Olive Hanen

I was born in Calgary in 1927.

When I was 8 years old my mother, sister Evelyn and I moved into a very old house, where we shared one room on the top floor. We had no radio, no books, no playground.

We lived two blocks from Memorial Park Library, and every evening my mother took us walking and we always spent time in the beautiful library.

Imagine our joy, all those books! I read for hours, my sister and I found it hard to leave the library and return to that room.

Now I'm 80 years old. Imagine my joy at my library: all the books, tapes, movies, music and CD's are mine to take home. What a gift.

No need to settle for TV. I have the best kind of entertainment every evening, and all because of my library card. It's a gift everyone can give themselves.

I made up this slogan: Invest in your library. You'll be surprised at what you can learn.

Jennifer McDougall

As a stay-at-home mother of four children, I use the public library as a place of peaceful refuge. I find a quiet corner where I can get lost in a book I'm already reading or browse the shelves and discover stories new to me. Sometimes, I bring my journal or my laptop and let my imagination flow. There is no other indoor place in Calgary I could go and feel as comforatble as I do at the library: both anonymous and welcome at the same time.

Jim Harrison

To: All the Dedicated Great Women

Congratulations on your hundred years of achievement in making the Calgary Public Library System work. I think about all the women who put in millions of hours staffing the desks, designing management systems, organizing the books and dealing with public matters of every human variety.

The backbone of the libraries was and is the fraternity of women who have provided help to the public and supported the work of scholarly research, by finding the right books that permitted us to wonder and dream our dreams, as you knew where the source of the building blocks of the world and heavens could be found.

I had to grow old to come to appreciate all of you for your time, your patience and endless professional help and equanimity. Thank you, Dear Ladies of the Public Libraries, for helping us to find the light switch.

Wilma Sorensen

Retired

In 1942, when I was six years old, my aunt took me to the newly instituted story hour at the Crescent Heights branch of the Calgary Public Library. I got my very first library card that day and thus began my lifelong love of reading. Over the years I have borrowed mountains of fiction and research books and I also love to browse in the Local History Room.

My children and grandchildren enjoyed story hours as much as I did and made countless trips to the library to borrow books, music and videos. Next month my great grandson will attend his very first family story time at the Bowness branch.

I am grateful to my aunt for introducing me to the library. It was the best thing she could have done for me.

Shirley Hall

"Your Magic Credit Card: it's all free," I told my young sons when they got their own library cards. Big smiles... They had graduated from Storytime and Flannel Boards: each then got his own personalized cloth bag. My rule was "Take as many as you can carry." Bigger smiles...

We always walked to our Crescent Heights branch and one summer day noticed their unattended flowerbeds. So one night we planted marigolds; watering and weeding after hours, smug with our secret and returning the love.

Thank you for the motto that stays with all of us: "If you can read, you can do anythinlg--simply find a book to tell you how."

Happy 100th Birthday!