NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/tag/new-canaan-library/page/3)
This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to New Canaan Library Executive Director Lisa Oldham. The new library building opened Tuesday, to wide applause from the community, and we get Oldham’s insights on the first 24 hours of operation.
Here are recent episodes:
Some day soon—“it could even be today,” Town Council Chair Steve Karl said Tuesday morning, addressing a crowd of 300-plus people gathered outside the new New Canaan Library—a boy or girl “will walk through these doors and learn to read for the first time.”
“They’ll be holding their parents’ hands, and when they leave here they may leave with a book in the other hand,” Karl said. “Their eyes will be open and they will begin a journey of learning that will last a lifetime. It’s been a magical journey on the corner of Main and Cherry for 100 years now. I actually learned to read here, as well. When the ribbon is cut in a few short minutes, it will represent hundreds of thousands of hours in long-range planning, thoughtful design, hard work, gritty determination and literally a small army of people putting this together.”
More than three years after library officials unveiled a vision for a dramatically reimagined facility and campus, New Canaan Library opened its doors at 9 a.m. on Feb.
A local provider of specialty coffee, pastries, organic breads, artisanal soups and sandwiches is on track to operate the new cafe in the rebuilt New Canaan Library. Michelle and Erich Smith, owners of The Farmer’s Grind in South Salem, N.Y., say they’re excited to bring their established business to the downtown. “It’s about bringing local back to the community,” Michelle Smith told NewCanaanite.com. Referring to New Canaan Library Executive Director Lisa Oldham, she added, “When Lisa approached us and talked to us about the library and all the new innovations and plans for the future, the forward thinking, it was very simple and easy to just slip right in. We are looking forward to making it another home.”
The Farmer’s Grind launched its first location in 2020, just north of the New Canaan town line.
The “new” New Canaan Library is on track to open to the public at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, officials say.
Executive Director Lisa Oldham said she’s feeling “unbelievably excited at this incredibly wonderful new community asset for New Canaanites.”
“We are so pleased to resume service in our new space,” Oldham told NewCanaanite.com. “We all do it because we are devoted to library service, to our community. And we are so excited to be opening our doors and welcoming the community into this wonderful new space.”
Planned for years following wide community input and unveiled publicly in early 2020, the new library has been taking shape since last summer, with a new main entrance along Maple Street between South Avenue and Main Street. The library’s whole team, staff and board members, will be out on the floor on “opening day” to help provide directional information and talk to patrons about the new building and “make sure people can find everything they need and learn everything they want to learn about the building,” she said.
Three years after its public unveiling at a Board of Finance meeting, the new New Canaan Library is just weeks away from opening. We put some questions to Executive Director Lisa Oldham as this major milestone for the community approaches. New Canaanite: The public opening of the new library is close. What is your target date for that and how are you feeling now? Lisa Oldham: I am hoping to have some information today [Monday] that will help us to make the best decision we can on getting the balance between our desire to re-open with the remaining work to be completed.