Library doesn't slow down as it celebrates 100 years

Wrangell’s public library is 100 years old this week and ready to turn the page for its next century.

The library’s history includes several chapters, starting with 802 books on the shelves on opening night Oct. 31, 1921, about equal to the 821 residents counted in the 1920 census. It must have been a long wait for popular books back then.

Members of the Wrangell Civic Club led the movement to open a library. The town was just 18 years old and ready for a library, which shared the building at the site where the senior center is now located.

The books moved into new quarters a decade later, sharing space in the former school building that was located where the library gazebo is today. Then, after 40 years in the same place, the library moved one last time to its current quarters, which were built after the city borrowed $157,000 in 1974 to help pay for construction.

In 1980, it was renamed the Irene Ingle Public Library in honor of the town’s librarian, who had retired after 33 years. About a decade later, the building was expanded and renovated, and that brings readers to the latest chapter.

From the original 802 books, the library now has thousands of books, DVDs and music CDs, plus free computers with public access, printing services available, free Wi-Fi, an online library catalog, interlibrary loans of books from other libraries across the state, and access to the Alaska Digital Library collection of digital and audiobooks.

The library also offers toddler story time, a summer reading program and special events throughout the year — such as birthday cake from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28.

All this, and the library is open just 24 hours a week: Noon to 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and noon to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Certainly, money is tight and COVID-19 has cut into public hours. But maybe, as a birthday present, the borough assembly could look at adding enough money back to the budget to restore some of the library’s lost hours for public use. It would be nice to start the next 100 years with a door that opens a little wider.

—Wrangell Sentinel