Branching out

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By: Steven Chen/News Reporter

On Thursday Nov. 5, the Hamilton Public Library closed the Waterdown and Milgrove branches in anticipation of the opening of the new facility located on Dundas St. E.

The decision to close doors permanently at the Waterdown and Milgrove locations was made by the Hamilton Public Library Board in accordance with the facilities’ master plan. “Setting the direction for how the facilities are occupied and renewed is a lengthy task,” said Karen Anderson, Director of Public Services at HPL. “The three main factors for the closing of the branches are building size and condition, changes in the demographics and evolving libraries.”

With the Milgrove branch having been deemed unsustainable for quite some time and the substantial population growth in the Waterdown area, the move to the new library facility seemed evident.

The opening of the $6.8 million building has been fraught with a number of unfortunate setbacks. With initial plans to open in Oct. 2014, many construction delays surfaced as a result of bitter weather, pushing the ribbon-cutting day to later this month. Despite the trouble, Anderson remains hopeful. “Although it was extremely frustrating, the important thing is that we are pretty confident that the end product will be a huge asset to the community,” said Anderson.

The 23,500-square-foot facility will be used for the new Waterdown branch, but also serves the joint purpose of housing the Flamborough Town Archives, the Flamborough Information and Community Services, a senior recreation centre, and the city of Hamilton’s Service Centre.

“One of the most exciting things for us is that we are bringing a number of partners under one roof. ‘Community Destination’ is a model that the HPL board strongly supports where possible. We try to locate in a multi-use facility because we know that there are advantages to that for the community,” she expresses.

In particular, the Flamborough Town Archives will form a partnership with the library, since the actual archive space is embedded within the library. These resources on local history are expected to appeal to a number of researchers, who may plan to access the collection. “The parallel is that we wish to offer a wide range of services to customers of all ages, so not only library services, but community services as well,” said Anderson.

The long-awaited opening due in a few weeks’ time will be followed by several innovative changes for the HPL. “We are opening a new makers’ space and digital media lab in the central library,” she mentions, “We have an ambitious program of building and renovation coming up in the next two to three years.”

The architectural design of the new Waterdown branch is distinctly contemporary — it offers generous amounts of fresh space and an innovative atmosphere fostering community engagement. “While at one time it may have been appropriate to have a very small location and collection,” noted Anderson, “we now know that we can better serve the community with large spaces by offering a wider range of services and programs.”

“We like to think of it as community building — the library is not only a destination by way of our services and programs — we aspire to be actually building community as well.”

Photo Credit: Rounthwaite Dick & Hadley Architects Inc.

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