Huntsville Public Library celebrates opening of The Annex

The Huntsville Public Library (HPL) is a little bit bigger today.

This morning (June 30), library staff, board members, town officials and the community were on hand to officially open the library’s new annex in the former Mac’s location on Minerva Street.

“I’ve been a library user for many, many, many years,” said Councillor Brian Thompson prior to the ribbon cutting. “I love this library very much and I’m very pleased to be the council representative to the library board. We are excited about this – it’s the initial part of our renovation and expansion plan which will be coming in the not too distant future.”

Community members head inside to check out The Annex

For now, The Annex will be used as rental and programming space to complement what already exists in the library, an exciting prospect for local community groups, said library CEO Deborah Duce. “We have so many requests for things and we don’t have the space for it. It’s a great step for us. Next, we’ll do an RFP for architectural drawings and get community feedback for strategic planning and hopefully in the next three or four years we can do a renovation of the existing library space and expand it. It’s 20 years old now.”

She said that they are also looking at opportunities like a public library on wheels to go out to the community.

Library staff also used the occasion to launch the TD Summer Reading Club. HPL has expanded the program this year so that all ages can register in one of four categories: tots (age birth-grade 1), kids (grade 2-6), teens (grade 7-12) and adults. For every book they read, participants will receive a ballot to be entered in a prize draw at the end of the summer. This year’s prizes are:

• Tots: weekly draws for ice cream at the Nutty Chocolatier and a grand prize of a $100 gift card at Applause Toy Store
• Kids: weekly draws for ice cream at Whimsical Bakery and a grand prize of a $100 gift card at Up North Games
• Teens: weekly draws for tea or coffee at Seven Main and a grand prize of a $100 gift card at Sharpley’s Source for Sports
• Adults: weekly draws for ice cream at Belly Ice Cream Company and a grand prize of a $100 gift card at Spencer’s Tall Trees

There were activities for kids including robotics and button-making. And no celebration would be complete without cake.

Duce thanked the dozens of attendees who came to celebrate the new facility for their support. “We’ve had great support from the community. We are going to be launching our strategic plan and it’s going to be a chance for all of you to share what you want, what you need, and what you like. Thank you all for being so supportive of us.”

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