Westport Public Library

the Westport Public Library

Located at 3 Spring Street in Westport.

History

It’s hard to believe that the ‘house of books” now located at 3 Spring Street was originally housed in an abandoned butcher shop, lacking electricity and indoor plumbing.

With a nucleus of interested and dedicated people along with strong community involvement the butcher shop was transformed into a small library stocked with one set of encyclopedia donated by the Lions Club, discards from the Toronto and Kingston libraries, as well as private donations. A Public Library Board was established, and the doors opened on February 18, 1947.

Growth was so rapid that by 1950 The Board was seeking a new home. A back section of the post office lot was acquired by The Town Council, and a new library was soon a reality.

In 1971 the library joined The County Library System. In 1975 the Dewey Decimal System of cataloguing was introduced, and in 1977 a telephone was installed.

In 1982 the library had once again outgrown its home. It was decided to construct a new building at the same location. It opened in 1987. The former building is now located at the local airfield.

In 1991 a Friends of the Library was formed to assist in volunteer staffing and fundraising. A used bookshop was also generated.

The library now functions as a venue for community programs, and in 1997 came on-line agreeing to become a community access terminal.

After 60 years of careful planning and hard work, tireless volunteers have made the Westport Public Library what it is today.

Hours of Operation

Weekday July to August September to June
MONDAY 1pm-5pm 1pm-5pm
TUESDAY 10am-4pm 10am-2pm
WEDNESDAY CLOSED CLOSED
THURSDAY 10am-12pm & 2pm-5pm 2pm-5pm
FRIDAY 1pm-5pm 1pm-5pm
SATURDAY 10am-2pm 10am-2pm
SUNDAY CLOSED CLOSED

 

Contact

For more information please contact the Librarian at 613-273-3223 or email: library@rideau.net

Online Resources

 

Online Fun For Kids!

The TumbleBookLibrary is a collection of TumbleBooks (animated, talking picture books) with fiction, non-fiction and foreign language titles, Read-Alongs (chapter books with sentence highlighting and narration but no animation) TumbleTV which consists of pre-set playlists of a sequence of books, and Tumble Puzzles and Games.

TumbleTalkingBooks is a collection of online streaming audio books.

TumbleReadables is a collection of online read-along titles in categories such as Early Readers, Chapter Books, Teen Fiction, Classics and Drama/Poetry.

Acknowledgment: