History of the Library

The Wabasca Public Library opened in October of 2003. The old Municipal District of Opportunity #17 building was renovated to house the present library. It presented many challenges during the renovations as a cement wall had to be taken out to enlarge the room. The space is around 100 sq feet and our collection was around 5000 at opening.

The Volunteer library board consisted of five board members who had been appointed in 2002. The board members were Ian Hopfe as Chairperson, Wendy Zabot as Vice-Chairperson, Sandra MaCarthur as Treasurer, Naomie Fecteau as Secretary and Susan Rathbone.

In opening a library the board soon found out how labor intensive it can be, this gave the board a great understanding of what work a librarian does. For the first two years the board catalogued all the books then operated the library on a part-time basis. The biggest change in our library was the hiring of staff.

One of our successes has been joining the Peace Library System and gaining their expertise. We now have access to the all of the Peace Library System libraries through the use of the TRAC Library Program. This gives our patrons access to books from other libraries throughout Alberta.

We wouldn’t be very far without today’s technology as our computers are greatly utilized for accessing information and keeping us in touch with other libraries. Our library was finally connected to the Supernet and we are able to provide High Speed Internet access to all our patrons. We now have 4 public computers available.

Being featured on Global TV would be one of our highlights as it gave our community and our library exposure. The library’s greatest success has been introducing the community to the art of borrowing and returning books for the first time.