Calgary Public Library | |
---|---|
Location | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
Established | 1912 |
Branches | 22 |
Collection | |
Size | 2,332,581 (2012) |
Access and use | |
Circulation | 17,121,718 |
Other information | |
Director | Sarah Meilleur |
Website | calgarylibrary |
The Calgary Public Library (CPL) is a distributed library system featuring 22 branch locations including the Central Library. [1] As of 2012, it is the second most used system in Canada (after the Toronto Public Library) [2] and the sixth most used library system in North America. [3] This is despite the fact that the Calgary Public Library has one of the lowest per capita funding in the country, receiving as little as half the money of other Canadian public libraries. [4] [5] [6]
The Calgary Public Library Board of Trustees was established on May 18, 1908. R. B. Bennett, who would later serve as Prime Minister of Canada, was among the five people appointed to the board. [7] The first public library opened on January 2, 1912, thanks in part to the generosity of Scottish / American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. [8] [9]
Carnegie funded $80,000 of the $100,000 cost of Calgary's Central Library, (now renamed the Memorial Park Branch), pressuring City Hall to fund the rest. [10]
The building was the first purpose-built public library in Alberta. It was designed by Boston architects McLean & Wright, and built out of local Paskapoo Sandstone (a soft stone that today presents a substantial preservation challenge). This library branch is a copy of a library in Attleboro, Massachusetts.
In 1929 the formal Victorian-style park surrounding the Central Library was dedicated to the honour of those who had died in the Great War. During construction of the original building, the Calgary Library Board sought out a librarian to oversee the opening of its new library. In January 1911, Alexander Calhoun, a thirty-one-year-old graduate of Queen's University, was appointed Calgary's Librarian. Calhoun served as the head of the Calgary Public Library until his retirement in 1945. [11] [12]
When a new downtown central library was constructed in the early 1960s, the original branch was renamed the Memorial Park branch, and still operates today. An addition to the 1960s Central Library was built in 1974, doubling the size of the building. [13]
In 2013, CNOOC subsidiary Nexen donated 1.5M dollars to the Calgary Public Library. The company has secured the naming rights for high tech learning commons in the new Calgary Central Library. CNOOC CEO Li Fanrong reiterated the gesture was motivated by the company's corporate responsibilities to Calgary. [14] There have been concerns of censorship as CNOOC is a Chinese state run company, however McIntyre Royston library foundation head assures that the library's collection won't be censored.
The location of the new library is in the Downtown East Village (just across 3rd St. S.E. from the new City Hall). [15] On February 25, 2013, City Hall was approved the master plan to have the new library be built at the fore-mentioned location at Downtown East Village with the overall cost of C$245 million. The 286,000-square foot complex was completed on November 1, 2018. [16] [17] [18]
In 2019, the new library was recognized as one of "The Worlds 100 Greatest Places of 2019" by Time magazine. [19]
In 2019, Calgary opened Seton Library at the World's Largest YMCA (Brookfield Residential YMCA at Seton).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the library introduced expanded online services for patrons and provided health resources developed by 19 to Zero, a health communications initiative led by Alberta students. [20]
In 2024, Calgary opened its first all-digital Library space in the NE Community of Skyview Ranch.
Calgary Public Library Facts (2012): [2]
Highway 2 is a major highway in Alberta that stretches from the Canada–United States border through Calgary and Edmonton to Grande Prairie. Running primarily north to south for approximately 1,273 kilometres (791 mi), it is the longest and busiest highway in the province carrying more than 180,000 vehicles per day near Downtown Calgary. The Fort Macleod—Edmonton section forms a portion of the CANAMEX Corridor that links Alaska to Mexico. More than half of Alberta's 4 million residents live in the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor created by Highway 2.
Deerfoot Trail is a 46.4-kilometre (28.8 mi) freeway segment of Highway 2 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It stretches the entire length of the city from south to north and links suburbs to downtown via Memorial Drive and 17 Avenue SE. The freeway begins south of Calgary where it splits from Macleod Trail, crosses the Bow River into city limits, and reaches the Stoney Trail ring road. Crisscrossing twice more with the river, it intersects Glenmore Trail and Memorial Drive; the former is a major east–west expressway while the latter is a freeway spur into downtown. In north Calgary, it crosses Highway 1 and passes Calgary International Airport before ending at a second interchange with Stoney Trail. Highway 2 becomes the Queen Elizabeth II Highway as it continues north into Rocky View County towards Red Deer and Edmonton.
City Hall/Bow Valley College Station is a Calgary C-Train light rail station in Calgary, Alberta. It is located on the 7 Avenue transit mall between Macleod Trail and 3 Street S.E. It is the easternmost station downtown, and serves as a Gateway station. It was the first downtown station to have dual-side platforms. It serves both the Red Line and the Blue Line and is the eastern extent of the free-fare zone. The station is located inside of the Downtown Commercial Core on the southeastern area of the community, near the border of the Downtown East Village community.
Highway 201, better known by its official names of Stoney Trail and Tsuut'ina Trail, is a 101-kilometre (63 mi) freeway that encircles Calgary, Alberta. It serves as a bypass for the congested routes of 16 Avenue N and Deerfoot Trail through Calgary. At its busiest point near Beddington Trail in north Calgary, the six-lane freeway carried nearly 70,000 vehicles per day in 2023, and forms part of the CANAMEX Corridor which connects Calgary to Edmonton and Interstate 15 in the United States via Highways 2, 3, and 4.
