When the library’s old and – according to its current CEO – “rotting” sign was replaced back in 2017, it triggered a slow and quiet upset.
It wasn’t that anyone was opposed to upgrades to the building or its aesthetics. It was that the sign, which once read Nan Boothby Library was replaced by one that read the Cochrane Public Library, and to some people, it meant eliminating the history behind it.
“I just felt like it was a personal one for me,” said Mark Boothby, a grandson of Nan (short for Nancy), the woman who was at the helm of the library’s establishment back in 1950. At the time, the library was a dark, dusty basement, lit by oil lamps from the town and packed with mostly donated encyclopedias and Nancy Drew books.
“When I was small, she was down there all the time. I just remember being in that dusty, old room in the bottom of the basement filled with books just all over the place. I’m sure that’s why I have such an appetite for reading,” Mark said.
Bernice Klotz, who was raised in Cochrane and is currently a member of CHAPS (Cochrane Historical Archival Society), said she remembers visiting that basement each of the three days per week it was open.
“They had a rule you were only allowed two books – they had to break that rule for me because I could devour five books from Tuesday to Thursday and take another five till Saturday, and Saturday to Tuesday was a long time,” Klotz said.
The library eventually moved out of the old basement into the vacated St. Mary’s Church and then eventually, it landed in its current, larger space on Railway Street. By this time, Nan had died and the library was affectionately known as the Nan Boothby Memorial Library. The sign on the front of the building even reflected the sentiment.
But now that history feels under threat to some.
Jeri Maitland, who used to manage the Calgary Central Library before stepping in as Cochrane’s library director and CEO three and a half years ago, explained that Nan Boothby Memorial was never the legal name and changing the sign was simply part of rebranding.
Back in 1980, the Town of Cochrane Library Board was established in order for the town to be eligible for municipal, regional and provincial funding. Under the province’s Libraries Act, there are strict regulations on how a board is named which consists of the format (name of municipality) Library Board. For Cochrane, the legal name of the library is The Town of Cochrane Library Board, operating as The Cochrane Public Library in the Nan Boothby Memorial Library building.
Maitland said what the building is called versus what the organization is called are two different matters.
That said, the operating name is not restricted by legislation and is up to the board.
However, Maitland said the Boothby part caused too much confusion and when she stepped in as CEO, one of her goals was to clean it up and create consistency with the name.
“What was happening is we had old paperwork, the banking name was wrong, we were getting mail to “The Nan” to “The Nan Booth Memorial,” cheques were coming in with all kinds of different names, the bank was like what the heck’s going on,” Maitland said.
“It’s just old habits that are just taking a long time ... We can’t stop people from calling it that,” she said.
“New people that move here do not call it the Nan, they just call it the Cochrane Public Library. And when people talk about our space out there in library land, nobody knows it’s called the Nan Boothby.”
The library building still has the old brass letters reading “Nan Boothby Memorial” over the front entrance doors but Maitland said if the library was to move locations again, the name might not carry over. She said in that case, the library would also lose its greenspace and Penelope West Memorial Garden.
“We continue to honor Nan Boothby by acknowledging her years of service to the library by keeping her name over the entrance along with acknowledging all our founding mothers who are on display in the board room,” Maitland said.
But losing the name and thus slowly fading away the history is precisely the problem for those looking to hold on to the heritage of Cochrane.
Gordon Davies, a CHAPS member who remembers visiting Nan and her library in the basement as a kid, said volunteers are the cornerstone to many services in town and their efforts shouldn’t be forgotten once it’s taken over municipally.
“It’s a shame that people who are recent residents of Cochrane don’t understand (the history), I think that’s too bad because I think that part of Cochrane is really important. I think there are other organizations and groups that face the same thing,” Davies said.
“The Community Arts, for example, they’ve been going for years and years trying to get an arts centre. Someday it will be built but it will be the Cochrane, whatever, arts centre, I’m sure. Hopefully, the history of the people behind it will be maintained somehow.”
