Pocket protest - notankers.ca

Pocket protest - found in Burnaby, 21 August 2011. The Loonie Project, notankers.ca

Cameron Library - My Burnaby Library Project

Cameron Library & Recreation Centre, opened in 1980, Burnaby, BC. The Cameron Library is the area on your right.

Cameron Library, the closest library to us, was the first stop in My Burnaby Library Project. This is Burnaby's smallest library, and is the oldest physically. It's surrounded now by high rises and multiple family dwellings, and is across the street from Lougheed Mall, Burnaby's second largest mall. It's about a 2 block walk from the Skytrain station but is on a bus route and there are stops right in front or across the street. (Call transit information, don't go by the Translink website directions.) Yes, there is parking, if you must drive there.

The Library is part of the Cameron Recreation Complex as seen above. The building opened in 1980 and is set in or next to Cameron Park. Anniversary celebrations were held earlier this month.

The Cameron Library entrance is inside the lobby of the Recreation Centre, an attractive, well lit facility with a wide variety of spaces for indoor recreation and fitness. The Centre seems to host a large number of seniors' activities. The Park is a welcome green space here with a childrens' play area and a new seniors' fitness machine area (suitable for anyone 13+ according to the signs), although some of the past plans for the park have never been realized.

Cameron Park's 'Reading Circle', just beyond one of the parking lots, Burnaby, BC.
There were several people reading in the park this day, but all were sitting in folding chairs!

Yes, there is a picnic bench there. Cameron Park, Burnaby, BC.

I was looking forward to seeing what's new in Burnaby libraries. I still am, but in some ways, I'm sorry I went to Cameron first. It's been some months since I was there, and I hoped to see some physical changes, as well as good books!

Lobby display window, Burnaby history display, Cameron Library, Burnaby, BC.

Right now, seen from the Cameron Recreation Centre's lobby, there's a nice display of Burnaby photographs in an electronic frame and books celebrating the City of Burnaby Archives' own 10th anniversary. This I liked, although as an area resident, I feel it would be nice to see something that related more closely to this area. (Although it doesn't seem to be labelled, the large photograph is of the Tea Rooms built c. 1910 by Walter Holdom for his real estate prospects in North Burnaby. For more about this, see the Burnaby Heritage website.) This area is often neglected in Burnaby history. Historically its ties are close to New Westminster and Coquitlam and Port Moody, and this site itself has a sad history known to long time Burnaby residents. The land for one of the parking lots was once the home of Lillian Mann. Her land was expropriated, despite her long resistance.

Whisky, with BookCrossing releases, Cameron Recreation Complex lobby, Burnaby, BC. Whisky was shocked to realize 'recycling' could be a punishment, as the sign on one of the free periodical racks in the lobby promised for any unauthorized contributions. We didn't leave any books in the racks.

Unfortunately, the actual entrance to the Library is cramped, with a couple of portable boards advertising a few upcoming activities and an older photograph of the Queen on the wall. All Burnaby libraries are supposed to be accessible though, so I think the entrance and aisles are likely wide enough for a wheelchair.

Despite the windows on two sides, the low ceiling seems to make the Library look dim on first glance. From the building entrance photo, you can see there are bushes and a tree in front of the main window wall which cut down the light. (Not that I'd cut down that tree!) This is in contrast to the rest of the Cameron Recreation multilevel complex which has lots of light, with clerestory windows and even some attractive frosted glass partitions.

The now very old fashioned looking, but pleasingly horseshoe shaped book return/checkout counter is on the left as you enter the Library, and a large sitting area is on the right (just visible in the window display photo) with a wall of magazines and a stand of newspapers on the one side and shelves with new and featured books on the other - the other day, a collection of science books for non-fiction and of women writers for fiction. (Someone in a wheelchair would have difficulty navigating here, I suspect.)

There was a reasonable selection of magazines, from BC Outdoors to Backbone, Vancouver and Wired. I didn't see any of the more practical and expensive computer magazines I look for at a library (like .Net), or any genealogy magazines either.

On the left wall of the Library are offices, a printer and computers for library catalogue lookups and a children's area towards the back. On the right wall, there are public computers with Internet and MS Office access (why not Open Office?) and a few carrels for private study. The computers were all in use and someone was waiting while I was there. (There is a 'reservation' computer on the far side of the Library.) Some patrons were using their own computers; all Burnaby libraries have wireless access for BPL card holders. There are no 'dedicated database' computers here, but those with BPL cards can access Library databases on the www.BPL.bc.ca website using any Internet accessible computer.

On the other side of the featured books were shelves full of held books - a good sign, I think, in several ways, as it shows many people are requesting the books they want or need.

And on the fiction shelves, I was pleased to see there are many more mysteries than there used to be. If most were the predictable 'best seller' ones, still I also noticed several Canadian mystery authors. And there seemed to be a fair selection of fantasy/science fiction books as well - and a good number of people browsing both these sections.

In non-fiction, there was a good basic section of Canadian and British Columbia and local history with some of my BC favourites, Mainstays, Cougar Annie's Garden and Vancouver's Shoeshine Boys. The travel section, however, seemed padded with older travel guides. These age quickly.

And in non-fiction, there is only one sign for each row giving the 'Dewey' call numbers for the books shelved. Few people, I find, are comfortable remembering these by heart. Each shelf needs a sign, I think, and for each side of the shelf too (and perhaps not only in English).

On the back wall, there's a fair size teen bookcase and one of Chinese books. And in the right corner, there's a small sitting area.

The only recent change I noticed at Cameron was the newer shelving for the CDs and DVDs (installed in April, I believe). There seemed a wide selection of these, including choices for children, although I'm probably not the best judge, at least for movies.

