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There was a time when you were encouraged to keep your voice to a whisper when you entered the library. Now you can come in for a Zumba class. As the world has shifted toward digital media, library systems that have stuck around are the ones that have changed with the times. "The quiet nostalgia of yesteryear has definitely wrapped up," said Chris Stephenson, the head librarian at the Kelowna branch of the Okanagan Regional Library.
When the Okanagan Regional Library appears before Kelowna City Council in the weeks ahead, it's expected they'll be asking for a funding increase. If you were thinking, that the budget might be dropping because of fading interested in the printed word, that might be because you haven't been to the library for a while. Things have changed.
"We're the community's living room," said Stephenson. "We're into a new era where you're welcome to bring a coffee to the library, have your entire family come for various reasons."
Along with the aforementioned Zumba class, there are also dance classes at the Library and other activities that you might have thought were too noisy for a library and it's given it a new vitality.
"We have an unprecedented number of people coming in all ages," he said. Groups of all descriptions can use the library to hold meetings.
The Kelowna branch now sees regular meetings of the Genealogical Society which has its own library-within-a-library to work with. And teens are coming in for things like strategic board gaming and Dungeons and Dragons.
Over in the Maker Space area, you can take advantage of things that might really surprise you.
"The Maker Space focuses on technology, and learning," said Stephenson. "We have entry-level robotics for sure, but we also have the adobe creative suite, we have a cricket cutter, a 3-D printer. All of this can be learned with a short tutorial, with someone in the library, a tech assistant and then you're free to book those devices on your own for up to two hours."
Some people simply take advantage of desk space and free Wi-Fi. In fact, Stephenson said there's one gentleman who is running his small business almost entirely out of the library, saving him the cost of leasing space.
A new speaker series is starting at the Kelowna branch, and he said the call goes out to the community for more ways to make the space serve the community.
"If there's something you want to see in the Library, all I would say is pitch us a great idea."
Along with all that, the library still lends out lots of books. "That's not going away any time soon," said Stephenson.
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