Canning library to be renamed

On May 9, the Canning Library and Heritage Centre is going to be renamed the Merritt Gibson Memorial Library.

The idea to rename the 20-year-old community-owned library came from board member Gary Long.

Long wanted to acknowledge the contribution of Gibson, a former village commission chairman and the author of 11 books.

Gibson was chairing the commission when the opportunity became available to buy the two- storey building, Long said. It was then owned by Irving Oil and had once housed the village’s telephone switchboard.

The Fieldwood Heritage Society moved into the upper floor in 1988. It is currently its own building to open to the public.

The library needs $10,000 per year to be sustainable, Long says, with the costs of heating, electricity, summer staff, Internet and new books.

“We’ve struggled over the years with financing,” he noted. “Winter’s when you tend to use a library, though.”

The old structure is not insulated, so Long says the board has been holding fundraisers and seeking benefactors.

The library has closed for two months to save money and will reopen May 1. There is no longer any bookmobile service in the village.

Long knows there is a strong reason to have the library functioning. The homeschooling community is keen to use and he would like to see it serve local residents’ reading requirements and seasonal visitors in Spanish.