With a fresh coat of paint on the walls, new flooring underfoot, and substantial construction complete on its new home at the Qualico Resource Centre, Langdon Library organizers are feeling a new wind in their sails as they prepare to move in shelving and crack open the first boxes of books that have been in storage for the last two years.
“We are starting to really feel the excitement in the community about its opening,” Langdon Library Society president Cori Nicholls told the Rocky View Weekly. “It’s not set in stone yet, but we are hoping we can open in May.
Though construction took a little bit longer than the society had originally hoped, they are now wrapping up construction on the Qualico Resource Centre.
“I believe our last inspections are this week (April 21),” Nicholls said. “After that, we will start to be able to set up our collection and do all the fun stuff to get ready.”
There has been great news on several fronts in recent weeks, Nicholls explained, after the library’s successful and ongoing GoFundMe campaign managed to raise just over $23,000 to help put some of the finishing touches on construction.
Despite having no physical space open to the public yet, the Langdon Library has also sold about 100 new library memberships so far, and has opened its digital library and online collections to those members.
Nicholls was also thrilled with the recent decision by Rocky View County (RVC) council to increase per capita operating funding for the new library, from $4 per person to $6 per person.
“As a hamlet library in Rocky View County, we don’t have the benefit of having a lot of the municipal funding that’s available out there to a lot of other libraries,” she explained. “So any funding we get from the County comes from that $6 per person.”
Nicholls also wanted to thank Langdon’s municipal representative, Division 7 Coun. Al Schule, for his advocacy on the per capita funding issue which led to the approval of the funding increase at RVC’s within its 2023 budget. RVC council briefs April 11 - AirdrieToday.com.
“(Coun. Schule) has been on board with this (funding increase) right from the start, when we first mentioned it would be great if we could get the amount increased just to help us out that little bit extra,” she said.
But Nicholls doesn’t expect the drive to open the doors and raise money for RVC’s first county library to be over anytime soon. There is still a lot of work to do before the library’s official grand opening ceremony, she explained, which is now tentatively slated for early this summer.
“We are applying for grants, and we have several upcoming fundraisers that are still in the early planning stages,” Nicholls said. “Fundraising is going to become a big part of the Langdon Library Society’s job once we get our doors open.”
In the meantime, the library’s manager and local volunteers will be setting up shelving and bringing the books out of storage. Nicholls is looking forward to seeing all those books finally on the shelves for readers to peruse.
“I think that’s when it will really start to feel real,” she said.
