Comb the aisles here and there and you’ll find a story anywhere.
Sign it out and bring it back, that’s how everything stays on track.
I remember the infatuation I had with the library at school when I was a kid. We’re talking about the early to mid 1990’s here, which means that one particular series of books was being signed out and traded back and forth between most of us Conquest kids – the ‘Goosebumps’ books by ultra-prolific author R.L. Stine.
On a side note, I was actually able to meet and chat with Stine at an entertainment expo in Calgary a few years ago. I was glad I had an opportunity to thank him for so many chills and thrills reading his books as a kid.
When I wasn’t reading the latest volumes in the Goosebumps series, I was overloading my brain on everything from dinosaurs to profiles on Hollywood’s best and brightest.
As I got older, the library became even more of a destination hotspot. The environment may have changed from Conquest to Outlook, but it also made for a larger and more in-depth supply of books. It was at the library in Outlook High School (I remember it being located in what I believe is now called the ‘multi-purpose room’) that I was introduced to authors like Stephen King, Harper Lee, Edgar Allan Poe, and John Steinbeck.
All of their works provided worlds of wonder beyond most of my comprehension and opened my eyes, my heart, and my mind. I know you get something like a week or so when you sign out a book, but I was operating on a three or four-day turnaround, blazing through them like a hot knife through butter. I couldn’t read enough of what I was being exposed to in this new and exciting literary world, and I have the library system to thank for it.
Flash forward many years later (perhaps ‘many’ isn’t the right word – I’m not that ‘seasoned’) and we’re living very different lives than we were in the 90’s. Everything’s on our phones or tablets and electronic ‘readers’ have become something of a normal institution for a number of years.
Personally, I just can’t get behind the notion of an electronic book reader. I have to have a physical book in my hand, one that I can slip a trusty bookmark in when I decide to conclude my literary journey for the evening. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the convenience of an e-reader, notably the ability to load it up with multiple books in one handy device, but it just doesn’t beat the tried-and-true paper and spine of a manufactured novel.
Plus, I don’t like the idea of knowing there’s a limit on how much I can read when it comes to electronic gadgets. I don’t have to “recharge” my copy of ‘The Green Mile’.
In 2020, there’s a lot of talk about the relevancy of places such as libraries when information is available at the click of a button on any handheld device. On the contrary, I think that in this divisive and oftentimes biased world we live in where misinformation runs rampant, the library is a place of absolute truth and knowledge.
Outlook’s current community library is just such a place, but sadly, its future is now something of a question mark.
For some time now, there have been issues back and forth between the Town of Outlook and the Sun West School Division surrounding the Town’s presence in the library, which is a branch of the Wheatland Regional Library system and also a part of Outlook High School. The issues are, for the most part, related to accessibility since the public can only access the library by entering the school. If by chance there is to be a direct-entrance door installed from the outside, then apparently that raises questions about needing to have a washroom facility as the library then becomes a public building.
Talks are being sought between the school division and the Town, of which I certainly hope a peaceful resolution can be reached. That being said, there has been speculation over where to move the library in town, should that talk lead to such a formal decision. One possible location is the old recycling depot on the north part of McKenzie Street.
I have to question this. For one thing, why would you move a library to what is essentially Outlook’s industrial sector? Secondly, do people not see the emptiness of downtown Outlook? Right next door to us are two empty buildings, and I believe there is empty space across the street too. Or what about the former medical clinic? Ample parking there, and with the greenspace beside it set to be a future Veterans Memorial Park, I can’t think of a better one-two combination. Check out a book and go sit in the park located mere steps away.
All I know is a peaceful resolution to this library situation is long overdue.
For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.
