2.2 The Library Branch as a Community Hub

Brampton Library Brings People & Services Together

Public libraries are increasingly being recognized as a community destination and an attractive public space with an enjoyable atmosphere. Many libraries are embracing their role as a community hub and are focusing efforts to becoming civic integrators, particularly through partnerships and a focus on directly providing information or acting as a referral point for other civic services. The evolution of libraries as gateways and hubs of civic activity have resulted in non-traditional library spaces for creation, collaboration, socialization, and programming.

Brampton Library incorporates many of these elements, to varying degrees across each branch. The Library has formed relationships with community partners and agencies whose mandates and services are complementary to its mission statement, invested in makerspaces and program rooms to increase programming outreach, and has partnered with other City departments to build and operate space.

New library facilities are being internally and externally designed and built to be noticed in the community as a symbol of community pride. The design of the new Springdale Branch is a good example of creating a quality architectural focal point that contributes visually –as well as functionally through services – to the surrounding neighbourhood. A library can represent a community at its best, and function as a civic landmark.

Although not the primary intent of Brampton Library’s service model, the use of the term “community hub” has gained much traction in recent years. With more than 2.3 million in-person visits to Brampton Library branches in 2019, there is no denying the Library’s role as a civic integrator and community hub simply based on the number of people walking through its doors. As a place, a community hub is a central access point for a range of needed health and social services, along with cultural, recreational, and green spaces to nourish community life.

A community hub can be a library, recreation centre, school, early learning centre, older adult centre, community health centre, place of worship, or another public space. This concept offers many social benefits, strengthens community cohesion, and fosters enhanced quality of life by providing a central location to deliver a range of services in consultation with the residents who will use them. In 2015, the Province of Ontario published “Community Hubs in Ontario: A Strategic Framework and Action Plan” to assist in the planning and delivery of integrated hub projects and has begun to offer partial funding to a number of initiatives. Implementation of community hub projects are beginning to be implemented across the Province, with some good examples emerging.

Action #5-3 Brampton 2040 Vision

Social Hubs: Host locations for neighbourhood-based social support.

“Specifically targeted hubs…provide a capacity for the right service at the right place by the right people at the right time. Instead of creating new facilities, people see these social hubs as using spaces within existing facilities such as schools, recreation centres, and libraries, within the fabric of neighbourhoods.”