Turning Back the Pages

Book excerpt: Saskatoon Public Library’s history is suffused with drama. Floods, fires, boardroom battles, clashes with City Hall, strikes,bold art robberies, outraged and belligerent patrons, pilfering and mutilation of materials, stalkers and flashers, animals at large on the premises, theft of computer equipment, and a covered-up dispute that sent its chief librarian fleeing into obscurity – all appear in these pages. Set these stormy incidents against a historical matrix of two world wars, a major Depression, world-wide epidemics, and a revolution in technology, and the colourful pageantry of the Saskatoon Library history emerges.But mostly the Library quietly hummed along – efficient, orderly and welcoming. It has been a symbol of public service, a haven for troubled souls, an escape for the bored, as well as a treasure house for information seekers. As an institution, the SPL has had a remarkably progressive history of service and compassion – even missionary zeal – reaching out to the disabled, the illiterate, the poor, “New Canadians” and Aboriginal folk.