History of the Westlock Municipal LibraryWestlock grew from the modest farming community of 1912, adopting its name from two of the local landowners, William Westgate and William Lockhart. By the end of World War One in 1918 the community had developed into a village complete with a railway station, grain elevator and bank. The first permanent redbrick schoolhouse was opened in 1925 and served as the centre for education and literacy resources for the community with a small collection of books for local children and their families. The schoolhouse still stands as a local heritage site now located on the grounds of the Westlock Elementary School.

The village continued to expand through the 1930s while much of North America was struggling through the Depression years. The community opened its first Public Library at the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945. The Westlock Public Library was located in a small vacant shop on Main Street and was open to the public three days a week under the direction of Anne Hide. Within two years the community was designated as a Town based on population and services, including the presence of the Library.

Mrs. Hide spearheaded a small group of local residents in book selections for the Library and ran story hours for local children out of her living room. The library space was so small that most cataloguing was done out of the Hide home. In 1949 Mrs. Kemp, who owned a china & gift shop adjoined next to the Library, offered to help Mrs. Hide with running the Library. During the next two years the cramped Library space expanded to add a second room. The Library reins were passed to Grace Bentley after Mrs. Kemp retired from work at her china shop in 1951.

The Community recognized the importance of the Library and launched a fundraising campaign to expand the facility. On October 20, 1957 the Library moved took over the old schoolhouse that was, at the time, located next to the Post Office under the direction of Mrs. Bentley and a Town council appointed Library Board. An annex was added to the back of the building to house books belonging to the Westlock School Division. The Scholastic Collections were managed by Mrs. Mae McDonald (and later by Mrs. Vera Hughes) in cooperation with Mrs. Bentley and the Public Library. The collaboration was the origin of the current day joint use agreement between Westlock Municipal Libraries and the Pembina Hills Regional School Division #7.

In 1958 Mrs. Bentley retired her services at the Library in favour of a job that paid more than the meager honorarium offered by the Board. The Library director position was taken over by H.P. Raymont who lobbied for and received an increase in wage in compensation for increasing services to four days per week. Funding has always been an obstacle to operating the Library to meet the service demands of the public. Mr. Raymont recognized the need for recruiting and organizing a group of volunteers to help with Library maintenance in the ever-growing collections.

The Volunteers were, in large part, already involved with the Library through the Ladies Book Club, the Home & School Association, and the Kinettes group.

The Library Volunteers formed a small army of approximately 30 people to handle such tasks as book-mending and labeling, dusting shelves, book selection, and mailing notices for holds and over-dues. In the 1960s, following recommendation from the Board, Library Volunteers began accepting memorial donations of books for collections in honour of deceased members of the Community. Some of these memorial books remain valued treasures in the collection. Honorary and Memorial Donations continue today as a means of recognizing the Library as a legacy of the Community.As the collection expanded the Library Volunteers were pressed into more responsible roles to keep the Library operating on its restricted budget. The first Convenor of Operations was Mrs. Vera Hughs, followed by Mrs. M. Seyns and Mrs. Rose Burchett. But even in the absence of the Library Volunteer army, the space continued to be a concern in the old schoolhouse, even with the Scholastic Collections annex. The School Division was provided space to house curriculum-based Scholastic Collections in the new Municipal Building in 1964. The School Division’s move from the annex room opened space for expansion of the Public Library Collections. The added space was quickly filled.

Once the Library was the sole occupant of the old schoolhouse the funding sources diminished. Options were explored for increasing Government Grant funding and in 1965 the Library Board changed from a Community Library to a Municipal Library. This move elicited the desired effect of larger Grant support from the Provincial Government funneled to the Library through Town Offices. The Municipality also took over responsibility for providing rent and utility coverage for the Library. The move also allowed the new Librarian, Rudy Engler, to be afforded wages for three days work per week, a major increase from the meager honorarium of previous years. Mrs. Engler was the first paid employee of Westlock Municipal Library.

Collections continued to expand so that space was, once again, a serious concern. The Library Board, under the leadership of Chairman Bob Edgar and Secretary Dorothy Woodman, petitioned the Town for a more spacious and attractive facility to remain central to the Community, and preferably close to Town Office. Mrs. Engler organized her staff and the Library Volunteers for a major move of the Collections, albeit across the street and on April 18, 1973 the Library opened in the newly constructed Town Office Building occupying the space in the basement that is now used as Council Chambers. The new space allowed for the Library to host events, such as art shows, acting as a true heritage centre for the Community.

The Library continued to receive tremendous support from local groups through fundraising and volunteer activities for both Library operations and Board governance. The Westlock Municipal Library Board Chairs have included Bob McKenzie (1976-1991), Shirley Moire (1991-1994), Heather Toporowski (1994-1997), Ed Magee(1997-2000), Arla Trueblood, Colin Felstad, Elaine Keller, and Douglas Pearson. Board Trustees have shown incredible commitment to the Library often serving many years: Mike Ukrainetz retired after serving 29 years as Board Secretary and Treasurer.

The Library Board and Staff have shown remarkable dedication, spirit, and passion for the Library as a hearth of the Community where people and groups come together and forge a brilliant future. The pioneering spirit that gave birth to the Community has shown itself in many ways over the years, including the formation of the first seed co-op in Western Canada during the Depression and, more recently, the formation of one of the first Intermunicipal Library Boards in the Province of Alberta in 1999. The Intermunicipal Library Board was engineered to incorporate and share resources between the Municipalities of Westlock County and the Town of Westlock. Alberta Municipal Affairs accepted and considered the merged municipalities as a combined population, a feature of which boosted the Libraries available Government grant funding.