Yesterday was my first foray into the “new” Ocean Park Timberland Library.  Although there are finishing touches yet to be done and things are still not completely unpacked and arranged, I felt right at home in the enlarged space.  It was absolutely meant to be and even the books seemed to be sighing with contentment.

As a matter of fact, this enlargement was the initial plan in the 1980s but that old bugaboo, ‘funding,’ resulted in only 3,240 of the originally intended 5,932 square feet.  At last, the building has caught up to itself – or so we hope.  I couldn’t help but wonder as I looked at all the additional computer space if that was actually part of the usage plan of thirty years ago.  I wonder what accommodations had to be made to accommodate twenty-first century requirements.  And is the space already wanting?

I also wondered what Ocean Park librarians Dorothy Yeatman (1897-1986) and Bonnie Sayce (1925-2007) would think.  Dorothy was Ocean Park’s first librarian back in the late 1920s.  The library was located in the Munsell house at the southeast corner of Vernon and Bay Streets and was supported by local residents who gave donations of books and held fund-raisers to buy more.

By the time Ocean Park School was built in 1936, the library had become a part of the Pacific County Library system and Dorothy soon negotiated to move into a small room off the front hall of the new building.  As she neared retirement, she convinced Bonnie to “take over” and Bonnie oversaw the transition from the county system to the Timberland Library system.

As the library grew, its quarters grew apace.  For five years it was housed in the two south rooms of the school.  However, when the Ocean Beach School District needed additional classrooms for students, it was necessary for the library to work out of a mobile unit.  The bookmobile was parked at Okie’s Sentry Market while the new library was being built to the southwest of the school – a comfortable walk for the children who made regular weekly visits from their classrooms.

As I looked around the spacious new facility, admiring the stained glass windows (which I was told have always been there but, until now, more-or-less hidden behind the stacks). I really felt as though Dorothy and Bonnie were smiling their approval.  In fact, the sun broke out and flooded the rooms with light just as I was leaving. Surely it was a sign!