History of the Mayne Island Community Library
Our story
The Postmistress, Betty Klatt, had a book exchange in the post office in the 1980’s.
Early in the 1990’s, a group of readers formed the Mayne Island Library Club. This group used their own funds, plus a CRD grant of $1500 to rent a 200 square foot space at the Island’s Centre Store on Fernhill Road. They received donated books from residents.
Later, the library moved to Miner’s Bay Mall, and rented a 400 square foot space at a reduced rate, and was served by a volunteer librarian along with 30 volunteers. The shelves held 3000 books.
On September 29, 1994, the Mayne Reading Centre Society was incorporated under what was then called, “The Society Act” (now the “Societies Act”).
The purposes of the Society were: “to establish and maintain a community library and to formulate the objectives and priorities of the library and to program the services which the library will provide.”
Soon planning for the Miners Bay Park and Library Project began. Miners Bay Park, which was zoned commercial, was purchased from the Bennett family estate.
The first attempt to purchase the land and double-wide trailer, called “The Village Green Project,” was unsuccessful. In 1999, the Mayne Island Chamber of Commerce took over the project and the purchase was finalized. A sum of $235,000 was raised by Mayne Island citizens along with grants from foundations.
The land and double wide trailer were purchased in 2001. Representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, the Reading Centre Society, Mayne Island Park Commission and other interested citizens formed a planning committee to overcome issues raised around zoning, siting, and raising the funds needed to turn this into a library space.
In 2004, the interior work on the library was finished, and a special “thank you” event was held for all the volunteers who had helped with the project.
The title of the property was turned over to the Capital Regional District (CRD), designating the 1.4 acres as a park, and renting the building back to the MRCS.
In September 2006, the Mayne Reading Centre Society entered into the Southern Gulf Islands Library Agreement with the CRD. This agreement provides for the distribution of the annual Provincial and CRD funding among the Southern Gulf Islands Community libraries, as well as coordinating programs and services provided by the Public Libraries Branch through the Pender Island Public Library Association.
In 2011, the MRCS started participating in the BC OneCard initiative which gave Mayne Island residents access to resources from all over the province. During this year, the library also developed its first Strategic Plan. One of the goals of that Strategic Plan was the development of a Program Committee. That Committee has since presented hundreds of literature-based, high-quality programs for the Mayne Island community, often working with other island
organizations like the school, the Conservancy, the Arts Council, the Agricultural Society, Campbell Bay Music Festival Society and the Community Centre.
By this time, automating our library had become a top priority for the Mayne Island Library. In 2012, the Southern Gulf Island Library Commission joined the B.C. Libraries Cooperative; this enabled us to automate through the Sitka Evergreen integrated Library System. In order to automate through the B.C. Libraries Cooperative, the SCILC hired our first paid staff member, Carmen Oleskevich. Carmen is still working with us!
In 2013, we were able to access e-books and circulated 160 of these in the first year; this number increased to 4480 in 2023.
In 2014, the SGILC launched a new webpage and Mayne Library launched its Facebook page.
In 2015, the MI library held the first Mayne Island Reads challenge with Thomas King’s Inconvenient Indian. It was also the first year the Library participated in planning a community and school event to acknowledge National Indigenous Peoples’ Day on June 21st. The reading challenge has continued ever since, including through the COVID pandemic.
In 2016, the MI Library did a major renovation replacing the Ikea shelving with library shelving, old drab carpets with brightly coloured carpet tiles, applying a fresh coat of paint, reorganizing the layout to make a better use of the space, a new service desk and new signage throughout.
In 2019, the library installed a beautiful new window, made by local artist Bill Jamieson, honouring the Coast Salish Peoples.
In 2020, the Library had to close for several months because of the COVID Pandemic. Using our team of volunteers, the library was able to provide Curbside Pickup from June until November. In November of 2020, the library hired a part-time staff person, Kate Hindmarsh, who made it possible for the library to safely reopen for two days a week. When Kate left, Laurie Cooke was hired as the part-time staff person. Since then, the library has been able to hire one more staff person to work one day per week. This position has been held by Reed Nelson and by Lori Nick.
The Library still depends on our fabulous group of volunteers for much of the work of keeping the library running. At one time we had about 50 volunteers; that number is now closer to 25. These folks do jobs like: organizing programs, ordering the books, cataloguing the
books, running the book sale, and sitting on the Board.
Updated July 2024 (JLW)
Mayne Is. Community Library volunteers