Onward, upward, westward

Onward, upward, westward
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published June 18, 2003

The man who guided the Burnaby public library system through its period of greatest growth left town last week to take up a new position as the director of the largest civic library in the province.

Paul Whitney, who started working in Burnaby libraries in 1974, says he is proud to have played a role in helping enlarge the system and bring the value of good reading to more people.

"It's kind of an old saw, but libraries are known as the community's living room," Whitney said while being interviewed in his new seventh floor office atop 'the coliseum' - the main branch of the Vancouver public library. "The first thing for a library is always the collection," he says. "And that doesn't just mean books, it's also the digital information and the content."

Whitney was hired in Burnaby straight out of the University of British Columbia library school. His first appointment was in the then-new Central Park branch, a rented facility in an office building in the neighbourhood that would eventually become Metrotown.

Little did he know that growth of that neighbourhood into Burnaby's burgeoning downtown would parallel the growth and change in the city's library system.

Spurred largely by the construction and 1991 opening of the beautiful new Robert Prittie branch, designed by renowned architect James K.M. Cheng, Burnaby's library system blossomed virtually overnight.

Last year, Burnaby libraries loaned out nearly 3.8 million books, CDs and other items, up from a circulation of one million when Whitney started. The number of inquiries at the library has grown to 247,766 per year, up from 69,246, and the total library operating budget has burgeoned to $8 million, up from $1.1 million in 1974.

"Building that (Metrotown) library was a huge focus, a huge change for the library system," Whitney said. "I don't think we realized at the time how important it would be. In fact, from the day it opened, we were 50 per cent busier than we expected.

"It was kind of a 'build it and they will come' scenario," he admitted. "And we built that library where the action was. I suppose we underestimated the demand."

Whitney acknowledges that much of the credit for planning the Metrotown branch belongs to his predecessor, Brian Bacon, who retired in 1989, two years before the building opened.

Among Whitney's personal favourite accomplishments was the opening of the spacious new $3.9-million McGill branch, which features 15 Internet stations and a spectacular view over Confederation Park and the North Shore mountains.

During his time here, Whitney earned a reputation as a workhorse among librarians. He was instrumental in setting up InterLink, the regional library loaning system that allows people from throughout the Lower Mainland to access books and materials from other libraries.

Just prior to being selected for the VPL job, Whitney won the 2002 Canadian Librarian Association Outstanding Service to Librarians Award.

But, more important than the buildings or awards, Whitney hopes he has left the library system with a greater sense of purpose.

"One of the greatest focuses for me is with early childhood education - fostering reading and a love of reading among children," he said. "Libraries are the only agency that brings reading to the preschool ages, and I believe that is something essential to our society's well-being.

"People seem to forget that, to survive, even in the digital environment, you have to be able to read. Kids who do well in their young years will do better in school, and ultimately that can only make our society a better place."

Whitney is quick to credit the Burnaby library staff, who were always supportive of his vision.

"We have some really great people working in the system," he said.

Among the many programs that Whitney helped encourage is the summer reading program for students and visits from Roch Carrier, the National Librarian of Canada.

Whitney believes that libraries will play an increasingly important role in in the future - a role that is becoming both more important and more complicated at a time when many official publications are no longer printed, but kept strictly on computer.

"Even if something is available online today, you can bet it won't be available in 10 or 20 years," he said.

But Whitney is optimistic about the future of libraries, and the Burnaby system in particular. He believes Burnaby city council has the opportunity to do some interesting things with the development of a new Kingsway branch in the soon-to-be-revitalized Edmonds town centre neighbourhood.

And there is even a need for an expansion of the Metrotown branch, he said. "The Metrotown library was designed to be expanded," says the departing chief librarian. "We need tons more space for the Internet there, and we need tons more seating. On weekends, you see people sitting on the floor."

And he is happy to be moving into a city that is now placing a greater emphasis on the role of its libraries. Among the positive signs he sees are the Vancouver council decision to keep the city's library system open during the entire summer and a proposal to extend the operating hours at some of the 21 branches.