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At the start of her new job as county librarian of Monterey County, Anne Hadden was faced with many challenges, which she overcame with sheer determination and intelligence. She arrived in Salinas on September 1, 1913, not knowing anyone. After exploring the town on that Labor Day when all was quiet, she found a teacher whom she had known at Stanford University. The teacher helped her find a room in a boarding house.

As Anne later recalled, “Here I was, all ready to begin the great adventure of the next sixteen years as the first Monterey County librarian but so far had no place to live or no place to report.”

On her first work day, September 2, 1913, Anne’s priority was to find a place to work. Her first “office” was in a garden, because construction was necessary in the building that had been chosen for the headquarters of the library. She would remember that “the September days were bright and sunny and the …garden was a pleasant place to work.” Here in this “office,” she received people who were anxious for service.

The citizens of Monterey County were aware of the pending county library and anxious for the opportunities that it would offer. Starting with the publicity surrounding the passage of the Board of Supervisors Resolution in the summer of 1912, articles appeared in local newspapers. That year Harriet Eddy, the state representative for the establishing the county libraries, traveled throughout Monterey County spreading the word about the library to local residents. She received a very favorable response. A year later, Anne was appointed.

After Anne had arrived in town for her new job, an article in the Salinas Daily Index on September 8, 1913, under the title “Getting County Library in Shape,” stated:

…When this work is done the county library will be opened for business and the several districts of the county will be invited to share in the benefits accruing from its establishment. …The County Free Library promises to be the most popular institution in the county, and the Index bespeaks for the librarian the hearty co-operation of the people.

Shortly thereafter, headquarters were set up for Anne’s library in the new Salinas Carnegie Library. The town had received grant funds from the Carnegie Corporation in 1907, and the library opened in 1909. Andrew Carnegie was influential in expanding library service to small town America in the early 1900s. It is important to learn about the background of the Carnegie library movement, and the effect it had on residents of California. This historic change of attitude towards library service benefited all residents of the state, particularly those living in rural areas such as Monterey County.

ANNE HADDEN in her own words:

BEGINNINGS OF THE MONTEREY COUNTY FREE LIBRARY

On September 2, 1913 the Monterey County Free Library began to function. There were no books, no equipment, and no place to work. The first task was to find headquarters. On Sept. 5, 1913 the Trustees of the Salinas Public Library granted the use of a small unused room in the back part of the Public Library building. This had to be equipped with shelving, furniture ordered, an outside door cut, a flight of steps built, and a sidewalk laid around the building. Furniture and equipment had arrived by October 7, but it was not until October 28, 1913 that the room was ready and the County Library moved in.

Meanwhile the County Librarian had a temporary desk under a tree in the garden at Mrs. Walter Norris’ house, which at that time faced on Gabilan Street. It was leased by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Lazier, who rented a few rooms to professional and business people. Much of the early task of planning forms and blanks, ordering furniture and equipment, and working on book selection was done in the garden or in the Librarians’ corner room upstairs. Visitors from the County were usually received in the hall. The first visitor was Mrs. Ida M. Clark of Greenfield (with a request for a branch to be opened).

I was in Salinas only a day or two when the reference work began and the State Library immediately proved itself to the satisfaction of the people of Salinas. We were able to secure material from Sacramento for one of the high school teachers which she did not expect to find west of Chicago.

The County Library met with so many delays and trivial difficulties at its start that although annoying it grew to be quite comical.

There was a delay in getting settled. The Library Board had to be consulted individually and collectively. Their permission secured, plans had to be drawn up and submitted. The mill man who was to make the necessary changes was taken ill in the midst of things, then his foreman cut his hand. Finally after seven weeks we moved into our new quarters.

It was difficult getting forms. We took the forms to the printers. The proofs were to be ready on a certain day. When that day came we were assured they would without fail be ready on the following Wednesday. On Wednesday, we learned that the stock had not yet been received from the City, but by Monday surely the proofs would be ready. On Monday the printer shamefacedly confessed that they had lost the samples and wanted new forms drawn up. That meant another hour or two of unnecessary work.

The next printing was taken to a new place, which was badly damaged by fire the very next morning. Finally a printer was found who does work promptly and well, and my relief was great.

After we moved into our new quarters a disagreement between the electrical people kept us without heat for several days. Our big transom blew in twice and showered glass over desk and floor, the outside screen door was carried off its shingles in a storm, and one morning while I was away a small cyclone entered the mail box and carried the letters away with it. The next day we found some of them stranded in the shrubbery in the garden, and if any of you here have written and received no answers it may be that your letter was amongst those carried off unopened by that whirlwind.

These incidents are sufficient as examples. In spite of it all we felt they were only surface things, and underneath them all was a great interest and encouragement.

COUNTY FREE LIBRARY AT LAST IS ORGANIZED

The Monterey County Free Library Began its Actual and Public Existence on September First

The Courier-Enterprise, September 13, 1913

There is an old saying that the proof of the pudding is the eating and not in chewing the string. Likewise it is true that the proof of a library is in reading, and not in chewing the rag. Ever since April of 1912 there has been a good deal of chin music about a prospective County Free Library, but until the last month nothing assured could be held up for public observation. However, on September 1, the Monterey County Free Library began its actual and public existence, and we are showing below a concrete manifestation of what it has begun to do. It is a letter addressed to one of the Directors of the Spreckels Association after the latter had offered definitely to cooperate, in service and purpose, with the larger body.

MONTEREY COUNTY FREE LIBRARY

Salinas, Cal., September 9, 1913

Director of the Spreckels Library Association, Spreckels, CA

Dear Sir:

The Monterey County Free Library is now being organized. Work is being carried on under difficulty as our quarters in the City Library building are not yet ready for occupancy. As soon as possible I shall go to Spreckels and consult with the Library Association in regard to establishing a branch of the County Library there. Meanwhile the people of Spreckels might like to have an opportunity to suggest books they wish to see in the Library, and I send under separate cover a few request slips. These are to be filled out with the author and title of each book requested, and the name of the one who requests it.

These can be mailed separately or ten enclosed in an envelope for two cents.

(Signed) Anne Hadden, Librarian

These cards (in limited numbers) will be available at the library evenings or procurable from any of the Directors upon request.

There has always been on the part of certain over-critical Spreckels people the objection that the local library did not have sufficient books to make it interesting or worth visiting. (The objectors in all probability had never seen the inside of the library itself, of the catalog of volumes issued by the Association, or of a single book listed in that catalog. But they know its lots easier to say a man is a prevaricator than to debate with him according to parliamentary rules and prove him mistaken.)

Under the organization that can be built up in Monterey County with the help of Monterey County people, and from the branch of it to be established at Spreckels, if properly encouraged, there will be books available. And then if local bookworms don’t patronize the reading room, there will be no sound reason for not changing the spelling of their class and calling them hookworms. Is it necessary to say more?

Anne Hadden, Head Librarian, 1913 - 1929 (Courtesy of the Monterey County Free Libraries, Marina, CA)