One of the jewels in Westlock’s crown, its award-winning library, is tuning 70 and everyone is invited to join the celebration on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 3 p.m.
On offer will be a chance to take part in holiday-craft activities, a visit from the Story Time Dogs and play time with the library’s Wii and Xbox 360.
It’s not a real birthday without cake and Westlock Libraries director Doug Whistance-Smith and his team know that, so they’ll also be 70 cupcakes for residents to enjoy.
“There’s going to be all kinds of goodies, but the 70 cupcakes will be all decorated up and have candles in each one. So that’ll be fun,” he said.
While the real date for the Westlock Library’s 70th birthday came in May this year, staff made the decision to hold off on the party.
The delay was due to the potential for a duel celebration in 2015 of 70 years of Westlock Library and quarter of a century at its current location on the corner of 100th and Main Street.
“We were really lucky when we got to move in here,” Whistance-Smith said. “Our celebrations in December are for 25 years in this building and 70 years in the community.”
Over the years the library has been recognized for its innovative programs.
Some of those efforts include animals in libraries and a cost-sharing model for public screening of films that saves regional services money and expands local offerings.
“We’ve had people from Edmonton come up and they’re just gob smacked,” Whistance-Smith said.
“They walk in and say this is better than Edmonton Public Library. It’s incredibly gratifying.”
In the 70 years since the library first opened its doors, there have been many changes.
No longer are you hushed by gray-haired septuagenarians for speaking above a whisper.
Today’s library is soundscape of joyful children and inquisitive discussion, but also still offering a quiet space to get some reading done.
While date stamps, card catalogs and an all volunteer staff have been replaced by barcodes and computers and paid professionals, one thing remains constant — the library’s role as a community knowledge hub.
“We’ve developed our service model based on what the community is looking for,” Whistance-Smith said. “Our stock and trade is books and physical items that can be circulated, but we’ve also expanded to electronic formats.
“Our tool kit is getting much larger and more devise as people’s information seeking behavior is changing.”
The library has done more than just fend off challenges from other information technologies it has embraced them and beat them at their own game.
What the next 70 years hold for the library is unknown, but what we can be assured of is that it will be innovative, useful and exciting.
“My feeling is the only limitation is the limitation you impose on own your imagination,” he said.
