20,000 books later, temporary downtown Edmonton library opens

After a year of planning, two months of moving, the Edmonton Public Library's Enterprise Square location is officially open to the public.

The temporary downtown location at Jasper Avenue and 102nd Street is expected to be open for three years while the Stanley MilnerLibrary undergoes a $62.5-million renovation.

The new location, which is considerablysmaller at17,000sq.feet, compared to 90,000 sq. feet, will offer most of the services offered by theMilnerlibrary, butwill have fewerthanhalf the number of computers and less reading room.

"That's a huge change for the downtown clientele, particularly people who don't have access to digital technology," said Richard Thornley, the library's manager."We'll try to maximize the computers that we make available to people."

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Mathew Swift, 20, is one of the patrons using the library Tuesday.

"Who won? Who's next? You decide," he raps into a microphone, recording his voice for a cartoon rap battle in the recording room of the library's makerspace, a community workshop space.

The 3D printer, video game systems, book printer and other features have been added to the temporary library.

"I actually really enjoy it," Swift said. "Even though it's just a little toned down to one studio instead of two. I actually prefer this, because it used to be television studio."

Staff estimates anaverageof 4,000visitors used the Stanley MilnerLibrary each day, including thosetrying to stay warm in the winter months.

Thornley saidit's too early to tell how cramped it will get in the Enterprise Square site, but for now he's optimistic.

"There's more seating than appears at first glance," he said. "For instance, some of the window ledges have seating built into them over the radiators."

Abdul Hadi Telsem, whovisits the library twice a week to useself-help booksto learn English, says his only criticism of thenew location is the limited amountof reading seats.

The temporarylocation offers only three rooms of tables for reading, considerably less than the Milner.

"I don't think that's going to be enough, depending on what there used to be at the previous library," Telsem said. "There was a lot of people using the library at that time."

The Stanley Milnerrenovation is expected to be completed in 2020.