The New Canada Water Library

The BL-Canada Quays library presentation of the new library as a .PDF file can be downloded by clicking here. Portions of the presentation are reproduced below.

How will it look on the inside? Click here.

It is hoped that construction of the new library will be complete by the end of 2009.

See “A day in the life of Canada Water Library” for all the activities it is envisaged that the library will support.

Floor Plans

Other changes to the design include the anodised aluminium mesh now being a soft gold colour instead of the original silver colour and more windows.

“A day in the life of Canada Water Library”

7:30 Commuters on the way to work and shift workers on their way home use the “lobby library” People on the way to work stop off at the café to collect their lunchtime sandwiches. Some people stop outside the library to check the news headlines on the plasma screen broadcasting 24hour news.

8:00 The main doors open and the plasma screens are switched on to advertise the range of courses, events and activities going on in the building and across the borough, as well as broadcasting news and events from across the world on satellite television.

8:15 The public access computers start to fill up as other people begin to arrive.

10:00 An ESOL class begins in one of the flexible meeting rooms.

10:30 A Sure Start session takes place with staff delivering stories, rhymes and musical activities and access to messy play facilities to a group of under-five’s with their parents and carers.

11:00 A group from the local primary school arrive to visit the heritage centre on the upper floor. They are doing an ecology project and visiting the interactive ecology exhibition excites their interest in their schoolwork and improves their understanding of the subject.

12:30 A lunchtime performance takes place in the café. Today it’s a poetry reading by a local writer, but there are also music performances, discussion groups and art exhibitions that take place in the café as well as in the main body of the building. The café is a key component of the service and lots of people pop in for a coffee after using the handi-tills to pay their rent or Council tax, to read newspapers or magazines or to wait for an appointment at an income maximisation advice surgery, or to see their local Councillor.

1:00  Floor walking staff empty the self-service return units.

2:00 An introduction to the Internet session takes place for over 50’s. Staff guide participants through the specially produced learning package that will enable them to send e-mail, look up information, know which websites to use to get good deals on buying things as well as to help grandchildren with their homework.

4:00 The busy after-school rush period begins with children flooding in from local schools to change books, use the computers and to work on homework assignments. There is a homework club three afternoons every week as well as on Saturday morning, with staff, computers and other learning resources on hand to support the children with their work. There’s also a reading help session run by volunteers who will listen to the children read, one to one.

6:00 A volunteer who began using the library at one of the over-50’s ICT sessions leads a “Library Induction” group, showing 6 new members around the building, explaining how the library is arranged, showing them how to book a computer, to use the catalogue and giving them details about the programme of activities that they can take part in. The session lasts for forty minutes and two of the new members decide to stay on for the reading group at 7p.m.

6:30 On Friday evening, a large part of the building is given over to activities for young people with a range of activities that they have chosen, being available to them. Tonight there’s a DJ workshop, a self-defence group for girls, X-box and PS2 games and a health advisor from the teenage pregnancy team, who is there to talk to young people about contraception

7:30 People begin to arrive for the regular comedy club, which will be held in the performance space. Tonight’s programme features an “open mic” session for local comics as well as an appearance from a more well known name.

9:00 The main building closes, but the lights in the lobby remain on and people returning from work late at night can drop off their books, pick a new book for the evening or send an e-mail