Bookmark Friday to read all about it at the Holly Community Library.
Barrie’s new library branch opens at 9:30 a.m., Aug. 5, at 555 Essa Rd., complementing the downtown’s Barrie Public Library on Worsley Street and Painswick branch on Dean Avenue.
At 4,500 square feet, the Holly branch will offer about 40,000 titles — books, audio books, movies and shows on DVD and BlueRay, using retail principles, like a bookstore.
“There’s lots of front-facing stuff to draw your eyes in,” said Christopher Vanderkruys, the Barrie Public Library’s director of business and development. “The space isn’t huge, but it’s enjoyable.
“I’ve seen kids peeking through the (library’s) windows," he said.
“There’s a lot of kid stuff at this location,” said Lauren Jessop, the Barrie Public Library’s chief executive officer.
The Holly Community Library has collections for children, teens and adults, spaces for patrons to bring their own device or to borrow a laptop for use in the branch at its bar seating, comfortable lounge chairs and tables, a small meeting room, and flexible shelving and furniture to allow for increased floor space for programs.
Just like a bookstore, there are sections for fiction, home, garden, making things, sports, travel, pets, romance, etc.
Not to mention all the online resources, along with free wifi.
The Barrie Public Library has about 36,000 members, Jessop said, actual users during the past two years.
The Holly branch has been long planned in an area of Barrie deemed under-serviced for city residents.
Holly comes with capital costs of about $1.1 million, which includes all the books and shelving.
Annual operating costs are estimated at about $440,000.
The Holly Community Library space is leased, although the amount has not been determined.
It will be paid from the city’s development charges, which are designed to recover the capital costs associated with residential and non-residential (commercial, industrial, institutional) growth within a municipality from developers so that existing residents don’t have to foot the bill.
The Barrie Public Library's downtown branch was built in 1996 and is 56,200 sq. ft., while the Painswick branch is 15,000 sq. ft. and was built in 2011. The library board itself has, in the past, spoken about the need for more branches in Barrie — in community centres planned in the Hewitt's and Salem areas in the former Innisfil land, at 15,000 sq. ft. in size.
