Duane Hicks
Grand-opening
tentatively set
Construction of the new Fort Frances Public Library and Technology Centre is moving along slightly ahead of schedule, with a grand opening tentatively scheduled for the end of June, Community Services manager George Bell said Friday.
“The interior stuff is ahead of schedule now, and will easily be done in late February or early March,” Bell noted.
“We still have to do the stone work and everything on the outside, and the landscaping,” he added.
As the exterior work is being done, the furnishings, computers, and other equipment will start arriving in April, said Bell. However, the installation process is expected to take several months to complete, hence the June opening.
“We are absolutely flabbergasted at the pace they are going,” library board chair Joyce Cunningham said just after touring the site on Friday with chief librarian Margaret Sedgwick and project manager Brian Avis.
“It’s going so much faster than we thought it would. And when you get in there now, you can actually see all the rooms and all the areas,” she enthused.
“Some of the rooms are already painted,” she added. “It really quite exciting for us.”
Cunningham said details like paint, flooring, and carpeting already have been decided, with the library board now concentrating on furnishings. It has been getting help from other libraries that have been through the same process.
“We took some time off before Christmas and I said, ‘We have to hit the ground running right after the holidays.’ And we have,” she chuckled.
“By the end of February, a great deal of this stuff will be ordered because it takes quite some time to come.
“A lot will be happening that people won’t see in the next two months, but a great deal will be happening behind the scenes,” Cunningham continued.
“And then we’ll try to co-ordinate so that things come at the right time.”
Cunningham noted most of the furnishings in the new facility will be new and not carried over from the current library on Church Street. Some of the items are too old while others simply do not fit in the new building.
“It’s like when you move from one house to another, a piece of furniture just doesn’t fit,” she explained.
Cunningham said Mayor Roy Avis had suggested to her that once the new library is open and it is absolutely certain as to what can or can’t be utilized from the old facility, the library board should hold an auction.
Cunningham said they are expecting to hold a grand opening in the latter half of June. Before that, however, there will be a lot of work to do putting in new shelving, furnishings, computers and other equipment, and moving the collection from the old library to the new one—all of which will take no small degree of planning.
“When we want our grand opening, we want everything completely in and everything up and running,” she stressed.
Cunningham said it’s not known at this time how long the current library will be kept open during the move because at some point it will become difficult for both staff and patrons to keep going about business as usual.
“It’s a quandary because we want everything working once we open the doors and say, ‘Come in,’” she remarked. “On the other hand, once you move almost everything out of the old building, you can’t say, ‘You can’t come into the new one.’
“They want to come and get the books.”
A grand opening committee will be struck in the near future, spearheaded by Mark Kowalchuk, who also chaired the successful “Building for the Future” fundraising campaign.
Cunningham said she and others are looking forward to the occasion.
“Margaret and I have said we are inviting the whole province,” she chuckled.
What’s in store
The new facility will include the main circulation area, fiction and non-fiction sections, a reading area, adaptive technology room, study rooms, staff work area and break room, teen area, children’s department, fireside lounge, information technology (IT) training lab, and the Shaw Communications room.
It is called the Fort Frances Public Library and Technology Centre for a reason as the integration of computers and information technology into the facility is extensive.
Not only is the whole facility equipped for wireless Internet, and will feature many areas for people to sit with their own laptop computers, but it also will have small meeting rooms available for interviews, meetings, and appointments, as well as providing temporary business “incubator” office space complete with state-of-the-art connectivity to assist businesses to grow.
Space and equipment will be available to support innovative entrepreneurs to establish or expand their businesses, and the town will work with the Northern Ontario Innovation Centre (NOIC) and the Rainy River Future Development Corp. to facilitate the transfer of information, programming, and services.
Jane Gillon, senior growth plan advisor with the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry here, who toured the facility with local Northern Development officer Jeannette Cawston on Friday, said she was looking forward to the business opportunities the technology will provide.
“The new Fort Frances Technology Centre will connect the Rainy River District to the world through new technologies, creating opportunities for area entrepreneurs and business,” noted Gillon.
“This project is an opportunity to diversify the local economy by moving into the growing information sector, thus reducing traditional dependency on the natural resources sector,” she added.
The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. granted $439,492 to the town last January to establish the technology centre in the new library.
The Shaw Communications room, for its part, will serve not only as a meeting room for groups but allow for webconferencing and videoconferencing, and use a “smart board” with a program called “Bridgeit” that provides long-distance interactive multi-media learning.
“That’s an area we’re quite excited about and we think there’s wonderful opportunities for so many people in the community to use that,” enthused Cunningham.
“I think people are going to be really excited about that when they see that.
“That’s an area that can grow,” she stressed. “We don’t have all the answers about how that can be used.
“We’re saying, ‘The potential is there. Now, people in the community, you can start thinking about how you could use it, and we’ll figure out how to make it so,’” Cunningham added, noting the full potential of the technology centre won’t be realized until people start using it.
The new facility also will be completely accessible to those with disabilities.
Not only is it one level and there’s no stairs, Cunningham and Sedgwick have been taking care to measure out where shelves and other features will be to ensure those in wheelchairs or on scooters can maneuver about.
As well, there will be an adaptive technology area where those with vision or physical impairments will be able to use technology to access materials, noted Cunningham.
Another change is the self-checkout system, which will allow patrons to check out their own books, DVDs, software, and other resources.
Cunningham said self-checkout systems are “the way of the future,” not only at libraries but in other parts of life, like check-ins at airports or even ATMs at banks.
She explained the self-checkout system also means no lineups for patrons while it frees up staff to help patrons or work on other projects.
While staff will help out people at first, this particular model is “user friendly” and everyone should catch on, Cunningham noted.
Returning books also will be easy, with a book drop in the front of the building.
“You could leave your car running, just dash the six feet, and drop your books in,” Cunningham remarked.
Currently, library staff and a few volunteers are in the process of tagging the library’s collection with bar codes so they’re compatible with the new self-checkout and security systems.
The new building also utilizes “green” technology, such as using heat exhausted from the adjacent arena’s ice plant to heat the library, solar panel collectors to heat hot water, and windows to provide natural light, thereby reduce operating costs and energy use.
