The Montreal Children’s Library is a place where children and families can read and borrow books in both English and French, but it’s also a place where kids can come with — and sometimes without — their parents to play, colour, socialize and much more.
“It’s a safe space for the kids first and foremost,” said Laurence Savage, head librarian. “Children come here. We hope that they read books, that’s our mission, and we try to ‘push’ it on them a bit, but they come here to hang out.”
The 1,600-square-foot library is located inside of a community centre in St. Michel, in a building owned by Montreal’s French school service centre, the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM).
The library says it was informed late last year that the building will soon be turned into a school, and so it has to move.
“A lot of the kids who come here, they come here by foot, they come here by bike, so we really don’t want to have to move too far away,” said Amanda Fritz, a longtime volunteer board member.
“But any possible space we found is way outside our budget, way more expensive than what we have here. And so we’re really just hitting a wall in finding a new home for the library.”
Established in 1929, the Montreal Children’s Library has laid roots in different vulnerable areas of the city for nearly 95 years.
It has been in this location for 20 years and in this neighbourhood for 75.
Children who come here regularly say it is more than just a library.
“This library is like my second home,” said 13-year-old Giuseppe Muzzone. “The atmosphere, the people — even the books are good.”
The library is a non-profit organization that gets 80 per cent of its funding from private donations, and the rest from the City of Montreal.
Right now, it pays about $500 a month for rent, and so it needs to find something in that budget — and fast.
It has to be out of the building by the end of September.