Georgina Public Libraries is a library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 system operating under the Town of Georgina

Georgina, Ontario

Georgina is a town in south-central Ontario, and the northernmost municipality in the Regional Municipality of York. It forms part of the northern boundary of the Greater Toronto Area and is situated on the southern shores of Lake Simcoe...

 Department of Leisure Services in Keswick

Keswick, Ontario

Keswick is a community in the south central portion of the Canadian province of Ontario. Located north of Toronto on Cook's Bay , Keswick is part of the Town of Georgina...

, Sutton

Sutton, Ontario

Sutton is a suburban community located nearly 2 km south of Lake Simcoe in Ontario, Canada. The community was formerly a village but is now part of the Town of Georgina after amalgamation with it and North Gwillimbury in 1971.-Geography and information:...

 and Pefferlaw

Pefferlaw, Ontario

Pefferlaw is a community within the Town of Georgina, located 3 kilometres south of the southeastern shores of Lake Simcoe and in the eastern end of the town. A river, known officially as the Pefferlaw River, runs just south of the community's commercial district...

 Ontario, Canada. It was founded when the Town of Georgina was formed from North Gwillimbury Township, the Village of Sutton, and Township of Georgina in 1986.

It has three community-based branches that serve the information, entertainment, and learning needs of clients through children, teens, young adults, and adult programs, services and collections. The branches share staff, collections, resources, and policies and work collaboratively to meet the needs of all communities within the town including Baldwin, Jackson's Point, Port Bolster, Sibbald Point, Virginia

Virginia, Ontario

Virginia is a community in the town of Georgina, Ontario, Canada. The community is centered at Highway 48 and Hadden Road.- External links :...

 and Udora

Udora, Ontario

Udora is a small rural community in Ontario, Canada. It has a population estimated to be around 500 and is situated in the most south-eastern part of Georgina, split between York Region and Durham Region. The town was originally known as Snoddon Corners and was the location of the Snoddon Hotel....

History

Georgina Public Libraries evolved out of individual community libraries. Keswick's first public library

Public library

A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...

 was founded in the 1960s, and housed in the Optimist International

Optimist International

Optimist International is an international service club organization with 3,200 clubs and almost 100,000 members in more than 35 nations throughout the world. The international headquarters is located in St...

 Hall before being moved to a former post office building beside the fire fighters and police stations. Doris Brown was the first librarian and she led the library from its inception until her retirement in 1978. Branches in Sutton and Pefferlaw served community needs but outgrew their physical space and the Town opened a new Pefferlaw Branch in 1989. In 1996, the Sutton branch was incorporated into a new shared facility with York Region's public and separate school boards on Black River Road. Keswick's branch moved to a shared facility in the Georgina Ice Palace on Wexford Drive and Woodbine Avenue in 2002. The library is a member of the Ontario Library Consortium.

Services

The library is growing to meet the demands of a developing community as Georgina becomes increasingly part of the expansive Greater Toronto Area

Greater Toronto Area

The Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York...

; however, many programs and services still reflect small town

Small Town

Small Town is a song written by John Cougar Mellencamp and released on his 1985 album Scarecrow. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.-Content:...

 interests. Ongoing programs include "Little Bookworms" for 0–3 years, "Story Hour" for 3–5 years and book clubs for kids and adults. Babysitting

Babysitting

Babysitting is the practice of temporarily caring for a child on behalf of the child's parents. Babysitting is commonly performed as an odd job by teenagers for extra money.-General:...

 courses are offered for youth ages 11+ on a regular basis. The branches offer free Internet and computer access, as well as computer literacy courses. The collections of print and electronic fiction, non-fiction and reference material is always evolving and patrons may order interlibrary loans as well as enjoy reciprocal loan privileges with neighbouring library systems. The Keswick branch hosts a Service Canada

Service Canada

Service Canada is part of a Government of Canada-wide service transformation initiative aimed at responding to Canadians' expressed desire for better, more responsive, less cluttered service from Canadian governments...

 outreach site and the York Region District School Board

York Region District School Board

The York Region District School Board, also known as YRDSB, is the English-language public school board for York Regional Municipality located in Ontario, Canada. The York Region District School Board is currently the province's third largest school board, with an enrollment of over 115,000 students...

 ESL

ESL

ESL is a common abbreviation for English as a Second Language, see English language learning and teaching.ESL may also refer to:-Companies:...

class.

External links

• iBistro Library Catalogue Georgina Public Libraries
• Ontario Public Libraries