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By Michele Smith
The Times 

Dayton Memorial Library Celebrates 80 Years

Anniversary celebration will take place Oct. 16

 

October 12, 2017

Michele Smith

Librarian Dusty Waltner (left), local genealogist and historian, Liz Carson (center), and former librarian Lynn Williams (right), , are shown making plans for an open house celebration for the Dayton Memorial Library's 80th anniversary. A slide show presentation detailing changes at the library over the past 80 years and a program about the value of ongoing library programs is planned. The celebration will take place between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Delany Room, on Mon., Oct. 16.

DAYTON--Many things have changed throughout the years at rural libraries like Dayton's. Eighty years ago most library patrons shivered and quaked to hear librarians sternly reminding them to "Be quiet!" and "Take the gum out of your mouth!"

"You did not want to be late with a book," remembers former Dayton Memorial Librarian Lynn Williams.

Back then checking books out of the library required familiarization of the card catalogue. All books were indexed according to subject, author, and title.

Williams said westerns and romance paperbacks were a favorite fare of library patrons.

Today's library patrons are able to access other genres at the library, and many of them are e-books, said Dusty Waltner, the current librarian.

Williams said her budget for books was slim, but she was allowed to buy books at yard sales, along with prizes for games, and decorations.

"We were constantly on the look-out for books," Williams said.

Fifty percent of what patrons read back then was fiction. "We had a hard time getting nonfiction," she said.

Waltner has an annual materials budget of about $50,000, and nonfiction figures largely in purchases she is able to make.

The Summer Reading Program was an important program when Williams was the librarian, and it is still, she noted.

Librarians are responsible for deciding which books stay on the shelves and which books don't.

Waltner said she doesn't let anybody else "weed" books, and she does that when nobody else is around because people get upset to see their favorites go.

Williams remembered a time during her tenure when one civic-minded person went into the Pomeroy library when the librarian was out and "weeded", causing a great tumult.

Librarians looked to the state library association for resources then, as they do now.

"That has not changed," Waltner said.

Libraries are places where censorship does not exist.

"Librarians are not supposed to censor. We had little wrangles about book content," said Williams.

Waltner agreed, "We've never censored anything. It's up to the parent."

"We could always count on people coming out to support us," Williams said about help from the local community.

Sue Hagfeldt and Liz Carson rate high on Williams' list of people to thank for their years of volunteerism.

Waltner agreed, "We still call on Liz."

Carson is considered the town's unofficial genealogist and historian.

Williams remembered a cute anecdote featuring Sue Hagfeldt and a Valentine's Day contest. She said two sneaky little boys came in to the library to claim their prize chocolate hearts and, as they walked out the door, Hagfeldt raced to stop them, calling "You are not So, and So!" One of the little boys turned and said, "I'm not?"

It was the Friends of the Library who judged the contest and gave out the prizes," Williams explained.

The Friends of the Library also paid for the computers and the wiring when the library came in to the Information Age in the 90s, Williams said.

Both librarians said they never have, and never do, hate to come to work.

"You just want people to be so happy to come to the library," said Williams.

"There have been a lot of changes over the years and we want people to come, and to share that," Waltner said about the 80th anniversary festivities on the 16th.

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Research done by Catherine Schuck for the Jan.14, 1999 edition of the Touchet Graphic Community Newspaper credits community-wide efforts with getting the library built in Dayton.

Schuck said that in 1919 a reading room was established by the Draper Self Culture Club, a Dayton women’s club, in two rooms in the former Ankeny Building, where State Farm is now.

Public sentiment for a library was such that the Draper Club began working toward the purchase of a building lot at the corner of Clay St. and S. 3rd St., wrote Schuck.

Sometime after purchasing the $986.14 lot, a two-room library was opened in the old Odd Fellows Hall by the Elizabeth Forrest Day Club, formerly known as the Draper Club, while fundraising efforts continued, Schuck said.

In 1935, the club turned the deed for the lot and $4807.07 over to the City of Dayton to help move construction of the building forward.

Schuck said a national government project, the Works Project Administration, built the $15,534 library, and an open house was held on Oct. 2, 1937.

Schuck credits all the dedication and hard work from the ladies of the Elizabeth Forrest Day Club, and the community at large, with giving Dayton “the wonderful library we have now”.

Librarians at the Dayton Memorial Library have been; Flita Weatherford, 1937 – 1964, Edith O’Neal, 1964 – 1971, Claire Saucier, 1971 – 1989, Lynn Williams, 1989 - 2006, Janet Lyon, 2006 – 2013, Jill Rourke 2014 - 2015, and Dusty Waltner, who hired on in March, 2015.

 

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