December 2023 marks one hundred and twenty-six years of the Carlsbad Public Library’s operation.
While the library was founded with few resources, the determination of a group of local women who met to organize a reading room and library in their small town led to more than they could have dreamed. On December 7, 1897, the women belonging to a club named The Research Circle gathered in a room borrowed from a men’s Union Club in the Tansill Building to discuss plans for their project.
It was a struggle for the women to establish a cultural foothold in Eddy, New Mexico (later known as Carlsbad). Tents dotted the landscape around Eddy, which was considered a haven of pure air for recovering tubercular patients; at least one of these patients was to play a role in the further development of a library.
The library project started small. According to library archivist and cataloger Donna Birchell, the first book owned by the library was the gift of Mrs. F. G. Tracy who had obtained it in New York City: Complete Manual of English Literature, by Thomas Shaw, copyrighted in 1867. For a time, the library was nothing more than a room in a back office of the Eddy County Courthouse and held a mere 175 volumes. Naturally, the women of the club were anxious to increase their holdings and thus, were understandably excited to hear of the donation of five hundred volumes by a Mr. W. K. Palmer from back east.
Unfortunately, the offer sounded better than it was. It turned out that Mr. Palmer was merely the representative of the book donor, a woman who had spent time in Eddy as a tubercular patient. She desired to donate the books with the understanding that the library would be named in honor of her son, Norman Crosby. Although Mr. Palmer assured The Research Circle that the books would arrive pre-paid, this was true for only the first of multiple shipments, leaving the women responsible for the shipping charges.
To their further chagrin, the ladies discovered the books were outdated and in the words of librarian Flora Stokes Ryan, “worthless.” The women did not allow themselves to become discouraged. Additional volumes were donated and purchased, and the club members worked hard to spruce up the little office and furnish it, all without any public funding or salaries paid to them. Although the women requested funding from library philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on two occasions, first in 1904 and again in 1907, both requests were turned down.
It was not until December 29, 1930, over thirty years from its inception, that the library finally had a building to call its own. City Councilman Oliver C. (“Fargo”) Quin turned his attention to helping The Research Circle obtain a permanent building for their library. During the intervening period, the women’s group had moved from their original location in the back of the courthouse to a two-room suite in an office building at 119 S. Canal, owned by a man named Mr. Wright. Deciding that the location was not good, the women’s club voted to construct a 2-room building on a city park lot and allow the book collection to be housed there. When the City wanted to improve the badly overgrown park, the women’s club building had to be relocated. Councilman Quin helped pass a twenty-thousand dollar bond which allowed the construction of a permanent library building.
This original structure, which is still in use, has served the library for over seventy years. While an attractive building, the design was not well-suited for a library; there were just too many steps: to the children’s area, the reference area, and a reading alcove. The frustrated librarians blamed the architects for a poor design that did not take into account the fact that you cannot push a book cart up a flight of stairs.
The problem of the initial poor design has haunted the library during each subsequent remodeling. A major addition to the library building in the 1960s, which added an entire wing to house the expanding adult collection, attempted to address the problem of the stairs by converting them into steep ramps. In 2005, another major remodeling project took place. The money was spent on lowering the floor in the oldest part of the building and eliminating the ramps entirely, which meant remodeling the entire children’s department.
The library has come a long way from its first volume and borrowed facilities, and the mission of the library to serve all members of the community has remained consistent. Under the guidance of many dedicated library directors and volunteer board members who have served over the decades, the Carlsbad Public Library has grown and adapted to meet the changing needs of the public.
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Article written by Sarah Jones and originally published in Focus Regional 2023 Winter edition.
Sarah Jones
Sarah was born and raised in Carlsbad New Mexico. She got her BA in Advertising from Kansas State University and her Masters of Library Science from Emporia State University. She has been a librarian for 13 years. She got her love of reading and the importance of education from her parents. Currently she is the Director of Carlsbad Public Library. She has spent her career serving on boards and working with community organizations on education, literacy, supporting women, and the freedom to read. She enjoys reading, traveling, giving back, and spending time with her family and son William.
