Longest-serving Liverpool library member borrows 14,000 titles

Dorothy Joyce McGillivray, a 96-year-old Liverpool woman with a voracious appetite for reading, has reached a significant milestone in the history of Liverpool City Library, clocking up 14,000 titles borrowed as its longest-serving member.

Dorothy remembers 1952 with great fondness – it was the year she arrived in Australia as a ‘10-pound Pom’. The first thing she did was to unpack her bags in her lodgings at East Hills Hostel. Then she quickly set about getting acquainted with her “second home” - Liverpool Library.

“One of the first things my husband Dougal McGillivray and I did when I arrived in Australia was to join Liverpool Library and it became my second home. It’s such a wonderful place that has grown so much over the years,” Ms Gillivray said.

“In 1952 there was only one library in the Liverpool area (there are now six). Initially living at East Hills, then Rossmore and Casula and with limited transport opportunities it was quite difficult to get to the library.

“I love reading about other cultures and the books I’ve borrowed at Liverpool Library took me around the world. Archaeology and history are my favourite topics, so I’ve spent a lot of time in those sections.”

Dorothy’s top five books of all time (see below) also reveal a penchant for biographies on the power and politics of the royal family through time. Her No. 1 read is Queen Anne: The politics of passion by Lady Anne Somerset.

She remembers the days of no computers when she could only borrow two books at a time. The library provided a constant for her through parenthood, grandparenthood and the loss of her husband in 1992.

“I just kept going back,” Dorothy said. “Reading gives me such pleasure and the staff at Liverpool library are such wonderful people as well.”

Osteoarthritis prevented Dorothy from visiting her beloved library some years ago, but, thanks to a decades-long friendship with library staffer Mary Bush, she was able to keep on borrowing.

“I have been delivering books to Dorothy’s house and now her nursing home in Liverpool for 14 years,” Ms Bush said.

“It’s a professional relationship, but it is also a friendship. Dorothy’s passion for reading is infectious and inspiring. I am happy to provide this service to her and I have a great connection to Dorothy and her family.

The relationship between Dorothy and Mary captures the essence of Library and Information Week (17-23 May) which celebrates the work that library and information workers do around Australia.

Liverpool Mayor Wendy Waller said libraries still play an integral role in communities.

“Dorothy’s story reminds us all of the great community we live in and of the power of the local library,” Mayor Waller said.

“Our libraries mean so many different things to different people – it's a place of personal enrichment, but it can also be a place for families, for paying bills, and for socialising and connecting with others.

“In Dorothy we have a prodigious reader and in Mary a professional who goes the extra mile to help.”

Dorothy was an 18-year member of the Liverpool Historical Society and of the Holy Trinity Church in Lurnea.

Dorothy McGillivray’s top five reading list:

Register this month as a member of Liverpool City Library to go in a draw to win a family pass (two adults and two children) to THEM by multiple-award winning playwright Samah Sabawi on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 August at Casula Powerhouse.

For more information including library activities during Library and Information Week  visit: https://mylibrary.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/

Photo: Dorothy McGillivray, who has been a member of Liverpool Library since 1952