Library History

In 1897 the Esperance Institute, an iron building next to the first school in Dempster Street (now the RSL building) was bought for seventy five pounds and housed the first library in Esperance. A Mr Johnson was appointed as the first Library Officer with the library open on Wednesdays and Saturdays 7-8pm. Charges were made for the service and members could borrow one book for three days only! For a further two shillings and sixpence per quarter year members could borrow two books for three days.

 

The library had 50 subscribers and 389 books. The first consignment of books came from Mudies in London via the mail steamer “Valetta”.

In 1898 the library was open three times a week and later a public reading room was open between 10am to 10pm daily.

 

In 1956 the Institute was registered with the State Library Board and became a free public library service.

 

Mrs Ardyn Arlidge began working as a Library Officer with the Shire Council in 1960 on a part-time basis with the library housed in the same iron building and containing 1400 books. While the new Shire Offices were being built in Windich Street the library was moved to Dutton Arcade.

 

The current library building in Windich Street was first proposed in 1969 and finally  opened on January 15th 1971. It was built in the Mezzanine Floor design that was “all the rage” at the time and intended to house a maximum of 15,000 books. The library was named after Frank Collett, an R & I Bank rural loans officer who was credited with successfully assisting many new-land farmers get established in Esperance in the late fifties.

 

Mrs Arlidge ran the library in exemplary fashion for 25 years and retired in 1985.

 

Mrs Janet Wright, wife of the Shire’s Town Planner Howard Wright, was the next Library Officer appointed in 1985 and resigning in 1989 when her husband accepted a position with the Busselton Shire Council.

 

In 1989 the Shire appointed Mrs Jayne Arnold, wife of a local farmer, as the first qualified Librarian.

 

The library now had 13,600 stock items which now included Books on Tapes for the benefit of “visually impaired” people. Annual loans were around 63,000 items and there were 2 full-time staff members.

 

In 2007 Mrs Arnold is still the Manager of the Library and Information Service, there are in excess of 25,000 stock items and the annual loans are around 140,000 items and there are two full- and five part-time staff members.

 

Today the library is a very different place from that envisaged when it opened in 1971. It offers an extensive service of resources and programmes and has a totally different atmosphere from the traditional “books only” and “Quiet, please” libraries of the past.

 

Some of the changes over the years have been: