The 77-Year-Old Library Branch in Shetland is closing.
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When Still Needs to Be Determined, But the 232-Square-Metre (2,500-Square-Foot) Branch in Dawn-Euphemia, Which 56 people in 2024 Called their Home Library Branch, doesn’t meet legislatered accessibility requirements, Said Darlene Coke, Library Services Manager With the County of Lambton.
That Includes With its Entrance, Service Desk and Washroom, She Said, noting it also Lacks onsite parking and patrons have to park on the shoulder of the road.
Renovations WOULD require more space, and there isn’t any, coke Said.
“There’s Physically not an Opportunity to Expand That Building at All.”
Dawn-Euphemia Tried and Failed to Acquire Nearby Land, and vote recently to accept the closure, She Said. A Committee of County Council Endorsed the Move Wednesday.
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“It is with deep regret we have made a motion to close that library,” Said Dawn-Euphemia Mayor Alan Broad, recalling pedaling his bike to the branch as a boy.
“It’s been there for a Gazillion Years,” He Said.
Shetland will be the First Library to Close in Lambton Sale the Manduum Branch Closed in 2018.
Plans are, as with manduum, to transfer staff and library hours to another nearby branch, coke said.
The Florence Library Branch, Built in 2010 about Seven Kilometers Away in Dawn-Euphemia, is the Destination, She Said.
It’s Also Undersized and Needs Some UpdatesLike push buttons for its washrooms, coke said.
But there are options, She Said, since it’s part of the Florence and District Community Center and Library Officials Can Use A Community Room There for Library Programming, Add More Shelves to the Branch, then Equip it with more computers and Literacy Programming for Kids.
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HOURS AT THE BRANCH WOULD DOUBLE TO 24 DURING FIVE DAYS, Including weekend service hours, she said, noting there WOULD BE NO JOB LOSSES.
“We are hopeful that by providing More Hours of Service in Florence and Perhaps by Introduction Some New Equipment. . . that we’ll be able to provide a better library service in Florence for all of the residents of Dawn-Euphemia, ”Coke Said.
Lambton has been quietly piloting a library-by-mail program for about a year that sends materials and return postage to people who can can make it in a branch to borrow items, she said.
Plans are to make that program permanent, and offer it to people who can make the drive to florence from shetland, she said.
Shetland Library Materials Would Be Distributed Between the Library’s Remaining 24 Branches, She Said.
When the Closure and Florence Branch Upgrades Will Happen Still Needs to be Planned, But Expect the Closure to Happen Sometime in 2025, she Said.
Library program waiting and circulation in general has never fully rebounded after service closures amid the covid-19 pandemic, she Said.
A Big part of that is more people moving to virtual borrowing materials like e-books, she said.
Before 2020, About Three-Quarters of All Circulation was Physical Copies, She Said.
Now, Electronic Borrowing Accounts for More Than 52 per cent of All Library Traffic.
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