Today marks a historical milestone for the Swift Current Branch Library as it turns a century old.

Hitting that noteworthy and celebrated milestone didn't come easily, as financial stability and multiple disasters are just a few hurdles they've faced over the years.

A motion in Swift Current city council on March 12, 1918, established the Swift Current Library board and local pastor Rev. Horace C. Speller was named the chairman for the first four years and is also recognized as the founder of the library.

It wasn't until just over two months later on May 14 the Swift Current Library (at that time the Reading Room) was opened to the public in the basement of old city hall with 440 books, most of which were donated.

"The library was started by a handful of dedicated community members who wanted the people of Swift Current to have a resource that would really benefit everybody and improve people's lives," the branch's head librarian Andrea McCrimmon said. "I think they would be very proud to see what the library has become over the last 100 years.

Tragedy struck the library just a few years after opening when a fire broke out in January 1921.

"The library board had worked so hard to get the library started and all of the books were ruined, so that must have been heartbreaking," McCrimmon said reflecting on the library's past. "The library board worked to generate enough money to replace the books and they ended up getting an insurance settlement of $1,000."

Nowadays that $1,000 would equate to $12,657.14, according to the Bank of Canada's inflation calculator.

As a result of the fire, the library board decided to approach city council about a permanent site, but to no avail... at least not during that decade. But there was a positive note by the end of 1921, as the library had restocked the shelves to over 2,000 books and had more than 600 members.

Struggles resurfaced the following year in 1922 however, as the library was expecting to receive $500 from city council for the year, but only acquired $100, forcing the board to draft a notice of dismissal letter to the librarian of the time.

"Funding has been a constant source of struggle and stress throughout the history of the 100 years of the library," McCrimmon said.

Before the letter was ever sent, the community and library rallied and held a benefit concert raising a fair bit of coin and the event ultimately changed the hearts of the city councillors who quickly reinstated the library's fund for the year.

Toward the end of the 1920s city council circled back to the library board with good news as they were going to fix up an old school building for roughly $1,000 that the library would be able to move into. Sometime during the reconstruction of the building, located in 100 block of 2nd Avenue Northeast, the cost was increased to $1,500, and by 1931 the library had officially moved into its second facility.

"We received so much support from the City of Swift Current and we are really grateful for their support," McCrimmon added.

Later in the same year, a bylaw at city council was formed permitting the library to receive consistent funding each year of $500 or more.

After 30 years of librarian services by Mr. and Mrs. Treliving, the latter stepped down in 1949 when Theodore Michie was appointed to take over.

A report from one of the past board members who recorded the library's history said Michie "appeared to be kept firmly under the thumb of the board and that he brought many needed changes to the filing and card system."

Michie was also a big historian and is credited for documenting most of the early years of the library until his departure in 1967.

During the same year, funds were given to the library by the late Charles Thoreson in the amount of $18,000 which helped build the third library of the century open in the fall of 1950 that adjoined the Swift Current Collegiate Institute (renamed Beatty Collegiate in 1969).

The new library was sufficient enough to last roughly 21 years, before a board member from the newly-established Chinook Regional Library went to city council seeking a new building stating they needed more space.

"R.C. Dahl was the mayor of Swift Current then, who worked very hard to get this current building built in 1974," McCrimmon said. "So it's been a frequent struggle to find enough space and adequate resources."

With a bigger building came an 'overcrowding of materials and the unexpected amount of use of the libraries facilities.' By 1977 the library board began discussing a possible future expansion that got approval from the City in 1989 and the 4,500-square-foot extension costing about $400,000 was added in 1990.

Fire would strike the library again in 1997 - this time forcing it to be closed for more than a week.

"There was a fire in this building in the 90s when the furnace caught fire and there was smoke damage," McCrimmon shared, adding no books were damaged but did say lots of clean up was required.

Nearly a century after the library almost had to let its staff go, it almost happened again last year when the Saskatchewan Party government released a budget-slashing 58 per cent of library funding.

"Just seeing the people rallying around the library and fight to save something that was really important to them," McCrimmon said is one of her proudest moments while looking back at the 100-year history. "Hearing [then-Premier and Swift Current MLA] Brad Wall say that he made a mistake and acknowledged and wanted to fix it was really a huge thing. I never thought that I would see something like that in my life and I think it just goes to show that the library is more relevant than ever."

In the same year, the provincial government tried to cut the funding to the province's libraries, and the City recorded over 100,000 in-person visits for the first time ever.

"We've had an increase in visits of 28 per cent over the last four years," she said, with 2017's numbers as the most recent data. "The library is the busiest it's ever been."

Since McCrimmon took over as manager, to help the library stay relevant she's put a real focus and energy towards technology.

"Helping people to access technology is important because that's where a lot of our information is coming from now," she said. "I think it's important work for the library to help people bridge that technology gap and I see that as one of our biggest successes of the last few of years."

The stack of 440 books the library started out with has now swelled to having access to over 1.6 million through the One Province, One Card system.

"I think it's a real success story for the community that a handful of people could have this vision of having a public library and get that going and then have it be so successful for 100 years. It's still really thriving and I think they would be thrilled actually."