Cristel Gordillo-Mueller places a book on a shelf at the Medicine Hat Public Library's children's area.--NEWS PHOTO MO CRANKER
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker
The Medicine Hat Public Library is kicking off Library Month in a big way.
The organization unveiled its newly-renovated children’s library this week and is extending hours at different points throughout the week.
The renovations were made possible by the first of two donations by the Kinsmen Club of Medicine Hat, which the space is named after.
“We’re really excited that this is open again and we’ve been looking forward to this for a while now,” said chief librarian Ken Feser. “We got a generous donation to replace the carpet, do new paint, furniture and cabinets.
“It looks really fresh and new, and we hope people come on in and see it.”
Feser says the colour scheme adds new life to the area.
“We have this neutral grey colour scheme with colour pops and I feel like it really works,” he said. “I think it really transformed the space and it really looks different than it used to.”
The library is limiting the number of computers available to kids right now so it can safely distance them all.
“We want everyone to feel safe while using the library,” said Feser. “Also, kids are getting enough screen time right now, I think more books would be beneficial to a lot of children.”
The project is being funded with two grants by the Kinsmen, which gave MHPL $80,000 this year and will give $79,000 for work next year.
Sadly, Feser says, the play area is not open yet for the public to use and there is no opening date set.
“It breaks our hearts that it can’t open – Co-op was so generous with this space,” said Feser. “The provincial government has made it legal for these to open in the past few days, so we’re thinking about how we’ll do that.
“It’ll probably open on a group basis where people can book it, but we haven’t figured out the details yet.”
As of Oct. 1 the library is going with evening and weekend hours. MHPL is open on Saturday’s now from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday hours have been extended to 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. to allow for more programming as well.
More information can be found at http://www.mhpl.info
