Last month the Ottawa Citizen ran an opinion piece by Mark Sutcliffe about what he alleges is a lack of a “business case” to justify the construction of a new main branch for the Ottawa Public Library.
Mr. Sutcliffe makes an argument of particular interest to me:
“…it’s hard to imagine people coming in from Kanata and Orléans to use the downtown library when they have perfectly good libraries in their neighbourhoods.”
I admit to living in Orléans. Further, I’ve lived there for a quarter-century now, and cannot remember a time when I didn’t visit the main branch on Laurier West at least once in any given month. The reasons are many and varied, but I still made those trips.
In fact, several of my more recent contributions to Spacing Ottawa could not have been researched as quickly or as well without the help of Brian Silcoff and his colleagues from the Main Branch’s Ottawa Room; digging up those back-stories on several of the streets of the city was possible because of their help.
Am I an exceptional case among the regular visitors to the OPL? My impression from chatting with my fellow researchers is that a survey of those using the Main Branch’s reference section would turn up a large number of “exceptional cases”, hailing from Orléans, Kanata, South Keys, even from Gatineau.
Surely a “business case” for a new facility is self-evident to anyone who visits the current building, built in 1974. Back then its narrow “up-only” escalators were considered real progress for those used to trudging the stairways of the old library, and for a time — for a much smaller city and population area — they were. Now they feel like a cramped anachronism from another time, but it’s where the escalators take the visitor that the inadequacy of the building really shows.
The stacks are so closely shoved together that usually people do not even start down them unless there are no other browsers in the passage; passing another patron between the shelves is something you only want to do if you are already on intimate terms with them, because if you aren’t, you soon will be. Some areas of the building are stifling hot, others are strangely cold; air quality feels very suspect. The washrooms are tiny and poorly ventilated, and the main entrance doors from the lobby allow for only one person to enter the building at a time.
The physical limits of the location have been reached, stretched, and then reached again.
I could wish that the idea of uniting the OPL Main Branch with the Archives as suggested by the developer who first proposed it in 2005 — minus the thirty-year “lease to own” arrangement that came with the original version of that proposal — might yet be doable, but with the new City archives building on Baseline Road just south of Algonquin College’s main campus commencing operations, that’s looking unlikely for at least the next couple of decades.
So, yes, I’ll side with Randall Denley on this one. And Moshe Safdie as well: we are not done with libraries yet, for a number of good reasons — not all of which have anything to do with a “business case”.
photo by Ottawa Public Library
4 comments
I live in Stittsville and I detest our library. I don’t even go there anymore. The women behind the counter (with one notable exception) are about the foulest, sourest, most hateful people I’ve met since I moved here five years ago. And the women working at Kanata aren’t much better. The desk employees at the main branch are professional in the extreme, and seem to actually enjoy what they do for a living.
In addition, in both of these “perfectly good” local branches, suburban psychomommies allow their children to run amok, screeching and playing. In the main branch, everyone’s on appropriate library behavior. Even the homeless people are minding their own business and respecting the other patrons.
So yes, like you, I visit the main branch at least once a month. I’m looking forward to a beautiful downtown library that will continue to serve the people of Ottawa–from one end of it to the other.
I don’t disagree, Dwight. And your case is a very specific one, where you are looking for historical documents on specific streets and receiving the assistance of skilled librarians to find them.
But I do think there’s a germ of truth in what Sutcliffe says. I live in the Tunney’s area. I’m likely at my branch 4 times a week (Rosemount), but rarely at Main branch. Most of my visits are there to pick up material requested via the online catalogue.
Where Sutcliffe’s argument falls down is this: we are the capital city of a G7 country, and our city library’s main branch is one that I would be embarrassed to show off to a visitor. It’s my understanding that the OPL is HEAVILY trafficked by citizens. It should not be beyond our grasp to build an appropriate building to house the city’s library. Appropriate doesn’t necessarily mean stunning. But surely it means more than the brutality and sordidness of the current branch.
We show what we value by what we build.
Modern libraries are more than just research repositories – they can be civic spaces as well, with meeting rooms, open reading areas, spaces for kids. The Millenium Library in Winnipeg has outdoor green space for reading, meeting friends, and attending events. Many American libraries have created sections for teens and children that are naturally lit, brightly coloured, and inviting spaces for kids. The San Francisco main branch has 300 computer terminals and can accommodate 1100 laptops. Modern libraries can be inviting and inspiring spaces.
While I appreciate the brutal efficiency of the OPL’s online catalogue system, it means I’m never in my branch library for longer than 10 minutes.
Your article is comforting, Dwight. I read your reference to Safdie and Denly too. Modern libraries are developing civic centres and we need a modern smart building accessible to the whole city. It would also have a unifying funtion in these polarized times.
The comment from StittsI… made me smile in recognition. Dedicated librarians have been precious to me since moving to a big town from the bush 50 plus years ago. However there are, in my view, two kinds of librarian. The other kind hates people and does not like to share books or other interesting stuff.
I will continue to use The Main in addition to our small neighbourhood library
There are interesting activities there and I browse for community events and chat with folks.
It would be gratifying as a citizen of Ottawa to dream of a space of which we could all be proud.