Editor:
Re: “Sechelt archives to be moved to temporary home,” Nov. 22.
How shameful that the Sechelt Community Archives will no longer be part of the Sechelt Public Library.
An archives has been part of the library since 1972 when, to mark the centenary of British Columbia’s entry into Confederation, improvements were made to the then Sechelt Centennial Library on Trail Avenue that included the addition of an archives.
In 1993, when Sechelt taxpayers voted yes on a referendum to approve money to build a new library (at its current location), it was with the understanding that it would house the Helen Dawe Collection. This is part of the argument council and the library board presented in the lead-up to the library referendum at the time.
From Coast News, Nov. 8, 1993, pg. 6: “Helen Dawe, the granddaughter of Sechelt’s first non-native family, died in 1983. Her legacy to Sechelt was a well organized and diverse account of Sechelt’s politics, pioneers and development. After Helen’s death, her sister, long-time resident Billie Steele, offered the collection to Sechelt council, which accepted with the proviso that the Sechelt Public Library would be custodians. This invaluable archives tracing the history of Sechelt through documents, artifacts, photographs and first hand accounts, is still housed at Mrs. Steele’s residence due to the lack of space available for it at the Library.”
Today, as then, the Helen Dawe Collection remains one of the most impressive private collections in the province. It and the other collections in the Sechelt Community Archives, which the library has been custodian of for more than 20 years, is a jewel of which this community was once very proud.
Since it found a home in the library and a one-day-a-week archivist in 1996, well-known families including the Claytons, Jacksons, Swansons and Whitakers, and organizations including the Hospital Auxiliary, Seniors Centre, and Sechelt Public Library have donated photos and documents to it. It is regularly contacted by authors and researchers for information only it has. UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre has three times awarded it grants to help digitize key parts of its collections and make them available through the Internet. A team of volunteers ensures its barebones budget goes further.
One cannot help but wonder if the library were not suffering from a space shortage, would the archives have to vacate? Or is the district spending money on some shelves to overcome the “health and safety issues” all it would take?
Interestingly enough, when Sechelt voted yes in 1993 for a new library, it voted no for a new municipal hall. Faced with these results, the newly elected council decided to kibosh the approved library too.
Three years later, though, the new library we’d all voted for was finally built. Strangely enough, with that new municipal office we’d voted down perched on top of it.
Perhaps a solution to the library’s space issues is to finally return the Library Building (as the brass plaque outside identified it) to the library so it can grow to meet the needs of a population that has doubled since it was first built.
As for the municipal offices, there’s that proposed $5-million Parks building that would fit the bill nicely.
In the meantime, let’s hope the Sechelt Community Archives doesn’t end up back in someone’s garage.
J. Ansell Sechelt
