New Centretown library needed if main branch leaves, advocates say

A downtown Ottawa community association says the city will need to open a new library in the core if the central branch is eventually moved outside of Centretown.

Members of the Centretown Citizens Community Association (CCCA)met Saturday morning outside the Ottawa Public Library to hand out information pamphlets and explain to passers-by why bothresidents and visitors need easyaccess to library services.

"[Centretown]isa transit hub. It's a population hub. It's really the heart of the city," CCCA vice-presidentTom Whillans told CBC News after the meeting.

"So for us to not have a library whether it's for civil servants who work downtown to access, or whether it's formarginalizedmembers of our community to not have something in the urban core of the city, it seems completely unreasonable, to some extent."

Winnowed down from 12 sites

In April, the city's library board voted to launch the process to find a new site for the central branch, which has occupied the same space at the corner of Metcalfe Street and Laurier Avenue West albeitin different buildings since 1906.

Three months later, theboard revealeda longlistof 12 potential sites for the future flagship branch. All the sites werelocated between King Edward Avenue and Bayview Road, all within a few blocks of Queen Street.

However, as the CCCAnotes, five of those locations are west of Bronson which represents the western border of Centretown while two more are on the other sideof the Rideau Canal.

The library board has since winnowed down that list, although no one has been willing to confirmwhich of the original 12 locationsmade the cut and which have been shelved.

• Short list of potential sites for Ottawa's central library to be kept secret
• ANALYSIS |Secrecy shrouding library board's short list unnecessary

Whillans, who was not at Saturday's meeting, said it's a problem that no one really knows whether his neighbourhood will still have a library branch after everything'ssaid and done.

"It's paramount that we have a local branch,"Whillanssaid.

"If it's decided for the right rationale [to move the main branchout ofCentretown], that's something that I think almost anyone could unilaterally support if we maintain the services and the availability of a library in our community."

Whillansalsosaid that Somerset Coun.Catherine McKenney, who represents the neighbourhood, would be calling for the library board to make the shortlistpublic at their Oct. 11 meeting.

Library CEO Danielle McDonald has said that the recommended site which could also potentially combine a city library with the federally-runLibrary and Archives Canada will be revealed in a major report due in December.