NEWS

The Okanagan Regional Library provides Library services to the citizens of Lake Country. For over 30 years, the Okanagan Regional Library Board has had established policies to guide communities and staff expectations for branch placement, sizes and open hours. The District of Lake Country has historically been serviced from 2 locations – the main library, which is currently situated in the Lake Country Municipal Hall and from a tiny location in Oyama. This Oyama library existed for historical reasons and has not met Board standards or policies for branch size or location (due to the small population being served and the proximity of other nearby libraries).

After the announcement of the tragic discovery of the remains of 215 children buried on the site of the former residential school in Kamloops, we wish to offer our sincere condolences to the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc and to all local First Nations - and to everyone impacted by residential schools in Canada.

VantageOne Credit Union’s generous $4,000 donation to Okanagan Regional Library (ORL) has helped strengthen community programming in the communities of Peachland, Vernon, Armstrong and Enderby, BC. The charitable gift will support ORL in two vital ways: Improving public access to digital learning and tools and fostering the development of S.T.E.A.M. programming at four of our smaller library branches.

At the May 19th, 2021 Meeting of the Okanagan Regional Library Board of Trustees, the Board was presented with a financial "clean bill of health" from auditors BDO Canada for the 2020 fiscal year. The Library system strengthened its balance sheet in 2020 with an increase in financial assets and decreased the overall net debt. It also posted a surplus for the year, most of which will be transferred to the building reserve to help to finance new branches such as West Kelowna.

Our newest Makerspace, the Inspiration Lab at the Vernon library branch, will be opening on June1! It is a free space dedicated to digital creativity, collaboration, and storytelling.

Do you have little ones at home, not yet school-aged? Have you noticed how they are growing up so fast? Well, what better way to get them prepared for the big wide world ahead than by reading together. We have an exciting new list of 100 Books to Read Together Before Kindergarten.