34 ~- Sunday, October 20, 1991 - North Shore News

HIGH PROFILES
Chief librarian
preparing for
WV renovations

JACK MOUNCE is —
blushing as if he’s been NAME: Jack Mounce
: . BORN: Vanconver
caught blaring his boom RESIDENCE: West Vancouver
box in the Library of Con- EDUCATIGN: UBC grad
gress. OCCUPATION: Chief librarian,
—_— West Vancouver Memorial
Library
Py Evelyn Jacob FAMILY: Marzied; (wo sons
ews Reporter HOBBIES: Skiing, reading,
noeing, weightlifting, guitar.
I’ve just asked him if volunteers i B 8 88
deliver books from the library’s
temporary collection at Hillside ed teen area and room for thou-
Middle School. Mounce blushes sands of new books.
when he admits that he’s the one With 15,000 new volumes added
who’s been doing the spade work. each year, the library is literally
“I haie to say this,"* Mounce, bursting at the seams. It’s become
54, confesses, looking slightly so cramped that two years ago,
embarrassed, ‘‘but 7 end up 25,000 books had to be moved in-
delivering the books, i just live up to temporary storage at Hillside.
on Queens so | swing by there on It's the third time the library
my lunch hour and pick up oue or has been expanded to make way
two books a day.”' for an ever-increasing catalogue of
Most would see this as going titles.
beyond the call of duty, but West Vancouver Memorial has
Mounce, a down-to-earth, modest experienced a tidal wave of
man, just laughs it off. growth since it opened its doors
He’s the kind of guy who on Nov. 11, 1950, and Mounce
believes in bookmobiles and that has surfed the crest of that wave
libraries should be inviting places for the last nine years.
for kids, not rule-bound West Van Memorial has proud-
authoritarian places for adults. ly held the title of *‘busiest library
“We try to make people con- in North America’’ for most of its
scious about noise in a less life, and now boasts 180,000
dramatic way,’’ he says when ask- hard-covered and 25,000 soft-
ed if the sshh! signs are still strict- covered books, 4,000 records,
ly enforced. 4,000 audio tapes, 2,000 video
This all comes as a pleasant cassettes and 1,400 compact discs
surprise to me — to this day I — all under one roof.
have visions of my high school li- The jibrary attracts an average
brarian, a petite but ferocious of 1,000 bibliophiles a day, and it
woman who used to stalk students just keeps growing.
and demand they ‘‘deposit their This year’s annual circulation,
gum’’ in a makeshift tin can we according to Mounce, will top
all thought was permanently af- 850,000 — that’s a 7% increase
fixed to her hand. over last year. The phenomenal
But back to the books. Mounce growth even takes Mounce’s
shouldn't have to do it much _ breath away.
longer. “Every year I've been here, ex-
When West Vancouver Memo- cept for one, we've set a record. It
@! rial Library undergoes its $5-
oa Se. j million facelift next spring, those See Construction page 3S
NEWS photo Melt Lucentc, §=25,000 beoks kept in temporary
storage at Hillside will be returned

to their rightful home. A RT EEG SETS
WEST VANCOUVER Memorial Library's chief librarian, Jack Mounce, poses with a stack of beloved ‘ The 40-year-old building is get- CGLONY

books. ting a new four-storey addition:
30,000 square feet reserved for ANNOUNCES THE
two new elevators, a brand new 4

children’s department, an expand-

STERLING 100

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