The only activities I've noticed advertised for Cameron over the summer are for Storytime for Babies and Toddlers. A good proportion of the Library space is for children and there's an open area there just big enough for a sit down storytime, with one small child's table and two benches and some colourful handmade wall displays. But frankly, this area is shabby looking. It must be years since anything's been done with the floor or equipment. I hope some of the summer Storytimes are held outdoors as the Park is really a much more interesting space than the Library.

Dragon Eco-sculpture, Cameron Park, Burnaby, BC. (Burnaby 2011 Eco-sculpture guide)

Someone has a sense of humour, Cameron Park, Burnaby, BC. Made me smile!

My Burnaby Library Project - Background

To give you an idea about where the Burnaby Public Library branches fit in to the city, here is a comparison of the ages, the square footage and the (numerical) holdings of each of Burnaby's four branches from the latest figures on the Burnaby Public Library's (BPL) website as of for 2009.


CAMERON (opened in 1980)
Size: 5,000 square feet
Cameron items owned: 66,162 (2009) - approx. 8% of Burnaby Public Library's total holdings.

TOMMY DOUGLAS (opened in 2010)
Size: 17,500 square feet
Tommy Douglas items owned: 81,805 (2009) - approx. 11% of Burnaby Public Library's total holdings.

McGILL (opened in 2001)
Branch size: 20,000 square feet
Items owned: 168,583 (2009) - approx. 22% of Burnaby Public Library's total holdings.

BOB PRITTIE (opened in 1991)
Branch size: 61,000 square feet
Items owned: 414,105 (2009) - approx. 56% of Burnaby Public Library's total holdings.


The BPL's 2010 annual report gives these overall figures for 2010, compared to 2009.

Items Borrowed 2010 - 3,982,449; 2009 - 3,798,656
Questions Asked 2010 - 199,995; 2009 - 197,696
In-Person Visits 2010 - 2,012,510; 2009 - 1,897,069

Programs Presented 2010 - 1,217; 2009 - 1,271
Program Attendance 2010 - 44,931; 2009 - 48,365

Items Purchased 2010 - 90,569; 2009 - 93,392
Total Collection 2010 - 751,057; 2009 - 751,204

Visits to www.bpl.bc.ca 2010 - 1,561,562; 2009 - 946,208

Total value of items on loan at any given moment in 2010 - $3.7 million.

And some more facts and figures -

According to the City of Burnaby's website, Burnaby is 98.60 square kilometres (38.07 square miles) big, and it's the third most populated urban area of British Columbia, Canada with an estimated population in 2006 of 202,799.

Vancouver and Surrey are larger. In 2006, Vancouver had an estimated population of 578,000 people, over twice that of Burnaby, although Vancouver's area is not that much bigger, 114.7 sq km (44.3 sq miles) and Vancouver has 22 branch libraries. (Vancouver figures from the City of Vancouver's website.)

From the 2006 census, the top languages identified by Burnaby residents as their mother tongue were:

English - 85,475 - 42.6%
Chinese - 50,645 - 25.2%
Korean - 7,030 - 3.5%
Tagalog - 5,060 - 2.5%
Punjabi - 4,915 - 2.4%
Italian - 4,285 - 2.1%

This is probably very similar to Vancouver where the City says about 49.1 % of residents' first language is English and 25.3% Chinese.

And for good measure, the ages of Burnaby residents in 2006 were given as:

00-14 - 29,845 - 14.7%
15-24 - 28,815 - 14.2%
25-34 - 29,560 - 14.6%
35-44 - 33,120 - 16.3%
45-54 - 31,465 - 15.5%
55-64 - 21,850 - 10.8%
65 and over - 28,135 - 13.9%

My Burnaby Library Project

At the last Lower Mainland BookCrossing Meetup, I heard about The VPL Branch Project. (Thanks, Richard.)

Megan, a Vancouver high school student, is visiting all 22 of Vancouver's Public Library branches and publishing her review of each. She's biking her way around to the libraries, accompanied by Horatio, the sock monkey.

Megan says she's usually only been using one Vancouver library branch and she started her project to find out what each of the other branches offers. She's interested in environmental issues, and reads all kinds of novels. Sounds as if her curiosity and drive will take her even further soon.

What a cool idea, I thought; I could easily do that in Burnaby where I live. And since I've often been critical of Burnaby libraries, perhaps I'll find some nice surprises nowadays close to home.

Here in the Burnaby Public Library system, there are only 4 public library branches, McGill, in North Burnaby where we used to live, Cameron, near Lougheed Mall, now the closest library, then there's the new Tommy Douglas library on Kingsway which has replaced the Kingsway library across the street which I was at one time quite familiar with, and the Bob Prittie Metrotown library.

To tell you the truth, I rarely use any of them unless I need to check a reference 'right now, today'. I do use Simon Fraser University's library in Burnaby, and the great genealogy collections at the Cloverdale Branch of the Surrey Public Library. And I now visit the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library more than I used to (although I often find it a frustrating experience). So I'll be interested to see what I find so much closer to home.

Of course, I'll be walking or taking public transit on my trips and, since I don't want to go alone, I'll be accompanied by Whisky, one of the book cats. (His nickname is ub.)

Whisky, at home, with some of his favourite books, 2011, private collection.

I did a little preliminary research - read the 2010 BPL Library report and had another look at the updated BPL website, for instance. (I won't be comparing Burnaby's libraries to Vancouver's much, but I might well compare their websites.)

I've already made one visit to a Burnaby library which I'll be posting about here tomorrow.