MILLENNIUM MOMENT

In 1939, when Dorothea Sheely started her job as a librarian in Newport

Beach, there was one library in town, in Balboa. At the time, she said,

the library was a hot spot for Saturday night entertainment because there

was so little else to do. Sheely eventually went on to become the chief

librarian at the library, holding the position for 30 years.

During that time -- from her appointment as library chief in 1945 to her

retirement in 1977 -- Newport Beach grew from a town of a few thousand to

a city of 63,000, with five branch libraries.

Sheely retired on a positive note: the city’s library system, under her

direction, loaned more books per capita than any other library system in

Orange County. But it was never again quite the nightspot it had been in

‘39.

* MILLENNIUM MOMENT celebrates the people who have made a major

contribution to the Newport-Mesa community during this century.