Week 18: Institutions

 INSTITUTIONS

Most of my ancestors, generation after generation were farmers.  By my father's generation, some were leaving the family farms and working in various trades.  So it was a very big deal when my older brother, Garry, graduated in 1974 from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.  My mother's brother and his family attended the graduation along with my parents, myself and younger brother.  Neither set of grandparents were able to attend, but one of our grandmothers had my brother's graduation photo published in every community newspaper available to her.

Queen's University, located in Kingston Ontario, was established in 1841 by a Royal Charter issued by Queen Victoria.  It's original name was Queen's College at Kingston.  Kingston is known as 'Limestone City' and most of the original buildings at the university were built with limestone.  It is still a beautiful campus, despite buildings constructed for the past few decades being a more modern design and not limestone.  Depending on the era of construction, attempts were made to blend new buildings in with the old. 

That university has played a big part in my immediate family - before and after Garry's graduation.  In the early1950's my father started working as a plumber and steam fitter for a mechanical contractor working on contracts at Base Borden, near Barrie Ontario.  A few years later, my father was send to Kingston Ontario to work on contracts the company had at Base Kingston.  Once in Kingston, the company kept getting more and more contracts, not just at the military base but also at Queen's University.  By the mid 1950's my father's Kingston move was permanent and my mother and Garry joined him in Kingston.  So when Garry went to university, he continued living at home while he attended the local university.

Growing up in the 1960s, I can remember being with my father driving through the university campus and he would point out the various buildings he had worked on.  Sometimes it had been a brand new building as the university expanded to accommodate the university age baby boomers, other times it was renovations to early 20th century limestone buildings. 

Queen's University has also been very important to me on a personal basis. While in high school, I got a part-time job as a Student Assistant working in Douglas Library, which was the main library at the time.  I continued working there when I became a student at the university.  I dropped out in second year and was hired full time as a Library Technician.  For the next decade, I worked my way up the hierarchy to become the Supervisor of the Biology Library Branch Library.  In the early 1990s, the collection of the main library had outgrown Douglas Library and a new building (Stauffer Library) was built to house that collection.  Which meant that Douglas Library building was sitting empty.  So a decision was made to merge the one room libraries in the various engineering and science buildings to create the Engineering/Science Library which then occupied most of the Douglas Library building.  A couple years later, Special Collections and Rare Books were also relocated to that building.

At the time of creation of the Engineering/Science Library, I was selected to be the Circulation Co-ordinator.  In 2009, my husband's work transferred him to Saskatchewan with a minimum two year commitment.  Queen's University Libraries was willing to give me a two year Leave of Absence.  When the end of my leave was approaching and I was pondering if I would be granted an extension, my husband was promoted and we moved to Ottawa.  As Ottawa was only a couple of hours away from Kingston, I returned to work at Queen's University Libraries, living with my mother during the week and going home to my husband in Ottawa on the weekends.  Because of changes in staffing and budget cuts, I was assigned a position at Stauffer Library rather than my former position.  It was mainly technical services, processing books and only limited public service.  The only part of the job I liked was when I was covering the Circulation Desk.

After doing this commute for two years, I approached management about the possibility of an early retirement package.   I was doubtful as I was only approaching my 54th birthday, but the university was undergoing budget cuts and packages were available.  To my delight, I was offered an acceptable package, so after 34 years I retired from Queen's University.    For my retirement party, I insisted that it be held in Douglas Library, in the 1923 Reading Room where my first staff position had been located.  It is a beautiful room with high ceilings and stained glass windows.  The large room is very reminiscent of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.  Management was not too happy with me as that room is classed as heritage and air conditioning was never installed when the building had been renovated.  And it was very very hot the day of my retirement party.  But I wanted to end my career where I had begun.