Edmonton Public Library's future involves more than books
With borrowing WiFi and energy efficiency kits already popular, musical instruments and tools could come next
The Edmonton Public Library was once solely about books new and old, but this is 2016 and now you can borrow energy efficiency kits and the Internet.
It's comes as no surprise that the library has had to switch their focus from physical copies of books to digital versions. E-readers are a popular item and many of the library's books can be found on their website.
The library has had to get creative about "non-traditional" library items. They're so popular that all of these items are already spoken for when they're returned after a three week borrow period.
The latest is PENpal, a pen that reads books out loud for the reader with the option to translate the text into other languages like French, Mandarin and Arabic.
Energy efficiency kits include an infrared thermometer, a kilowatt meter, books and DVDs about how to use them. They're so popular, there's already a year-long waiting list to borrow one of the 22 kits.
It could take up to two years to borrow one of the library's take home WiFi kits, which allows users to have free wireless internet.
Sharon Day, the library's director of branch services and collections, says the switch to kits started five years ago, and has picked up in popularity.
"The more we do it, the more ideas we get on different things we can loan," said Day.
Air monitoring kits are expected to hit library shelves within the next six months. Future directions could include lending out items such as tools or musical instruments, which is something other libraries across North America have done, but nothing is definite yet.
"Those are areas we're investigating. We're in the middle of a revitalized plan for the new Stanley A. Milner Library. We're keeping in mind of doing investigations of how that would fit."