“This place,” said a patron surveying shelves stacked with young adult fiction and manga novels, “is every kid’s dream.”

The project was funded by the Gibsons and District Library Foundation. In 2023, the non-profit organization received a bequest from longtime Gibsons resident Joe Peters. A portion of Peters’s legacy was used to amass the approximately $30,000 necessary to reconstruct, furnish and equip the space.

“Libraries were special to him and he wanted to be able to support libraries into the future,” said foundation chair Elaine Jackson. “We thought this was a way of doing that because there aren’t a lot of places for teens in Gibsons.”

In addition to books curated by the library’s child and youth services coordinator Pippa Rogers, the teen lounge includes a supple sofa, bean bag chairs, and a wood-grained homework desk. Art supplies, games, and charging units for electronics will be added in the weeks ahead.

“Our library is constantly evolving to meet the aspirations and needs of our community, and we have wanted to create a welcoming, comfortable place for youth for many years,” said library director Heather Evans-Cullen. “I am thrilled that young people have such a lovely free space to relax, socialize, create and study.”

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The public library in Gibsons is using high tech to lower the barriers to book borrowing. A self-serve loan locker was activated this week at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre, allowing library patrons to reserve items online and collect them from the popular civic hub.

The distribution system was purchased using over $38,000 raised by the nonprofit Gibsons and District Library Foundation.

The Gibsons and District Public Library accumulated seven years of feedback that suggested its downtown location — at the base of a steep hill — was an impediment for some visitors. The library’s board of directors identified remote accessibility as a priority for its three-year strategic plan.

The project is the latest to be realized through investment from the Gibsons and District Library Foundation. The standalone organization was established in 2000 with funds remaining after the library’s construction. Its budget is supplemented through bequests and fundraising campaigns.

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On Thursday, May 23, [2019,] Foundation members will be at Sunnycrest Mall with the Giving Tree display, eager to accept donations and talk all things Foundation.

The Library Foundation’s first fundraising initiative in almost a decade is rapidly coming to a close. To date over $4,500 has been raised but the final push is on to achieve the goal of $6,500.

The long overdue state-of-the-art multimedia presentation system needed at the Gibsons & District Public Library is within reach. The new system will not only support ongoing digital literacy programs, it will also enhance the library’s ability to provide the best possible presentations, readings and audience participation experiences for its patrons of all ages.

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The Gibsons and District Public Library is in dire need of a new state-of-the-art multimedia presentation system. It will support new and ongoing digital literacy programs and also enhance the library’s ability to provide the best possible presentations, readings and audience participation experiences for its patrons of all ages.

The goal is to reach $6,500 within the next three to four months.

The GDLF’s new board is committed to the Foundation’s revitalization, growth and continued long-term support of the Gibsons and District Public Library.

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At the end of 2016, Gibsons and District Library Foundation trustees presented a cheque for facility enhancements to children’s librarian Danielle Arsenault.

In June, a donation for $35,000 had helped boost the library’s reconfiguration project. The year-end donation of $5,000 for the Children’s Library brought the Foundation’s total support in 2016 to $40,000.

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