Regular customers of the Rossland Public Library had nothing but kudos to give for the renovated facility.
“I like it a lot, I like how the children’s section is bigger, and how everything is right here,” says 10-year-old Lydia Kalawski, who was sitting reading a book on a couch. “I like how I can watch my sister, because I babysit her. I can be right there because my books are over here too.”
The library, which closed for a $265,000 renovation last fall, re-opened in December. But the ribbon-cutting last weekend officially launched the upgraded facility.
“It’s good, I’m a bit of a traditionalist, so I’m always a little reserved about change,” said Ryan McGill, who has one child working and another volunteering at the library. “Libraries need to evolve, and they’re doing a good job at doing that.”
The renovations saw some major re-arrangement of space to make the library more efficient. The children’s section, formerly in two separate areas, were amalgamated into one. The circulation desk is centrally located now, a new meeting room was built and a second space converted into a multi-purpose room.
“It’s very nice that it’s all come together finally, and it’s exciting to be able to do this,” said library board member Christa Ford, watching as the crowd gathered for the ribbon cutting. She said it was a real effort to keep the momentum going to apply for grant after grant to get the funds needed for renovations.
“It was very difficult finding infrastructure grants, so we applied for anything and everything we could find that would fit that category, and we were successful,” she says. “There was a lot of other fundraising on the side, a lot of cookie baking, we tried our hand at making chili and selling it as well.
“But those were good community engagagement events and really got people involved in understanding what we are trying to do and giving us feedback on the designs.”
Ford said the overall design goal was to create a much more open and welcoming feel to the library, and one that better reflected the population’s needs.
“We were able to expand the children’s area, which is huge, because there has been a huge influx of young families to the area. One of our best-attended programs is books for babies, and in the past we’ve had to cram 50 parents and kids into one area.
“So it’s been great to be able to make those changes to help with the changes in our community.”
