The headline in The Independent, Oct. 20, 1776 was: "Sonningdale holds opening of Wheatland Library."
The article said about 80 people attended the grand opening of the Sonningdale branch of the Wheatland Regional Library, Oct. 13, 1976, also celebrating the new library location in the fire hall and the sixth anniversary of community service. There was a short program in the Legion Hall with Steele Ross as chairman.
Ross first called on Violet Niven who gave an interesting account of the efforts of a few to establish a library here. They started their campaigning 14 years ago and for eight years they worked hard never giving up. Their efforts were crowned in 1970 with Evelyn Duistransky as chief librarian. Next Dorothy Elliott gave an account of the six years of operation, paying tribute to all her assistant librarians and to the members of the library board. Dorothy has been chief librarian for over a year and she explained in general the regular book exchange every six weeks.
Special mention was made of Maureen Chastney who had been treasurer since the beginning. She helped in many ways - even assisting the carpenters.
The library was open Wednesday afternoons and evenings. Daily circulation had increased greatly. In 1975 circulation for September was 247 and in 1976 for the same month it was 865.
Brian Foran from the Wheatland head office in Saskatoon brought greetings from the Wheatland Regional Library board and congratulations for establishing library conveniences locally. Door prizes of books were won by Leah Hill, Dina Hollowach, Jean Mills and Brian Foran.
After the program, everyone returned to the library for the ribbon cutting. Officials here were Evelyn Dnistransky as first librarian, Violet Niven as early promoter and George Radchenko representing the Eagle Creek Council. The ladies served lunch and coffee in the hall where everyone enjoyed a social hour.
Today Dee MacInnis is the head librarian and Cassie Charnock is assistant. The library is open Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:30 to 5 p.m., but closed on statutory holidays and sometimes for bad weather in the winter. The library now has two computer stations that all patrons are encouraged to use.
In May of this year the library will be switching their computer programming to Sierra from the present Millennium. Everyone is hoping the changeover is quick and problem-free. The library now has access to order DVDs from across the province. This started March 1 and is proving to be very successful.
The new date for the supper is April 20, 5 to 6:30 p.m., followed by an evening of bingo and prizes starting at 7 p.m. Adults, $8, 6 to 12-year-olds $5 and those under five are free.
