The children came first, one at a time so the books they were carrying from the shelves of the old Whistler library could be replaced on the shelves of the new library alphabetically. They were followed by young adults, adults, seniors, and various VIPs from the community — well over 200 people who took advantage of Books on the Move this past Sunday to see the inside of the new Whistler library for the first time.
The new library is scheduled to open on Jan. 26, and construction was still very much underway during the sneak preview event, but it was long enough for some locals to make up their minds.
Geoff Clarke and his wife Wynne were regulars at the old library, and can’t wait for the new facility to open.
“We’re very impressed, it’s an excellent building,” said Geoff. “It was great to be able to come out and carry our one little book over and see it after all this time.
“We were a bit concerned about the funding, and the stories of the price going up, up and up. But there’s no point moaning about everything now, it’s been done, and the new library is excellent.”
Wynne said she enjoyed the atmosphere of the building, with its walls of windows and the fireplace area.
“It’s a great space, and will be a wonderful place to come and spend time. We’re very lucky to have it,” she said.
Kitty Chase, who was attending with her four-year old grandson Ryan Holden, was also impressed.
“It’s absolutely excellent,” she said. “It’s a wonderful design and it has been built beautifully. I love the colours, the windows and the brightness of the place, and the kids reading area will be fantastic. It looks like we’re going to be spending a lot of time there. We stopped going to story time at the other library because it was so crowded at times, and we’re looking forward to going back again when it opens.”
Holden was speechless, but nodded enthusiastically when asked if he liked the new building.
The turnout was bigger than Library director Lauren Stara expected, but she welcomed the community’s enthusiasm.
“We’re really pleased,” she said. “We expected a good crowd, but this was a great turnout. We also got a great mix of young children, young adults, seniors, and dignitaries like members of council.
“I think everybody is pretty excited to see the doors open January 26, once we get the doors put in.”
One of the highlights of the day was a cheque presentation of $64,000 from Shaw Communications, which will fund the public access computer centre in the library. The area will now be recognized as the Shaw Digital Learning Centre.
“Our library had five outdated computers for internet access and database searches,” said Stara. “These computers were highly used and often there was a queue of people waiting for them. In comparison, the Shaw Digital Learning Centre will have 12 state-of-the-art computers with internet access.”
Various members of the library board were on hand to answer questions and explain the new features of the library. The library also put out a brochure for the new facility, as well as a fact sheet for users.
According to the handouts, the new library will have more than four times the space they had before, more than 12,000 square feet, as well as double the shelf space. There will be a reference desk for search assistance, rooms for adult and children’s programming, a teen lounge, and a reading lounge with a gas fireplace and coin-operated coffee dispenser.
The new library is also a lot more high tech than the previous facility, featuring a self-serve checkout and hold system that uses RFID (radio frequency identification) tags, free wireless internet, fee-based colour copying, faxing and scanning. The new community room will be able to accommodate up to 50 people with teleconferencing capability and a built-in sound system. Fees for public use have not been determined yet, and the library will not take bookings until March at the earliest.
With the help of grants, the library will also feature a sustainability collection and a literacy collection.
The building also meets gold LEED standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), and has several green features including a planted roof to provide insulation in the winter and cooling in the summer, natural ventilation and lighting, geothermal heating and cooling, and low-emitting, local and recycled materials.
The initial construction cost of the facility that was approved by council in 2004 was $7 million, but the price tag climbed to close to $11.2 million after four budget increases due to the construction labour shortage, and the rising price of building materials. The previous council has been criticized for going with a construction management model where each stage of the construction was put out to bid rather than a fixed price contract. Because of the construction boom and labour shortage, there were not enough companies bidding to keep prices low.
The library board also recently made a decision to cut more than $60,000 from their $300,000 annual operating budget next year to help cover capital costs of outfitting the library. The recent donation from Shaw will now help to alleviate those costs.
