Cranbrook Public Library celebrates 100 years of accessible literature

Courtney Dickson · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 05, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

The nationalist room successful Cranbrook, B.C., is celebrating a period of serving the community.

The library in the East Kootenay metropolis turned 100 connected July 4, garnering congratulatory greetings from the likes of authors Louise Penny, Ann Patchett and John Grisham.

Simon Tolkien, a humanities fabrication writer and grandson of Lord of the Rings writer J. R. R. Tolkien, sent a video offering good wishes.

"What a travel the room has travelled, from specified humble beginnings successful 1925 ... with conscionable 95 members to the thriving instauration you are today, with a rank of implicit 10,000," Tolkien said successful a video to room staff. 

"Congratulations to you each connected this fantastic occasion."

According to its website, the library opened its doors to the nationalist connected July 4, 1925 with a tiny postulation of donated books and was open 9 hours a week. 

Mike Selby, lawman manager of the Cranbrook Public Library, said the politician astatine the clip checked retired the archetypal room book.

Libraries nowadays often marque headlines astir issues specified as banned books and resistance queen communicative time. The Cranbrook room got its archetypal sensation of contention successful 1939 erstwhile a patron destroyed a transcript of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men because helium didn't deliberation it was a decent book. 

According to the library's website, the patron was "thoroughly admonished by the Library Board and told that members were not to enactment arsenic censors."

In the precocious '50s, the room had outgrown its archetypal abstraction and moved into a caller building.

As request for books grew, and exertion changed implicit the decades, the Cranbrook room — similar galore libraries — has had to adapt. 

Selby, who has worked astatine the room for astir 2 decades, said a batch has changed during his clip there. 

But 1 happening remained: the citizens and leaders successful Cranbrook believed successful escaped entree to books and information, Selby said. 

"To person that spell for 100 years is truly thing special." 

B.C. Premier David Eby said libraries are important now more than ever.

"In an property of disinformation and misinformation, you beforehand literacy, arsenic good arsenic the captious reasoning indispensable to abstracted information from fiction," helium said successful a video. 

"For a century, you've kept the radical successful Cranbrook and the surrounding communities informed and entertained. What a tremendous achievement."

Chief librarian Ursula Brigl said libraries are astir overmuch much than conscionable information. 

"It's besides a spot wherever radical tin travel to work, to study, to breathe, to relax, to get retired of the elements. It's besides a spot wherever radical are escaped to beryllium themselves. It's a spot wherever they tin research and beryllium funny and observe thing new.

"At their core, nationalist libraries are present to service the people."