WESTLOCK - There’s always something to do at the local library, but there will be even more in over the next 12 months as the community institution celebrates its 75th anniversary, in some way, every month of the year.
At the beginning of January, a giant present could be spotted at the facility, just begging to be opened, spurring speculation among the townspeople about what could possibly be inside.
On Jan. 8, municipal officials, library staff and backers along with the general public were on hand to finally unwrap the present from the Town of Westlock and Westlock County — free library cards for all of 2020.
Library board chair Dr. Tanya Pollard and library director Lisa Old tore into the gift with delight until a bunch of party balloons made their way out of the box, carrying a placard announcing the gift from the two municipalities.
“We’re going to be doing something every month, it could be something small, like a little contest, or it could be a fundraiser, or something big that I can’t tell you about,” said Old.
The actual opening of the Westlock library occurred in May of 1945, so there will be a big party and an open house in May to showcase all the services offered by the facility. Other surprises are also bound to pop up throughout the year, she said.
“We plan on doing some major interactive displays and things like that, along with games and contests.”
The library’s new logo is also being rolled out as part of the anniversary celebration. It’s a multi-coloured, pixelated representation of Westlock County with three more coloured pixels off to the right to signify the three libraries under the umbrella of Westlock Libraries, namely in Fawcett and Jarvie.
“It was never meant to be really in your face … we just liked the colours and we wanted it to be pretty. We wanted our logo to represent who we serve, more so than who we are,” said Old.
This year will also see the library doing some fundraising to help refresh how the building looks inside, according to the plan of service, completed last year.
“One of the things we found when we did a community assessment was that everyone wanted a nicer space, something fresher. So that’s one of our plans, starting with painting, some furniture and moving things around,” said Old.
She hopes the free library cards, donated by the town and county, will draw even more members of all ages to take advantage of the many services offered by the library.
In 2018 there were 1,535 active memberships and in 2019 there were 1,704 active memberships, she said, so building on that number is a definite positive. These are members that actively take part in current programming, while the total numbers of library cards out there right now is almost double.
