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Bridging the Years
assessment of the current space and the Library's
requirements, and a feasibility study had been
suggested by the (city) Director General."
So the door was not closed. The Library
Committee proceeded on the suggested course by
launching the first of two user surveys to assess
library needs and collect the facts to prove the case
for expansion. "The idea was to get statistics for a
skeptical council that felt the library was already
taking up enough of the city's budget," Mrs. Aitken
says.
"You needed a vision and you needed a May
Cutler to drive it."
"I remember May Cutler coming to a Library
Committee meeting in September or October (1987)
quite upset because the library didn't have a certain
magazine and a specific tour book," Mr. Shingler
says. "I told her if she wanted improvements then
she should exercise her democratic right and run for
office. She said: "Well, 1will'".
Ironically, the first user survey undertaken in-
house in November not only identified increased
space as the greatest need but also coincided with
the surprise victory of the visionary mayor.
nd so the first faltering steps toward eventual
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expansion of Westmount Public Library had
already been taken when book publisher May
Cutler was skyrocketed into the mayor's office in
November 1987 to spark a grandiose renewal of the
city's best-used facility.
At first, she recalls, "I sat in on every meeting of
the Library Committee and I was horrified by what
the library looked like. It was disintegrating. There
was no security in the stacks and the librarians had
to work in cubbyholes."
But just as the previous council had been
"skeptical" about making even a small addition to
the library, so was her own council (comprising
most of the same councillors) when faced by her
flamboyant vision to create a cultural complex in
the heart of Westmount. For the Cutler dream was
not only to restore and enlarge the library, but it
was also to integrate the library with the green-
houses and with Victoria Hall. The hall would be
completely refurbished to provide theatrical and
musical performances.
Discouraged but undaunted, "I kept the thing
going," she says.
She visited other libraries including New York's
public library as well as the new $40 million library
in Dallas. "I knew how libraries were supposed to
operate." She toured and videotaped neighbouring
local libraries and brought in a number of speakers
to the Westmount Advisory Committee on Culture
(WACC), one of the citizen committees which
she initiated.
While political progress remained slow in the
face of fiscal constraints, the Library Committee
continued on its own previously-charted course to
collect the facts needed to prove the cause for
expansion. It launched the second user survey. A
Sorécom poll of 609 residents in 1988 found two-
thirds used the library and were pleased with its
services and ambiance. Results complemented
findings of the less scientific in-house survey of
the previous year.
About the same time, library staff carried out
an estimate of space required to provide existing
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