The public library was heralded as an agency for general self-improvement, providing opportunities for education leading to an informed and therefore better electorate. The library was promoted as a continuing means of moral education that could prevent, or at least reduce, the social and moral problems associated with urbanization. The growing prosperity of the nation and the rise of labor unions brought shorter working hours, more leisure time, and the financial ability and personal desire to support libraries. Communities also had energetic leaders who recognized the need for a public library and were able to persuade their fellow citizens to vote in support of the new service.

Such boosterism and civic pride were characteristic of the Auburn Board of Trade which, in 1890, charged a committee to plan a library to serve Auburn residents and to "devise ways and means for its establishment."

On October 27, 1890, the Auburn Public Library was officially chartered as "a working library, having the best books of reference, and the standard works of belles-lettres, poetry, philosophy, travel, and fiction; to cooperate with the schools; and to serve the entire community." The Lewiston Journal's report of that meeting was headlined: "Founded Well! The Auburn Public Library Gets a Start on the World, and a Happy One, Too. It Is Named, Organized, Officered, Endowed with By-Laws and Gets a Gift of $500 All in One Evening."

The Journal editorialized, "A modern city without a Free Public Library is an anomaly and in imminent peril of a provincialism which is bad alike for the life and thought and for the spirit of the people. In such a progressive city as Auburn the absence of a free public library is an anomaly. That anomaly is no longer to exist....We may go forward with those extensions in brick and mortar as well as in thought, which are found so valuable in other cities of social and intellectual expansion and which grow as naturally out of good books as oaks from acorns." (10/25/1890)

Special lectures and programs were planned to raise funds to purchase books; the Journal reported on June 5, 1891, of such a lecture by Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer. Sales of 600 tickets brought in $108.40. Other library support was raised by selling subscriptions and memberships: $25 entitled life membership in the association and eligibility to hold office; $15 plus $1 annual fee per year for the same privileges; or, $3 per family, $1 per individual for annual membership. The first major gift was $500 from Angela Smith Whitman in memory of her parents.

Miss Annie Prescott of Auburn was appointed librarian and assumed her duties on July 22, 1891, at a salary of $300 per year. The trustees rented two rooms in the Elm Block, above the Auburn Trust Co., for $375 per year (heated). The library opened for business on August 21, 1891, with 2,150 books and 30 newspapers and magazines. Response from the public was immediate and positive: in the first three months 383 subscribers were listed and circulation was 4,172.

At first only one book could be borrowed at a time; then it was increased to two, only one of which could be fiction. Teachers could borrow three books at a time, "for schoolwork," for seven days. Children could not get library cards until they were 10 years old.

In 1895 the City of Auburn appropriated $1000 for the library with the condition that the library be free to all Auburn citizens. As a result, 1,852 library cards were issued that year; 41,922 people visited the library; and 37,087 books were checked out. "All of this extra work, including the corresponding multiplication of all the details has been accomplished by the librarian with very little outside assistance, although somewhat to the detriment to the most important part of the work, the careful attention to the wants of each person," wrote Annie Prescott. Miss May Brown, a teacher, was hired for Saturday evenings at .15/hr. and two grammar school boys were hired at .10/hr. for weekday and Saturday afternoons and Saturday evenings.

The library outgrew the two rooms and in 1898 moved to the second floor of the Ora Davis House at the corner of Court St. and Mechanics Row, whose first floor contained the city offices. Miss Prescott reported, "As was expected, the greater convenience of the new rooms has contributed much to the better administration of the library, enabling the town's people to come to us with increased assurance that their intellectual needs can be supplied."

In 1902 library trustee George C. Wing received notice that philanthropist Andrew Carnegie would give Auburn $25,000 to build a library under the provisions of the Carnegie Corporation program through which $41 million was contributed to build 1700 libraries in the U.S. Carnegie had two requirements: that the municipality had to acquire the site and that an annual tax appropriation equal to 10% of his grant would be guaranteed. The Free Baptist Church was willing to sell its parsonage lot at Spring and Court Streets so the site was not a problem. The city's annual appropriation to the library was $1,400, or $900 less than needed to meet Carnegie's requirement.

The Journal reported a public meeting on the appropriation (1/26/1903). One person said, "We are already burdened with taxation...Such a library cannot be maintained for anywhere near the estimated figure of $2500....This would be a perpetual tax on our children." Another rebutted, "It is the height of nonsense to refuse such a gift. It looks like a perpetual tax to some people, but isn't it a perpetual tax to have roads, sidewalks, waterworks, street lights?"

The Board of Aldermen unanimously voted to accept the Carnegie gift and to appropriate $2500. The parsonage lot was purchased for $6500. Ground was broken on July 22, 1903, and the new library opened in its new building on August 1, 1904.

Above:  Architect William R. Miller's conception of the future library.
(Lewiston Saturday Journal, June 13, 1903)

Below:  The final product!

The building was state-of-the-art as public library service was envisioned in 1904. It was designed to be a one-floor operation. "From the librarian's desk a view can be had of the children's room, the reading room, the reference room, and also the vestibule," described the Sun. "This is intended to make the administration as economical as possible by enabling the librarian to see all parts of the building from one position." The fireproof stack room would hold 40,000 volumes. The top floor had a room for the trustees and a lecture hall. Library hours were 10-8 Monday through Friday and 10-9 on Saturday; full-time employees worked 45-hour weeks.

"More people come, and they stay longer," Miss Prescott reported. "We have provided for us a building which, for beauty and convenience has scarcely ever been equaled for a like expenditure."

