Kids could have more space to play, learn and explore at the Lakeshore library soon.
As part of the draft 2025-26 capital budget, the Town of Innisfil is planning to set aside $250,000 this year for an expansion of the children’s area at the Innisfil ideaLAB and Library’s Lakeshore facility.
Since the budget won’t be ratified until Jan. 29, library staff are waiting for the money to be formally approved before moving ahead with next steps. However, a request for proposals could be developed in February. After that, the children’s area would be temporarily relocated into other sections such as the community room, with renovation work starting later in 2025, library chief executive officer Erin Scuccimarri said.
“I’m looking at the work happening this year if we can get all our ducks in a row,” she said. “I find it to be a really exciting project. There’s been such a change in our community; we have such a growing demographic of children and families and so many more people using the library. Being able to be more relevant to those needs in the community … is really important.”
The Lakeshore branch has outgrown its current children's area, necessitating a redesign, Scuccimarri said.
This renovation will be done without expanding the building footprint. Instead, the walls of an underused, 150-square-foot space adjacent to the children's area, which was purpose-built as a 'secret/exploration room', will be taken down. The kids section would also expand about 400 square feet into the main space of the library.
These changes will increase the size of the children’s area by about 44 per cent, Scuccimarri said.
“(The area) has become too small,” she said. “We like to do programming for preschool and school-aged children in that space. There isn’t enough space for the growing numbers we’re seeing.”
As well, the current shelving units are considered insufficient for housing an expanded collection, which now includes several new formats such as e-books, and decodable literature included in the school curriculum that helps kids practice phonics skills.
“We’re looking at shelving options that would be more playful, soft, or ways kids could explore, like perhaps little tunnels that go through,” she said. “It’s making the whole space more child friendly. It’ll be more intentional, in terms of furniture choices and play elements.”
Limited space also results in long wait-lists for many preschool-aged programs.
“There’s so much changing, in terms of children’s collections,” Scuccimarri said. “And there’s just not enough space for what we currently have and what we want to expand. We want to introduce some multilingual children’s collections — some are on the way.”
Among other elements, the renovation would result in better sight lines, the addition of interactive feature walls, more seating for parents and tots, and a possible reorganization of the children’s book collection into themes.
“If this project is not approved, the current Children's space will not be able to meet the needs of our growing population,” the library said in a report contained within the capital budget document. “Fewer children and families will be able to access programs and collections, and the Library will not be able to expand our offerings to this very demographic who are heavily reliant on Library programming and resources.”
Scuccimarri emphasized the expansion will be flexible — meaning new children's area shelving and seating could be moved for special events where more space is needed in the main part of the library.
For more information on the library, visit innisfilidealab.ca.