“As well as books for children, the library also offered photography clubs, puppet shows and stamp collecting clubs.” “The children’s library was helmed by librarians Miss MacKenzie and Mrs West, who championed children’s learning through giving children joy and fun, not just structured education. This was the first move towards modern library service, with the space becoming a hub for children and families to enjoy,” she said. “The children’s library was so popular that by the time it had been open for six months more than half of the city’s children were signed up as members, with lines extending far past the doors on weekends. “Mabel Classen served as the secretary librarian at the School of Arts from 1921, and as the head librarian at Townsville Municipal Library from 1938 to 1964, dedicating 43 years of her life to the library.”Ĭr Hill said the library was extremely popular with Townsville residents, with its operation expanding to include a children’s library in 1953. This was the first free public book service for Townsville,” Cr Hill said. The building had been devastated by two major cyclones, giving Council the opportunity to fix it and transform it into the Townsville Municipal Library in August that year. “Council purchased the building on the corner of Walker and Stanley streets in mid-1938, which was occupied by the School of Arts at the time. Mayor Jenny Hill said she was proud to reflect on how far the service had come on Townsville Citylibraries’ 85 th anniversary.

Subscriptions to the Townsville Library and Reading Room cost £1 at a time when the average labourer was paid £38 a year – the equivalent of an average Australian spending $2500 a year on a book subscription today. The collection that would later become the Townsville Municipal Library started as a private service in 1866, with Robert Townsend and John Melton Black on the Townsville Library and Reading Room committee. Eighty-five years ago, Orson Welles’ 1938 adaptation of War of the Worlds was first broadcast on radio, Superman made his first appearance in comics and Townsville’s first free library service was founded.īefore the days of free books, DVDs, CDs, learning programs and community hubs, Townsville locals had to spend more than a week’s salary to access the city’s only reading subscription.

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