This post is related to the story that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen titled “McKenney says core still needs a library if central facility relocates“.

The idea of maintaining a public library in the downtown core, especially considering the influx of people moving to the area on top of the people that live in the established neighbourhoods in downtown, is a worthwhile one.  To date the conversation surrounding a new central library fails to acknowledge the importance of the branch system, which is especially important given the limited budget available to fund the library system as a whole.  Similar to Toronto, the strength of the Ottawa Public Library system lies in the fact that it is a system of physical buildings, located across Ottawa’s large geographical area and of on-line resources available from virtually anyway with internet access.  Would it be nice to have a nice and shiny new library, complete with all the bells and whistles that that entails:  sure, but not at the expense of weakening the system.

It seems to be an accepted fact that the library’s expectations associated with a central branch can no longer be accommodated within their existing Metcalfe Street building, but this does not necessarily mean that the building cannot accommodate  some form of library.  There is still significant potential in the existing Metcalfe Street branch, that may be best harnessed if the programmatic pressures were lessened to provide a modified approach focusing on a branch-level scale.  For instance the ground floor could be re-purposed to function as a community livingroom complete with the associated spaces, building on the existing uses including the auditorium and seating area.  Above the ground floor, the second floor could function as a local library branch with the areas most commonly found within a library of this scale.  This space would ultimately be supported by the community space on level 1 but could function separately.  Finally on the third floor the existing Ottawa Room could be expanded to take on additional archival material related to Ottawa’s history.  This space would function primarily as a place for conducting research with other outreach elements.  Additional outreach functions and space could be provided on level one, in the form of a gallery or display spaces.

An added benefit of maintaining the continued use of a library at this location is it maintains a meaningful City presence and  may contribute to addressing the future long-term use of the entire building complex (library and office building) after the lease expires for the office space in 2033.  While the lease expiration does not occur for another 17 years, it will still take a some amount of time for a new central branch to make its way through the machinations of government, design and construction, a new central branch could even open.  Attempting to determine the future of an asset while not having control of the entire building combined with the need to make life cycle upgrades is challenging and may not be the best time time to consider significant modifications or divestiture of the property.

While it will cost money to address lifecycle upgrades and the modifications to create a “community livingroom” and local library branch, it does make good use of the existing asset.  There are a limited  number of properties available within the downtown core on which to build a new library, be it a main or local branch and divesting the current property may be counterproductive to the mission of the Ottawa Public Library System.  With the right programming and well-considered modifications, the existing Metcalfe Street branch could serve the surrounding areas well into the foreseeable future, an option that should not be discounted.