Windsor Public Library

The sunlight enters through the windows of the Windsor Public Library’s central branch and makes sure the good old smelling books see the morning. Walking into the paradise of books and feeling enchanted by the magical spells of the book, the library is the place to make the mornings delightful evenings peaceful and nights to be quiet.  

“I plug in my earphones and enter the library to feel like I’m talking to the books,” said Anshul Pathak.

Pathak, an international student at St. Clair College, has been visiting the library since the day he started college in Canada was elated when the library reopened near the St. Clair Zekelman School of Business and Information Technology.   

“Just started going to the library again and I just love it. I was waiting for it to be functional again,” added Pathak. 

“This change has taken about two years for us to accomplish from the planning to the actual moving. It’s been a huge undertaking, the old library at 850 Ouellette Ave. was sold to the mission two years ago. Since then we’ve been in a process of migrating down to 185 Ouellette and the old Paul Martin building,” said Kitty Pope, chief executive officer of the Windsor Public Library.

Pope said she’s been actively taking part to make the library more comfortable for visitors. 

 Windsor Public Library has moved to a new, downtown location. The library officially opened in the Paul Martin Building at 185 Ouellette Ave. on Feb. 3.  

“The library is my getaway place, when I’m upset or when I’m irritated by the world it’s the silence of the books that comforts my mind and I feel comfortably numb,” said Pathak. 

Amidst all the celebrations, the students of St. Clair too joined the party and were excited to go and explore the new library.

“There is a great diversity of books and they have increased their DVD collection as well. I love it. Friendly and knowledgeable staff helps me keep going. I’m pretty much excited about the fact the library has added some more books of my dialect,” added Pathak. 

Christine Rideout-Arkel, manager of the central branch, elaborated on the resources.

“We have books for adults, children, teenagers, all ages. We also have books in many different languages, including Hindi, a Gujarati and Urdu and Punjabi,” Rideout-Arkel said.  

The library is one of the institutions that makes the local people more educated and makes them a great observer.  

Although, people are happy about the library being in the Paul Martin building, people are little concerned about the parking facility as they now pay for their parking. 

“The computers are available most of the time and this place gives me the peace to study and stay away from the noise of the world,” adds Pathak. 

The move is intended to be temporary – but a permanent location hasn’t been picked.  

Rino Bortolin, Ward 4 Windsor city councilor, said he’s excited about the new library. 

“Everybody’s excited. The staff are excited, doing a lot of things that you know, again, being closer to the students and the people who use the library, make this a great location,” said Bortolin. 

In fact, Bortolin think it’s the perfect location.

“And as we plan for a permanent location, I think we’ll take a lot of what we learned here and actually put it towards what we’re looking for in a permanent location,” added Bortolin. 

Students who either need a little break from studying or need some resources to study, all of those things will be available right here.  

The library is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

So, go there and take a little rest from your studies and dive deep into the ocean of books.