulvete helps out 11-year-old Caroline Kroeger finding a book Tuesday, July 20, 2010, at the Hollis Library. The library will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this coming August.

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Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom Library Director Gaye Kulvete helps out 11-year-old Caroline Kroeger finding a book Tuesday, July 20, 2010, at the Hollis Library. The library will be celebrating it's 100th anniversary this coming August.

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Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom A view inside a reading area at the Hollis Social Library. The library will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this coming August.

Enlarge Purchase Photo

HOLLIS – When Dotty Hackett moved to Hollis in 1962, the population was about 1,700 and the Hollis Social Library, a 1,500-square-foot Greek Revival building, was open one afternoon a week.

Today, the library occupies 5,500 square feet and boasts a collection of about 47,500 books and other materials shared by more than 5,000 cardholders, adults and children, who make up about 68 percent of the town’s population.

In 1962, the library’s first telephone was installed in a space filled with books but lacking room for a patron to sit and read. Back then, there were no educational programs, computers, printers, copy or fax machines, or other amenities that present-day users take for granted.

“It’s changed tremendously,” said Hackett, 81, who years back served on the library board of trustees and volunteered with the Hollis Woman’s Club, which operated the checkout desk one afternoon a week for a number of years starting in 1966.

What hasn’t changed is the library’s role as a source of information, continuing education and pleasure reading.

“A lot of us had children, and we felt it was a good thing for them to go to the library,” said Mary Anne Smith, a former president of the Woman’s Club who started the volunteer program. “We wanted the children to know the library.”

On Aug. 24, the library building will turn 100, and officials are planning a birthday bash in September during Old Home Days.

The event will include readings by a New Hampshire author, a cooking demonstration and tasting by Hollis chef Liz Barbour and other events dedicated to recalling the library’s past and considering its future.

The Hollis Social Library, like other public libraries across the state and nation, is an outgrowth of the social library movement that took root in America in the late 1700s, starting with the library founded by Benjamin Franklin.

Social libraries were few and far between following the American Revolution, and many didn’t survive the economic downturn after the war. But the few that remained grew with the economy, and more were created.

According to historian Elmer D. Johnson, author of “History of Libraries in the Western World,” there were more than 500 social libraries in New England between 1790 and 1815.

Most social libraries were short-lived, Johnson wrote. But during their heyday, they provided local readers with inexpensive books.

There were also variations on the community social library: lyceum, mercantile, mechanics, apprentices, YMCA and factory workers’ libraries flourished during this period.

Collections, moreover, ranged from a few hundred – Hollis had fewer than 300 books in its early social library – to several thousand, and in a few cases even more.

Likewise, the type of books varied: Some libraries excluded fiction, while others dedicated half of their book stock to fiction, and science, agriculture, economics, sociology and law represented a small percentage of titles.

The Hollis Social Library opened in 1799 as a membership association and was sold to the town for a dollar in 1879, becoming one of the first public libraries in the state. By the early 1900s, town resident Franklin Worcester had raised $13,500 for a new building and donated the parcel in the town’s center where the library stands today.

A section of the 1911 Hollis Town Report records Worcester’s gift of land for the library “signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of: George F. Hills, William C. Burbee” and notarized by Charles W. Hardy, justice of the peace.

Worcester was the first chairman of the board of library trustees, and the library was moved from the Congregational Church hall next door to the new building in 1910. It wasn’t expanded until 1993, when 4,000 square feet were added.

Two years after the expansion, the library began providing free Internet service, the latest in a series of services and materials, including CDs, DVDs, magazines, library passes and specialized free programs for children and adults.

Some observers say that the more the library has changed, the more it has remained the same.

“Even today, libraries still serve the purpose of leveling the playing field,” Hollis library director Gaye Kulvete said. “They’re an opportunity to educate yourself.”

For Kulvete, one of the library’s most important responsibilities is the children in the community.

“They start as babies and they develop a sense of words and language,” she said, envisioning a never-ending circle of learning. “Probably some little boy back in 1910 was looking for a book on basketball, or some little girl wanted something about horses.”

Although the Hollis Social Library was open just one afternoon a week in 1962, today, it’s open seven days a week for a total of 57.5 hours during the school year and 51 hours during summer vacation.

Hackett remembers how before automation, patrons signed a book card that included the signatures of previous borrowers.

“That would be a huge no-no today,” she said.

Fifty years ago, a visit to the library was all business. Today, patrons greet each other in the lobby, exchanging news and information and scanning the bulletin boards for announcements.

“I think it’s a very important part of the community, and I think it will continue to be,” Hackett said. “Now, they serve many more purposes, and with the addition of computers, it brings a great many more people.”

Nor has the pleasure of reading a book diminished in a world flush with Kindles, Nooks and other electronic reading devices.

“Some of us really like having a book in hand,” Hackett said.

The library plans to promote its centennial birthday celebration in the coming weeks. For more information, e-mail director@hollis.lib.nh.us.

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24, or hbernstein@cabinet.com.