Highway 22X is a highway in and around Calgary in the Canadian province of Alberta, extending 54 kilometres (34 mi) to the east from Highway 22. It is concurrent with Stoney Trail between 53 Street SW and 88 Street SE in Calgary, becoming a freeway and forming the southernmost portion of a ring road around Calgary.
Highway 1A is the designation of two alternate routes off the Alberta portion of Trans-Canada Highway 1. However, it is not the only name used for spurs off Highway 1 - Highway 1X is another such designation. Despite these highways being suffixed routes of Highway 1, they are not part of the Trans-Canada Highway network, and are signed with Alberta's provincial primary highway shields instead of the Trans-Canada shields used for Highway 1.
Crowchild Trail is a major expressway in western Calgary, Alberta. The segment from the 12 Mile Coulee Road at the edge of the city to 16 Avenue NW is designated as Highway 1A by Alberta Transportation. The road is a critical north–south link in West Calgary for both downtown-bound traffic and travel between the two quadrants of the city it passes through. Although planned to be one single freeway from Glenmore Trail to the city limits, the route is divided by a section of slow-moving arterial road with four signalized intersections between 24 Avenue and Memorial Drive. This separates the freeway in the northwest from the freeway south of the Bow River. Filling the gap and making the whole route a minimum six-lane freeway is planned for construction beyond 2027.
The city of Calgary, Alberta, has a large transportation network that encompasses a variety of road, rail, air, public transit, and pedestrian infrastructure. Calgary is also a major Canadian transportation centre and a central cargo hub for freight in and out of north-western North America. The city sits at the junction between the "Canamex" highway system and the Trans-Canada Highway.
Memorial Drive is a major road in Calgary, Alberta. Aside from its important role in city infrastructure, the tree lined sides of Memorial Drive serve as a living testament to the many local soldiers who died during World War I and give it a parkway look on the western section. An active path system also runs along the south side of Memorial Drive, beside the banks of the Bow River. The Calgary Soldiers' Memorial forms part of an extensive renovation to Memorial Drive, which heightens the function of the road as a monument to the city's military. The Landscape of Memory Project began in 2004, in order to revitalize a nine kilometre stretch of the road. The design incorporated "Poppy Plaza" at the corner of Memorial Drive and 10th Street NW. The plaza used "weathered steel" to create large gateways, and the plaza and adjacent river walk were lined with the same rusted metal into which quotes about the Canadian experiences of war were cut. The Peace Bridge was incorporated into the remembrance theme of Memorial Drive, though there are no explanatory plaques at the site of the bridge.
Transport in Edmonton is fairly typical for a Canadian city of its size, involving air, rail, road and public transit. With very few natural barriers to growth and largely flat to gently rolling terrain bisected by a deep river valley, the city of Edmonton has expanded to cover an area of nearly 768 km2 (297 sq mi), of which only two-thirds is built-up, while the metropolitan area covers around 9,430 km2 (3,640 sq mi).
Centre Street is a major road in Calgary, Alberta, and defines the east and west halves of the city for the purposes of street addresses.
Shaganappi Trail is a major super-4 expressway in the northwest quadrant of Calgary, Alberta. It extends to the south as Montgomery View, a small service road in the neighbourhood of Montgomery and that provides access to Edworthy Park, passes north past Market Mall and the western boundary of Nose Hill Park, and terminates in the neighbourhood of Nolan Hill in the north, with city planning maps indicating future northern extension beyond 144 Avenue NW. The name "Shaganappi" is of Cree origin, referring to the bison hide lacings that held Red River ox carts together. Despite the name, it is not located near the Shaganappi neighbourhood, which is located south of the Bow River.
Shaganappi Point station is a CTrain light rail station in Shaganappi, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is located in the median of Bow Trail, just west of 26th St. SW, 3km West of the 7 Avenue & 9 Street SW Interlocking. The second station on the West line, it opened with preview service on December 8, 2012, and opened for revenue service on December 10, 2012.
Bow Trail is an expressway in the southwest quadrant of Calgary, Alberta. It gets its name from the Bow River, which runs through the city north of the road itself. It runs from downtown Calgary, where the westbound traffic continues from 6 Avenue SW and eastbound traffic becomes 9 Avenue SW, to 85 Street SW.
Skyview Ranch is a residential neighbourhood in the northeast quadrant of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Located near the north edge of the city, it is bounded by Métis Trail N.E. to the west, the Redstone community to the north, 60 Street N.E. to the east, and the Cityscape community to the south. It is bisected by Country Hills Boulevard, which becomes Highway 564 to the east.
16 Avenue N is a major road in Calgary, Alberta, that forms a 26.5-kilometre (16.5 mi) segment of Highway 1 and connects Calgary to Banff and Medicine Hat. It is a four to six-lane principal arterial expressway at its extremities, but is an urban arterial road between the Bow River and Bowness Road, and also between Crowchild Trail and Deerfoot Trail. Due to Calgary's quadrant system, it is known as 16 Avenue NW west of Centre Street and 16 Avenue NE to the east.
14 Street W is the name of two major arterial roads and a short collector road in Calgary, Alberta, separated by the Elbow River and the West Nose Creek valley. Originally proposed as a continuous route and north-south freeway, the plans were cancelled in favor of 24 Street W, which became Crowchild Trail.
The Blue Line, also known as Route 202, is a light rail transit (LRT) line in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Partnered with the Red Line, and future Green Line it makes up Calgary's CTrain network. Following its initial approval in 1976, the Red Line opened in 1981, with the first trains running on what is now the Blue Line in 1985.