Costs have nearly doubled to relocate Vancouver Island Regional Library’s Wellington branch in Nanaimo to nearby Country Club Centre.
Plans for the move were announced last year with a budget of $375,000. Since renovations at the central Nanaimo shopping mall have started, costs have increased to about $680,000.
“That increase just stems from the demand on the Nanaimo construction market by construction service and really, the amount of time that passed between the original and revised budget estimates,” said David Carson, Vancouver Island Regional Library spokesman.
All the money is coming out of facilities reserves and no borrowing is required, Carson said.
The size of the new location – about 4,700 square feet – is similar to that of the current Barons Road address, but Carson said patrons’ experiences will be enhanced at the new site.
“It’s about improving on the space, so we’re providing improved public spaces; nice new areas where people can sit down for quiet reading and to study and some nice lounge seating in the area,” said Carson. “We’re also going to provide space for small group work and collaboration, as well as more space for children’s programming.”
There will be changes to the library collection that will be tailored to the Wellington community, said Carson. Book numbers are expected to remain constant, but the branch will work on providing more of a community focus collection with magazines, DVDs and CDs.
“There’s going to be Wi-Fi. New public computers, which is going to be great because as computers age, it really affects the user’s experience. We’re also going to be installing computers in our children’s area, that we’ve installed at many of our branches, and they’re basically designed specifically for kids to help them improve their literacy skills of both number and letter literacy through various games,” said Carson.
The current location will close on March 11 and the Country Club Centre location is expected to open sometime in May.
For updates on construction, please go to www.virl.bc.ca.