The librarian's desk, at left, offered a view into the various rooms.

The building was state of the art as public library service was envisioned in 1904.

In 1917 Miss Prescott resigned as librarian after 26 years. Georgiana Lunt, assistant librarian since 1913, was appointed head librarian, a post she held until 1954.

Despite the new building, or because of it, the library had to find more room. The children's room was moved to the top floor lecture hall in 1920, eliminating the touted one-floor convenience. Electric lights replaced gas fixtures in 1915. The third level of stack shelving was installed in 1929. The coal furnace was converted to oil in 1947.

Reading room after installation of electric lights.

The library offered up-to-date services for the time. "From the first ours has been considered a progressive library for a small city and its methods and results are watched with interest," Miss Prescott reported in 1908. Because school libraries were nonexistent APL offered rotating collections to all the district schools. "Every pupil in the three upper classes at the High School has received instruction by Miss Cornforth in the use of books here at the library....It is of great practical value. If it were not for this training in self help, the library force would not be large enough to wait upon the students, so many of them come" (1916).

Gail Whitehouse was the children's librarian from 1921 to 1961. She was well known for her special Saturday morning story hours. She visited the Auburn city playgrounds in the summer to tell stories and encourage library use "to the children who had never taken books from the library."

Children's room in the 1950s.

The library was sensitive to the political, social, and economic climate. It responded to the appeal for books for soldiers during World War I; it was closed for 29 days early in 1918 because of a coal shortage and for two weeks later in the year because of the influenza epidemic. In August, 1932, all salaries were reduced by 5% because of a city-wide salary reduction. Salaries were cut by another 5% in March, 1933. The 1931 levels were not restored until 1940.

The building was used to its maximum by the late 1940s. Miss Lunt put it, "As the librarian must be watchful for improved methods of administration and new services to be undertaken, so also must the building be kept adaptable to the purpose for which it exists," pointing out that the stack space was inadequate and the 11 rooms were inconveniently arranged.

The long-awaited expansion came in 1956, when Amy Sherman was head librarian. The 4,156 square-foot addition provided a new children's room, three stack floors, and work space. The $85,000 cost was paid by the city.

A 4,156 square foot addition, seen at right, was built in 1956.

Miss Sherman retired in 1973, after a career spanning 29 years at APL.

The new director, Fred von Lang, instituted a radical change: in July, 1974, the three floors of stacks were opened to allow the public access to the collection. For the first time in 70 years patrons could browse at will. The staff could devote their time and energies to helping people who needed assistance rather than retrieving books. Mr. von Lang also organized the library into departments with specific responsibilities--circulation, cataloging, children's, reference, and administration. He expanded the telephone system from one phone at the main desk to five telephones with two lines. He also made preliminary plans to modernize the library.

That came about in 1978 when Robert Dysinger was library director. A federal community development grant was made available to the library. The renovations created significant changes: the ground floor became the main entry, opening onto the lobby, circulation desk, and periodicals reading room. The reference room was redesigned and the children's room relocated, both on the first floor. The top floor became library offices. An elevator connected the three floors. Truly, every one of the library's 13,146 square feet became fully used.

In the late 1970s it was apparent that with the change to open stacks more specific classification numbers were needed. Errors occurring over the years in the cataloging system had not been corrected and computer-based cataloging required strict application of new standards. The Library of Congress Classification system was chosen over the Dewey system, used since the early 1900s. By 1990 85% of the collection was cataloged according to current standards and 55% of the catalog records were automated.

The Trustees adopted a new mission statement in 1982: "The Auburn Public Library exists to provide books and related materials that will assist the residents of the community in the pursuit of knowledge, information, education, research, and recreation in order to promote an enlightened citizenry and to enrich the quality of life."

With a renewed emphasis on materials that were practical and useful, interesting and entertaining, library use increased dramatically through the 1980s. Circulation in 1980 was 123,265; in 1990, 242,519, nearly doubled.

The audiovisual collection began with a collection of donated long-playing records in the 1960s. Now the annual budget specifically provides funds to acquire cassette tapes, compact discs, and videocassettes. Recorded books for adults and book-and-tape "readalongs" for children are among other nonbook formats.

Children's services have progressed from the early days. Children may get library cards before they enter school. No longer are programs restricted to elementary graders; storytime participants are as young as 2-1/2 years old. The summer reading program, first held in 1953, has a "read to me" unit in addition to the section for older children. An important part of the children's department is work with parents and teachers to ensure that children develop information as well as reading skills.

Subject strengths established through years of careful collection maintenance include all aspects of art; music; and literature. The library's genealogical and local history collection is among the better such in Maine public libraries.

The business reference collection was established in 1983. APL makes a special effort to provide resources for small business and personal finance as well as career guidance.

Once again, as in 1898, 1954, and 1978, library services and collections have outgrown available space in which to conduct and house them. This time there are no rooms conveniently available to rent; no parsonage lot or Carnegie philanthropy. The modern library of 1904 is an elegant but elderly and impractical facility that impedes as well as facilitates. The need for a larger building to meet the community's information needs has been identified.  Thanks to the generous support of the community, the Library has completed a successful capital campaign and is now constructing a major expansion and renovation of its historic Carnegie Building that will meet the needs of the community into the 21st century.  More Info

For a hundred years the Auburn Public Library has connected people with the information they need. The Trustees, Corporators, and staff will continue that tradition into the next century.