It is now 434 days until our official 125thbirthday celebration in 2020. Which means with 115 facts remaining, five per piece, we’ll need to continue this segment approximately every three weeks or once a month should we continue the column into the actual year. Doesn’t seem so far away/impossible now, does it? Time to get planning. And fact finding/informing.
Fun Fact #115:
On Monday, Feb. 4, 1991, the library hosted a celebration to observe the official opening of its automatic circulation system. Records would hereon be kept digitally rather than manually. Years progressed and our integrated library system has experienced manyvarious incarnations, alterations and forms. This past March, we upgraded to a completely new ILS, which we somehow did not feel warranted the same type of celebration as its ‘91 counterpart. Two reasons for this: 1) TPL staff was much wilder back in the day, and 2) While times may change, frustration with technology is eternal.
Fun Fact #114:
Stuffies Bizzy the Beaver and Maple the Moose were first introduced to TPL patrons at the beginning of 2017 and were initially intended as temporary mascots for Canada 150. The two had such positive reception (and cool graphic tees) that they continue to make appearances on social media while remaining unofficial TPL mascots. The two were later joined by Great the Goose, who is decidedly the least audacious member of the group, yet still appears alongside the boys, albeit infrequently.
Fun Fact #113:
In 1990, the library was closed for a full week to update all circulating items with barcodes. The entire staff was recruited to complete the painstaking process of attaching 44,000 stickers to items with matching computer records. This was part and parcel to the aforementioned automatic circulation upgrade and would complete the evolution of library services into the process we continue to use to this day. We weren’t in attendance for this particular project as we were focused on another pretty sizeable project - finishing grade one.
Fun Fact #112:
Videos were first introduced to the library back in 1989 with a VHS collection divided into Feature Films and Special Interest. Classic Hollywood movies including High Noon and Singin’ in the Rain were highlighted in a small Spotlight feature included in the May 12 edition of The Standard. But Thorold News was actually first to report this breaking story (some things never change) with a May 8 article that introduced children’s features such as The Raccoons (one of our personal faves from the time) and the then incredibly trendy Jane Fonda workout tapes. DVD and Blu-Ray titles remain popular with patrons to this day. We still retain a DVD copy of Singin’ in the Rain and circulation limits were recently increased to 10 per visit.
Fun Fact #111:
TPL’s annual Literary Pumpkin Contest began way, way back in October, 2016. Entrants were to provide their own pumpkin and select a clearly defined book, character, or other literary theme to be communicated at the time of submission. Entries have continued to grow each year and included The Masked Man, Frankenstein’s monster, Humpty Dumpty, and Clifford the Big Red Dog. The first year’s winner was literary great, Captain Underpants. Last year’s victor was Charlotte’s Web. And this year’s winner remains to be seen. Public voting will take place on Friday, Oct. 26 and Saturday, Oct. 27.
