The town of Bracebridge is celebrating 100 years of its Carnegie library in a series of events that start Saturday, March 29 with the launch, appropriately for a library, of a new book.

Local Library, Global Pass­port is the title of the 384-page work by local author J. Patrick Boyer. Just completed, the book includes some 167 photographs and illustrations that recount the colourful history of the library and the important role books have played in the town’s evolution ­— even its surprising name change from North Falls to Bracebridge.

Canada’s former governor general Adrienne Clarkson calls Local Library, Global Passport “a fine and engaging book by Patrick Boyer about the importance of libraries.”

“The public is warmly invited to join what will be a memorable event,” said library CEO Cathryn Rodney. The book launch gets underway at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 29, at Bracebridge Public Library, 94 Manitoba Street.

“Patrick Boyer’s book describes the evolution of one of the several thousand public libraries given to towns around the world by American industrialist Andrew Carnegie a century ago,” explained Rodney. “The larger merit of this book is that in the specific example of Bracebridge, we see patterns that apply to the changes in libraries everywhere over the past century.”

Boyer said that many of the colourful episodes he uncovered during the past three years of research “could only have happened in Bracebridge,” and there is “enough material here to support a feature movie or a good novel.”

Vartan Gregorian, former head of New York City Library, has written a preface about “a place to think and dream and plan, the Bracebridge library Patrick Boyer brings so vividly to life.”

First library service in Bracebridge began in 1874, but as a private operation run by the Mechanics’ Institute. Even when it became a “Free Library” in 1901 there was still no proper library building.

“Andrew Carnegie gave the gift of reading to millions of people,” said Boyer, “and nobody before or since has done as much to establish what Carnegie himself called ‘the free republic of books’.” His gift building to Bracebridge opened its doors 100 years ago. Today the public library, fully restored and doubled in size in the mid-1980s, is one of the town’s seven heritage structures.

Copies of Boyer’s book will go on sale in local bookstores after the launch, and be distributed across Canada and the United States and sold throughout the world via the Internet. All proceeds from the sale of books on March 29 go to the Bracebridge Public Library. Boyer will give a brief talk about the book and some of the amazing stories in it, answer questions and sign copies purchased at the event. Hardcover copies sell for $34.95 and the paperback edition for $22.95. Refreshments will be served.