The History of the Waterboro Public Library

The Waterboro Public Library, founded and originally sponsored by the Massabesic Lioness Club, was first located in two rooms on the second floor of the Regional Medical Arts Building on Route 202 in Waterboro, Maine. This Medical Center was once a school building and was taken over by the Massabesic Lions Club. In 1984, the Lions and Lioness worked together to remodel the library's two rooms, wallpapering, painting, constructing book shelves, insulating, installing electric heat and new windows, and lowering the ceilings.

At the same time, the Lioness appealed to the state library and other libraries in Maine for books to start the Library and were overwhelmed with over 10,000 books given by residents, schools, and other libraries. The Lioness bought, found, sorted, cataloged, and arranged books, with the guidance of the Southern Maine Library District and with the dedication and work of many Lioness members.

In January 1985, after six months of preparatory work, the Waterboro Public Library was officially opened. Over 200 people attended the dedication ceremonies with town officials and Lions Club members speaking and presenting awards to those who made outstanding efforts on behalf of the project.

In March 1985, at the annual town meeting, the townspeople voted financial support for the Library. The Lioness members kept the library open eleven hours per week through volunteer efforts, until April 1985, when a librarian was hired to work the eleven hours, spread over 3 days each week. The Lioness continued to volunteer their time as well.

In the early 1990s, the Library outgrew the rooms in the Medical Center and moved to the old elementary school building on Route 5, next to the East Waterboro post office. Going into the 21st century, the Library is outgrowing this building as well, but we're still at this location, building new shelves and rearranging our space as needed to accommodate new books, displays, computer tables, story hour space, and working areas.

Although the Lioness as a national organization disbanded in the summer of 1998, they provided the Library with a firm foundation and we continue to thrive:

The library is open 35 hours per week on five days and staffed by a paid head libarian, a paid assistant librarian, and three part-time paid aides.
The Library has an established story hour at 10 a.m. on Wednesday mornings, along with special reading challenges, a Summer Reading program, an annual American Girl party, and with other children's events scheduled throughout the year.
Adults and teens in the community volunteer, doing behind-the-scenes work and assisting the librarians as needed.
In 2004, we lent 30,329 books, magazines, videos, CDs, audiotapes, and other materials; in 1985, we lent 1,511 materials. During 2004, we had 12,740 people in the library.
We have three public computers, which are used daily by patrons to access the Internet, e-mail, and the card catalog, and for word processing and spreadsheets. In 2002, we changed our Internet service from a phone line to a cable line, increasing the speed of service. We have a web site (http://www.waterborolibrary.org) that's updated regularly and which provides library and town information, The Maine Writers Index, and detailed pages of links to Maine resources, literature and writing resources, homeschooling rescources, and a daily weblog of literary and library information.
The Library Board of Trustees consists of ten members who meet once a month to make decisions concerning the running of the Library. Budget requests are made once a year at our annual town meeting.
The Library participates in the state's Inter-Library Loan system, finding materials for patrons that are not available in our library.
Our building has become a meeting place for many local groups including a book discussion group, a homeschool Spanish class, and a weekly parenting meeting

Though the history of the Waterboro Public Library isn't long, it is marked by volunteer leadership and community effort, dedicated staff, strong town support, and steady growth. We hope the coming years reflect the same!