Friends of the Library

by Chris Zabel

The teen book depot located in the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre opened for use in April

You don’t even need a library card! The purpose of the teen book depot is to make reading materials as accessible as possible for young people. The collection in the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre is the fifth depot located in Oakville.

The Friends of the Library sponsored the new teen book depot with $3,500 funding this year.

The youth drop-in centre at QE Park opened at the beginning of April and is starting out with a selection of about 200 volumes. This number will grow as the collection is used and there’s an indication of the sorts of books most in demand. To start with there is a solid selection including Harry Potter, the Twilight series, the Hunger Games books, and many graphic novels.

“I’m the type of librarian who thinks that if you can get a teenager to read a cereal box, that’s a good thing,” said teen services librarian Elise Cole. She’s responsible for setting up and maintaining the depots. Cole explained that the hope with the teen book depots is to catch the attention of young people who might not be actively seeking out books to read. The ultimate goal is improved literacy skills.

OPL created the first teen book depot in the Youth Centre on Cross Avenue five years ago. Since then, they’ve also been located in the Bronte Youth Centre, Kerr Street Ministries and the YMCA.

“Youth centres are places where young people who don’t have any place else to go will hang out, and they’re safe places,” said Cole. In designing the teen book depot collections, she explained that the goal is to provide what the teens want to read, without any type of educational bias or agenda.

The depots seek to provide reading for pleasure as a positive end in itself. There’s also the hope the depots are removing any financial impediment to young people obtaining the popular titles that might interest them the most.

Books are checked out on the honour system, which has actually proven to work amazingly well.

There’s also the intent that teens will spend some time reading while they’re in the youth centre. “Part of the reason we’re stocking a lot of graphica is that it’s easy to pick up and put down,” said Cole.

Teen book depots of this type are unique to Oakville. Cole said she would like to continue developing the program, perhaps providing collections to the group homes operated by Halton Children’s Aid Society.

by Maureen Rudzik

At the grand reopening for Woodside branch are Sharon Milne (left), Mayor Rob Burton, Councillor Pam Damoff, and Acting CEO Charlotte Meissner.

The above comments, and many similar, were overheard earlier this year in the neighbourhood of the Woodside branch of the Oakville Public Library. The facility reopened late last December after a four-month closure to correct problems with the building’s foundation. While work was ongoing, a number of additional improvements were made.

The front customer service area is completely reconfigured and split into two desks, offering speedier checkouts. There’s new carpeting throughout the facility and new seating. The general impression is that the space is bigger and brighter.

Most significant is that Woodside is now compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. A new larger room houses the special audio-book collection, along with the Kurzweil reading machine and DAISY book reader which was a donation of the Friends of the Library.)

This mosaic wall located inside the Woodside branch used to be an exterior wall before the building was expanded. Before recent renovations it was hidden behind book shelves.

At grand-opening celebrations in January, the featured speaker was simply a member of the community who wanted to share the value that Woodside branch brings to her family.

Sharon Milne paid tribute to both the staff and collections at Woodside:

The tiling around the new customer service desks at Woodside echoes a mosaic feature wall located inside the branch.