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Peter Rose, left, and Michel Languedoc.
The move itself went smoothly and the new
premises were more popular than expected. Users
found the new bright quarters pleasant and cheery.
Shelving was arranged in orderly fashion making it
user-friendly for even the occasional browser.
It was Councillor Bridgman who ceremoniously
signed out the first book when the library re-opened
in the new quarters Monday, April 25. A two-
volume work,
The Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy
by
John Fiske, it had been the first book entered in the
collection of the Westmount Public Library 95 years
earlier. "Storrs McCall, my old philosophy professor,
would be very pleased," Mr. Bridgman said. But he
never read it, he admits. "It was a terrible book!"
The historic tome had not been checked out since
1970.
Developments took place thick and fast in the
next few months. A scale model of the library
project was unveiled May 2 in the empty north
reading room of the library, known to most of the
invited guests as the reference room. "Isn't it
wonderful," exclaimed former mayor May Cutler as
architects Rose and Languedoc slowly turned the
model to reveal the new complex. Consisting of the
original Findlay building, the separate 1911 child-
ren's pavilion and the new Rose building to the
south, all were linked by a long spine or passageway
with its controversial new entrance, now stepped
down and modified.
The library's new logo also was displayed
replacing the original line drawing of a library
building. "It's intended to incorporate the old and
new," explained the designer, Westmount graphic
artist Susan Scott. A stylized apple branch super-
imposed on an open book represents the library's
location in the park; its flow is styled after the
decorative designs of William Morris, the British
Romantic artist and poet, and the chief influence
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