According to Asa Kachan, the chief librarian of Halifax Public Libraries, the Dartmouth North Public Library is “blazing a trail” and it’s being noticed. Ms. Kachan has “colleagues across the entire country watching this project very closely.” 

Dartmouth North “is now home to what the head of Halifax’s library system calls the first outdoor library space in Canada, and one of only a handful of similar examples in the world…

The exterior wall of the building has been replaced with glass sliding doors that look out onto a deck and a new playground. Books and deck furniture will be moved to the outdoor space in the spring, as soon as the weather allows it. The bookshelves will be mobile so staff can shift them back indoors during poor weather.” Not only that, the new space will also feature special events from “outdoor storytelling to family movie nights…”

(Thanks, as always, to John Riley of Gabriel Books for providing ATG Quirkies)