05/26/2026
As we are coming up to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of our upstairs neighbours at the VIRL Port Hardy Branch. We would like to share a little history of the library here in Port Hardy.
The first Port Hardy Library was sponsored by the Port Hardy Community Club and the Robert Scott School Parent Teacher Organization. It was located in the old Community Hall. The book collection was mainly donated by local residents and supplemented by an exchange of books from the B.C. Travelling Library Commission.
Four or five cartons of books would be sent up by coastal steamer to the Port Hardy dock every four or five months to be picked up, unpacked, and shelved by the volunteer library workers who would then pack up the previous shipment of books for return to Victoria.
In the mid-60's, the Community Hall needed renovations, and so the library was temporarily closed, except for the travelling Library Commission books, which Mrs. Lorraine Spencer distributed from her home. The library was reopened in the Community Hall in 1968 by Mrs. Jerri Reddies and Mrs. Barbara Bruner. They began a campaign to have the area join the Vancouver Island Regional Library system. During the next three years, several letters of inquiry were sent to Mr. Fred White, the Directory of VIRL and to Port Hardy Council members and citizens, looking for a place suitable to house a larger library
In 1972, the Vancouver Island Regional Library opened its Port Hardy Branch in the old church building at Carrot Park.
Now the VIRL Port Hardy Branch is located at 7110 Market St in the same building as the Port Hardy Museum and Archives.
