There are some people who think it’s weird to have a library in the mall. But if you spend any time there at all, you will see that it gets a lot of use and functions as a sort of social center as well.
I discovered on the Fort Vancouver Regional Library website that the library at Westfield Vancouver mall will shut down in December to be reopened with half the floor space and reduced services sometime in March or April of 2013. This is because (and they specifically say this on the website) they cannot afford the mall’s inflated lease rates ($72,000 annually with an automatic 4 percent rate hike), and this is the only way they can stay in operation. So, like everything else in our society, reduced services coupled with increased cost.
Evidently, Westfield Group, which is an Australian corporation, does not care about the local community or residents beyond how it affects their bottom line.
This reduction in library space and services represents a terrible precedent.
And with typical spin, they are going to call it the “Library Connection Store.”
Brooks Waldhart
Vancouver
