Just over three months after leaving its long-time home on Manitoba St., the Coulson Family Bracebridge Library inside the Muskoka Lumber Community Centre is ready to be unveiled.
With 23,000 sq. ft. to play with – almost triple the size of the Carnegie Library building – and a wealth of new activities to complement the returning programs, the Coulson Family Bracebridge Library truly is Anything but the Ordinary.
The facility is located inside the Muskoka Lumber Community Centre at 34 Salmon Ave., behind Stevens’ Your Independent Grocer.
An opening day celebration will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8 with activities for kids and tours of the new space throughout the day.
Children’s programming will include a scavenger hunt that will take participants through the
expanded youth area, drop-in stories during the day and crafts after school, along with
decorative leaves for children to write their names on to be temporarily displayed.
The expanded space allows for new opportunities for the library to provide more programming to complement its existing activities.
The new features include a recording studio, a makerspace with a 3D printer and laser printer among the other tools, a dedicated local history room, multiple spaces available to be booked by the public, and plenty of space for everyone who steps foot in the library to relax.
Crystal Bergstrome, CEO and Chief Librarian, shares how library staff have spent countless hours ensuring everything is in place for opening day.
“It’s no small feat that we’re only days away from opening and it’s a credit to the hard work of the library’s staff,” she says. “The journey to get to this point has certainly been stressful, but it will all be worth it when we see patrons’ excited reactions when they step through our doors.”
Ahead of opening day, two book drops have been opened at the new library allowing patrons to return material they borrowed over the summer.