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St. Laurent turns the page on new $24-million library

Facility will boast large collection of foreign-language books

JASON MAGDER
The Gazette
Friday, June 27, 2008

Mariana Haramita says the library near her St. Laurent home
has been her lifeline in the three years since she immigrated from
Romania.

"It saved me," said Haramita, 54. "They have many books to teach
conversation in English and French. I am here a lot."

Yesterday, Quebec Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre, Montreal
Mayor Gérald Tremblay and St. Laurent borough mayor Alan DeSousa
announced a new $24-million library will be built in St. Laurent, to
operate in conjunction with the existing one.

The library is already well used, boasting the second-highest
book-loan rate in the city, DeSousa said. It was built in the 1960s
for a population of 35,000, however, and no longer has enough space
to serve a growing and diverse population.

"The population has more than doubled, and more than half our
residents now come from outside Canada," DeSousa said at a news
conference at St. Laurent's borough hall.

DeSousa said the new library will supply a large collection of
foreign-language books.

"French will be the primary language of the library,"

DeSousa said. "For new arrivals to Canada, a library can help them
integrate into society, but it also helps to have books in foreign
languages for people who feel isolated from home."

That's good news for Alissar Harb, who lives in St. Laurent but
must travel to the Bibliothèque nationale downtown if she wants to
enjoy foreign-language literature.

"I read in German, Arabic and Persian (as well as English and
French), but it's very hard to find books in those languages," she
said.

The new library will be located on Thimens Blvd., west of Cavendish
Blvd., near St. Laurent High School's Émile Legault campus.

At 38,000 square feet, the new building will be about double the
size of the current library, located at the north end of the
borough, near Vanier College and CEGEP de St. Laurent.

The province and the city of Montreal will each spend $4.5 million;
the borough will pick up the remaining $15 million. The library's
operating budget hasn't been determined.

The borough will conduct public consultations this year. An
architect's design for the building is expected to be ready next
year, and construction is to begin in 2010.

The library is expected to open in June 2012.

Tremblay and St-Pierre also announced grants to two other
libraries. The Pierrefonds library will get a $3.3-million boost to
expand, and the Saul Bellow Library in Lachine will receive $6.4
million to increase its collection.

The Culture Department and the city plan to spend $125 million to
improve library services in Montreal by 2017. It's expected the city
will soon announce plans to fund a new library in Notre Dame de
Grâce.

The borough of Côte des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grâce has approved in
principle a $16-million project for a library to be built on the
Benny Farm development.