Not aging gracefully
McConnell library needs serious upgrades
The James McConnell Memorial Library was an iconic building when it opened in 1960. The largest branch of the Cape Breton Regional Library (CBRL), it was and is a beautiful building that has served the community well over the years.
But, after 58 years it is aging and the signs of this are becoming hard to hide.
Over the past couple of months, Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) staff and local engineers have been wrestling with the problem of how to deal with the large windows that face Falmouth Street. These windows include the Tree of Hope, which was installed in 1985 in celebration of Sydney’s bicentennial.
Unfortunately, the wooden casement around the window is rotting. In order to shore it up, it was decided to replace four of the larger lower windows with wood. This temporary fix will provide support to the larger window above and make the window safe. It will also reduce the natural light that comes into the library and limit visibility both into and out of the building.
This is just the latest problem with the McConnell Library building. There have been leaks from the roof in the children’s section of the library and in areas of the basement headquarters office. It is difficult to expand technology resources as the electrical system was not designed to take that load. These have been ongoing problems for years.
In a study completed a number of years ago, the shortcomings of the current building were highlighted. The lack of an elevator means that books and materials need to be carried between floors. Space is at a premium with staff constantly rearranging furniture to set up for different programs and events. Shelving capacity for library materials is insufficient. No air conditioning has at times forced the library to close when the combined temperature and humidity reach 39 degrees. More often, staff are working in temperatures that hover just below this number. The study concluded that renovating the current building would be too costly and this would still not address current needs.
CBRM owns the McConnell Library building. Municipal units are responsible for the provision of library buildings. As the central library, the McConnell Library acts as a hub for the other 11 branch libraries and two bookmobiles that provide library services to CBRM and Victoria County. The central library building has four functions within the library region – it includes the largest public library branch; it holds the regional storage collection for the library; it houses the Cape Breton County bookmobile service and it houses the Regional Library Headquarters.
The McConnell Library also houses the Nova Scotia Collection, a valuable print collection that includes items pertaining to the history and culture of Nova Scotia; a play collection with thousands of play scripts available for loan and the S. Peter Fraser Music Collection, recently donated to the library, which is being catalogued and upon completion will be available to the public for borrowing.
The central library plays a supportive role to all library branches in the system. When using any of the 12 branch libraries or two bookmobiles, users can borrow and return at any branch. If there is a book in
Sydney that you want to read, and you’re in Glace Bay, you can request it from the library’s web site and it will be delivered to your home library. There are always large numbers of books moving between library branches with the Regional Library Headquarters as the hub.
There has been much discussion in recent years about the need for a new central library in Sydney to serve the needs of the wider library community. For the past eight years a committee of community members with representation from Cape Breton Regional Library staff and board has been working to raise awareness of the need for a new central library for CBRL.
The committee’s preference for a new location is the waterfront in Sydney. Their vision is a building that will meet the needs of the community for years to come – a space that inspires learning and creativity, and speaks to the value that our community places on literacy. With the aging building that now serves as the central library, this task is becoming increasingly urgent.