The National Film Board (NFB) of Canada has released a 1945 short documentary about the area’s first regionalized library system, based in Abbotsford.
The 14-minute film is titled Library on Wheels, named for the Fraser Valley Union Library’s van that delivered books to 20 widely scattered rural communities in the region.
The documentary, available to view on the NFB’s streaming platform, was shot in and around Abbotsford and features librarians and library drivers handling books in a variety of Lower Mainland locations.
It was restored and digitized from the NFB’s vault near Montreal as part of an initiative putting out more NFB collection films from Western Canada.
The film was produced by the NFB in cooperation with the Canadian Library Council and the Fraser Valley Union Library (FVUL) – the predecessor to the current Fraser Valley Regional Library.
Library on Wheels depicts the start of the FVUL, which began as an idea in 1930, when regional library organization was new to Canada.
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“This was the first experiment of its kind on the continent. Could one library system serve the needs of so many different people scattered over such a wide area?” the narrator states.
The film describes rural Canada as being “library poor,” with only five per cent of the country population having any kind of library service at that time.
The central branch in Abbotsford provided books to six branch libraries and four sub-branches in the region, as well as to 17 “deposit locations” such as stores, gas stations and private homes – “wherever there is someone interested to serve as a volunteer librarian,” the film states.
The FVUL also operated a mobile library, which drove a 750-mile circuit every three weeks, delivering books to areas that did not otherwise have service, including to some schools.
“The day when the library van comes down the road from Yarrow and Totem (a former Abbotsford neighbourhood) to Huntingdon is a day for living. It is a far cry from the days when books were chained to tables and only the rich could read – to this, the day of the mobilized front line of learning,” the narrator states.
Library on Wheels can be viewed at nfb.ca/film/library-on-wheels
Library on Wheels, Bill MacDonald, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
