E
ast
end Ottawa homeowner Donald Q. Bickle has responded to the need for a new
Main Library branch and to the Library Board’s call for a public-private
partnership with an offer to locate it in his home.
ast
end Ottawa homeowner Donald Q. Bickle has responded to the need for a new
Main Library branch and to the Library Board’s call for a public-private
partnership with an offer to locate it in his home.
“They
can put the books in my basement,” said Bickle. “Ever since the wife took the
pool table out, I don’t go down there much and there’s lots of room.”
The
40-year-old Ottawa central library building at the corner of Laurier Avenue and
Metcalfe Street is in need of upgrades, and estimates run as high as $70
million. At a meeting on Monday night, the Library's board of
directors voted in favour of looking for a partner to build a new central
library branch, and the Board Chair Jan Harder said interested parties are
already inquiring.
"They’d have to truck the
books here themselves, but after that, it’d be free just as long as they forget
my fines and let me get first crack at any new books about fishin’,” said Bickle.
Asked if he was aware that as
many as 16,000 visitors per week currently pass through the central library’s
doors, Bickle noted trends in electronic communications and information
services that put such numbers in perspective and offered observations that suggest a particular
understanding of the Library's challenges.
"Well, that sounds like a
lot, but my cat’s blog gets something like 50 thousand hits a week, so I’m pretty
sure we can handle it,” said the would-be private library owner and, at present, the
only identified "interested party."
Reporters asked Bickle if he
understood that the library offered more than books and had other services that are important to the public.
“Well, yeah, I guess you’re
right,” said Bickle. “I spose we’d have to make sure all them books didn’t
block the route to the privy.”
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