After over 30 years, the Alida Community Library is closing its doors.
Edel Cowan, who's been with the library since its inception in 1989, said that the decision was made due to low demand. With everything going digital, many readers turned to e-books and other electronic sources, and the library hardly had any traffic anymore.
"It just never was utilized. And we couldn't stand seeing it sitting there with all these books and nothing being done with them. So we decided we might as well close that section of the library," Cowan said. "And we are non-profit. It was just voluntary workers. And we're all getting older and can't look after it anymore."
Alida Community Library also has an archive section, which will remain open. The plan is to keep the books about the history of the area and also books by local authors, moving them to archives. The rest of the collection is up for sale, and Cowan said she was happy to see people buying their pieces.
"I am quite pleased with (the sales so far). I'm glad to see that people are responding to it and picking them up. I'm just happy that these books aren't going to hit the wastepaper basket and recycle bin, they are being utilized. And that's what the main cause for it was," Cowan said.
The library collection started in 1989 after the research was done for the first set of history books for the area, and then it grew from there, gradually gaining weight.
"When (the history books) were done, with the proceeds from the history books, we decided to renovate the building and keep all the research that we had done for the history books. And then another community nearby has done their history books, and they asked if we would be interested in keeping what they have researched. And of course, we did, because it's another small area close to us. And then when the Alida School closed in 2007, the library took books from there ... That's how we got started. And then a lot of books were donated to us," Cowan recalled.
While the library has been a big part of her life, Cowan said it's good to see that the books will have a new life.
"I'm just happy that some people are able to make use of this. And we are still going to try to keep active with the archives. If anybody needs to look up anything, they can contact us and we can do it that way," Cowan said.
There are still a lot of books of all kinds available for sale. If anyone is interested in checking the collection out or purchasing some, they can reach Cowan at 306-443-2496 or at 306-485-8561 to make arrangements to come down, have a look at the collection and pick up what they like.
