Site plans are unveiled at Jake Epp Library

"I'm just so excited I'm speechless." That's the way the Head Librarian at Jake Epp Library in Steinbach is reacting to the floor plans for the expansion. The plans have now been unveiled to the public and Loraine Trudeau calls this "a very exciting time for us because we've waited years for this to actually come to reality and we will be able to provide so much more for this community; more books, more programs."

In August, Boretta Construction of Winnipeg was awarded the contract to expand the library. It submitted the lowest tender at $1.68 million beating out the only other bid by Three Way Builders of Steinbach. Trudeau says slightly more than six thousand square feet will be added through this expansion.

"One section of the library expansion that I'm really excited about is our children's section," admits Trudeau. "I put my heart and soul into creating that section and I'm really excited for the unveiling when we actually open up the doors to the new facility because the children's area is so important because we need to instil the love of reading and that's what we're going to be showing in that area of the library." The library currently has a children's area but Trudeau says it's tight and difficult to add new books. She adds "we're very fortunate that a lot of our collection is being housed in our patrons' homes. But our new facility will have a great area where we'll have reading circles, we'll have interpretive centres for the children and it will be very welcoming and very loving and I expect all of our children to have a great time at the library."

Trudeau says she's also looking forward to the new multi purpose room, noting "that space will be used for meetings, for author readings, for childrens programs and it's going to be a great space, it's going to be a fun area as well."



A date for the sod turning ceremony has not yet been set but Trudeau says "oh I can hardly wait. I'm hoping it's going to be very soon." She already has her shovel ready, noting I'm "really looking forward to putting that into the ground and keeping that shovel as a souvenir for all the hard work that myself and my staff has put in to making this dream a reality."

If you visit the library grounds, you'll certainly see that construction startup is on the horizon. "The construction trailer is in the yard," says Trudeau. "The fencing is supposed to go up this week and the big heavy equipment is supposed to be coming in for sure by next week. And we're moving forward and we're going to see some action."

Trudeau says the library has nearly eighty thousand volumes at the moment and on average thirty-five per cent of that is signed out at any given time. There are also many books in boxes waiting to see a shelf but Trudeau says there is nowhere to put them.

Trudeau says there is definitely a need for expanded library services in Steinbach. "From January of 2011 to today we've added another five hundred patrons to our library and our checkouts are phenomenal," she says. "We are still the most used library in the province of Manitoba per capita. The average Manitoban reads approximately seven books a year and the patrons from the Jake Epp Library are actually reading over twenty books a year. So that's more than triple the provincial average."

The expansion is expected to be complete in May, 2012.