Frances Ambrose, Freedom Librarian
I was hired to work in the library as the Librarian on June 10, 1968; the Library will close on Dec. 17,1999 When I think back to the original Library on the second floor of the old Boro building, it is amazing how far we have come to the automated system. The original card catalog was in two shoe boxes, one for author and one for title cards.
The Children's area was two small blue book cases which I still have. I made my first project to create an area just for the children in the library. I remember painting the walls and bringing curtains from home to make it special for the children. That is when I started having preschool children's story hours. At that time the libraries only had programs for school age children. My daughters were young then and they spent many hours in the library. They were my first volunteers.
Then, when we moved to the old school on Fourth Avenue that was built for the first High School, we had more room. It was nice there; we had a craft sewing group that met there for a long time. It was nice for the story hours because of the separate room. We had to use kerosene heaters for heat which was not too nice. Then we moved upstairs. I liked when the Library was there the best except for the stairs. There were blackboards in the children's room and the children would come in and draw for hours. I even had contests on their work. They could build puzzles and leave them. We had a puzzle being built all the time. I really liked that we didn't have to share the room for other purposes. The adult area of the library was nice too and we had a separate room for the teens which was used a lot. We had space for adult literacy also. There again our drawback was the stairs, and we also had to use electric heaters. It was too cold in the winter.
Then we moved to the new building. I loved the new furniture and the new equipment. I never dreamed of having such a nice library but now we are closing; progress comes with a price and we can't meet that price.
I will especially have fond memories of the children. I have had many children through the years who came to story hour when they were little come back and bring their children to the story hour. I started the Toddler story hour when my grandson was a year old. I was the only one in the county to have a regular toddler program. I don't think that anything can compare to the look on a child's face when they have found a book that they really loved and when you see that child grow up and coming back to the library still loving to read as a adult, and you know that you had a small part of promoting that desire which makes it special. I have had adults come in and tell me how they enjoyed the library when they were small. One adult bought a new copy of The Box Car Children when our copy had to be discarded because it was her favorite book when she was a child.
I have to say that what I will miss the most is the children and the adults who have used the Library all through the years, and I will miss the Volunteers who gave of their time for the Library, especially Polly Inge who has been with me as a volunteer and as a Green Thumb Worker and as a special friend in all of our moves for over 20 years. She has truly been my right hand. Yes I will miss the Library very much. It has been my life and a true labor of love for me because of my love for books.
Frances Ambrose
Librarian/Director
Freedom Public Library
Freedom,Pa.
(Beaver County libraries are having a hard time making ends meet but service continues through the dedication of paid and unpaid workers whose efforts keep 1O Beaver County libraries open. Here is one example of what one person means to a community--editor's note)
The 1,230 patrons at the Freedom Public Library should feel lucky to have Fran Ambrose as their librarian. If it were not for her dedication, they might not have a library.
Since starting there in June 1968, Mrs. Ambrose is the only full-time employee the library has had.
She works five days a week from 11 am. to 5 pm, including Saturdays.
Mrs. Ambrose has help in the form of part-time employee Patricia Graeser and volunteers Polly Inge and Doris Cumbus. but, ultimately, the responsibility of the daily operation of the library falls on Mrs. Ambrose.
"Pat, Polly and Doris are great," Mrs. Ambrose said. "I don't know where I would be without them. But they can only do so much, because they are only part-time." -
"It would be nice to hire more people, but our financial situation isn't that great and we can't afford to do much hiring."
Mrs. Ambrose is paid by the borough. She receives $5.80 an hour, with no benefits. Ms. Graeser is paid a minimum wage rate through the Green Thumb senior citizen program.
Ms. Inge and Ms. Cumbus work strictly on a volunteer basis and are not paid.
"All libraries have financial problems, "Mrs. Ambrose said. "We're not alone. Funding is down at a time when readership is up."
Freedom is among ten libraries belonging to the Beaver County Federated Library System. Aliquippa, Ambridge, Baden, Beaver, Beaver Falls. Midland, Monaca, New Brighton, and Rochester are the others.
All 10 libraries receive over half of their funding from a combination of state ,county and municipal aid. This aid has not increased over the past several years, despite the fact that total circulation at the 10 county libraries has increased five percent over last year.
The problem is especially severe at the Freedom library, the smallest of the 10 system libraries in terms of budget.
"It's been a struggle at times for us to stay open, but luckily we've gotten tremendous support from the (Freedom) library board and our borough officials," Mrs. Ambrose said. "As bad as things have gotten, never once has any thought been given to closing down. The borough has been great in that regard.
The library has been movedthree times since opening its doors in January 1939. Currently, it is located at the borough building on Third Ave.
It's first location was at the old borough -building on Eighth St. It stayed there from 1939 to 1984, when it was moved to the old Freedom High School building. It was housed at the old high school building until 1990.
Mrs. Ambrose laughed when remembering the move from the old borough building to the school.
"Borough workers literally put all our books in a dump truck and dumped all the books at the school," she said.
More problems were to come at the school location.
At first we were located downstairs," Mrs. Ambrose said. "Tbere was no heat there. We used kerosene heaters to keep warm. The temperature never got over 52 or 53 degrees. It also was very dark there. We moved upstairs after they found asbestos in the downstairs room."
The library was asked to leave in 1990 after plans were made to sell the building.
The library had to wait a year before moving to its current location at the new municipal building in June 1991.
"We were closed from June 1990 to June 1991 until the municipal building was completed," Mrs. Ambrose said. "We put our books in storage for a year at the old Century National Bank builing at the corner of Third Ave. and Sixth St. until we could move. The bank was kind enough to donate space.
"If patrons wanted a book during that time, they had to use the county Bookmobile another library. I conducted story hours for children at various churches throughout town as a volunteer."
Unlike rnany county librarians who rely on outside help to conduct story hours, Mrs. Ambrose conducts her own program for borough children three times a week. During the sessions, stories are read aloud to toddlers, pre-school children and youngsters in kindergarten through fourth grade
"Days we have story hours usually are our busiest" Mrs. Ambrose said. "Parents who bring their children end up taking out books. It's a great way to get people to use the library-"
Freedom has approximately 11,500 books cataIoged for its 654 adult and 576 juvenile patrons. The library also has a video collection.
As a member of the Beaver County Federated Library System, the Freedom library is open to all county residents, as long as they have library cards registered with the system. Mrs. Ambros said, though, most of her patrons are from Freedom and the surrounding area, including New Sewickley and parts of Conway.
"A lot of people didn't even know we had a library until we moved to the new borough building several years ago," she said. "We're much more visible now."
Mrs. Ambrose, 54; enjoys her job and does not plan to retire soon. "I've never dreamt as a youngster that I would be working at a library now," said Mrs. Ambrose, who moved to Freedom from Rochester in 1958. "I did not attend college and really had no formal training as a librarian until I started working in Freedom. I learned about the opening through my church."
"I've always used the library, though, even when I was younger. I can't think of a nicer place to be."
She and her husband, Bert reside in Freedom. Mr. Ambrose, a retired steelworker, works part-time as a laborer at a machine shop in Mars.
They have two daughters: Trina,32 and Tracy, 21, and three grandchildren.
"We hope Fran doesn't retire for a long time," Freedom borough secretary, Beverly Smith, said. "You don't find her type too much anymore. She's extremely dedicated and puts her heart and soul into everything she does."