The Windsor Public Library is taking steps to protect its collections and prepare for the future.
Several key items in the library's collections were set out on the second floor of the Central Library this week. One noteworthy item is a book of handwritten minutes from Windsor City Council, from over a century ago.
"We've got some amazing documents here," says WPL CEO Kitty Pope. "Right here is the minutes from City Council from 1901, several hours after Queen Victoria died."
Pope says the purpose of that council meeting was to discuss how Windsor would mourn the queen, at the time the longest-reigning monarch in the history of the British Commonwealth. Also shown is a thick book that Pope says is one of the oldest items in its archives.
"It's a 1585 imprint of the Holy Bible, donated to the Windsor Public Library in 1920," says Pope. "We pull it out on special occasions, we wear white gloves with it because it's a very rare document."
Items like these are kept in the library's archives and many of them have been pulled out of storage during the year, marking Canada and Ontario's 150th birthdays as well as Windsor's 125th birthdays. These documents have been coming together in the library's Local History Centre, which recently won an award from the Ontario Genealogical Society.
Protection of the library's archives is very much on the mind of the library board, which includes Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and several members of City Council. Dilkens remarked during this week's board meeting that he wants steps taken to help protect the library's municipal archives from damage, particularly from the kind of flooding that plagued the city recently.
There has also been discussion on the future of the Central Library building, which has stood on Ouellette Ave since the early 1970s. The board had requested a consulting firm to look into options for the main library, including renovating the current structure, moving it to another building, or building a brand new main library from scratch.
Pope says though any decision on the future of the Central Library won't happen anytime soon, she says the board and City Council will know more in the near future.
"Consultants have been working on evaluating this building for the past month now, and they'll come back with a report to the board next month," says Pope.
Complete information on the library's archives can be found by clicking here.