Central Library celebrates 1st birthday amid uncertain future funding for Calgary libraries

Hundreds of people attended birthday celebrations at Calgary’s Central Library on Saturday.

At one year old, the Central Library has seen over 1.74 million visitors and provided over 5,100 programs.

While dozens gathered on the main level to watch a round dance and listen to a special storytime with Mayor Naheed Nenshi, others plugged away at computers and worked in meeting rooms.

The library’s CEO said the Central Library has become a key piece of social infrastructure and an important part of Calgary’s economic development.

“In a tough economy, the library is frankly more important than ever,” said Calgary Public Library CEO Mark Asberg.

“One of the things we do here is bridge that digital divide. Not everyone has wireless and computers and printing at home, and if you don’t have that sort of thing, that’s a real barrier to participating in the economy.”

Nenshi called the Central Library’s first year “unbelievably successful.”

“Even in times that are tough, we can’t lose sight of the importance of building things for the future, whether it’s transit projects or roads or important pieces of community infrastructure like this,” Nenshi said.

Nenshi said there are a number of challenging items in the provincial budget for Calgary, including the end of X Games funding, cuts to police revenue and Green Line funding delays.

“There’s a pretty significant cut on top of the cut that we’ve already taken to our capital budget in the future,” Nenshi said. “And that is not for building great things like the library, the BMO Centre or anything like that. It’s actually for the fixing of roads and keeping things in good repair and building bridges and so on, and that’s what I’m a little bit worried about.”

Provincial funding for libraries has been maintained but it only accounts for 10 per cent of Calgary’s library funds. The vast majority of funding for the Calgary Public Library comes from the city.

“Most of our funding does come from the municipal side of things and that’s still an open question. We know it’s a tough time in Calgary and we are watching that carefully and advocating for the role of the library,” Asberg said.