{"id":36577,"date":"2025-07-18T14:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36577"},"modified":"2025-07-24T19:26:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T23:26:58","slug":"library-branches-out-to-auroras-northeast-with-new-presence-at-sarc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/library-branches-out-to-auroras-northeast-with-new-presence-at-sarc\/","title":{"rendered":"Library \u201cbranches out\u201d to Aurora\u2019s northeast with new presence at SARC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Public Library is \u201cbranching out\u201d to Aurora\u2019s northeast with a new presence at the Stronach Aurora Community Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new micro-branch of the Aurora Public Library (APL) is the fulfilment of long-held plans to better serve residents of Aurora\u2019s northeast, which APL CEO Jodi Marr says has historically been an area where APL has \u201cless engagement\u201d with residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kiosk, which is located across from the customer service desk at the recreation centre, located on Wellington Street East, just west of Leslie Street, boasts nearly 200 books curated for all ages. All you need to use the micro-branch is a valid library card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve entered your card information, the kiosk \u2013 dubbed the \u201cSARC Browse & Borrow\u201d \u2013 unlocks, and patrons can either check out or return books right there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has been part of our strategic planning process for a while, but we\u2019ve just been able to make it come together,\u201d says Marr. \u201cAt the end of last year, we confirmed the space and then this year we went ahead with the procurement of the machine and the processes \u2013 we\u2019ve been planning all this for approximately two years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the construction of Aurora Town Square, Marr says this is the \u201cnext step out into partnering with the Town of Aurora and finding common space where we can join together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe SARC is an active community hub and it\u2019s also in an area of Town where we (APL) have had less engagement,\u201d Marr continues. \u201cWhen we look at our Library members, we can see that people in the northeast part of Aurora are less serviced by the Library. This is a way to get them some of the things the Library does and this is a way to serve those community members, and now we can come and do more events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCollections [of materials] is just a small part of what the Library does. This is a way to connect with people who are slightly further away, use the library less, and now they have the opportunity to use the Library more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new kiosk and its systems represent an investment of approximately $50,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar kiosks have seen great success elsewhere, including Barrie, which has multiple micro-branch locations throughout the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora\u2019s new kiosk could be up and running as early as the end of this week \u2013 with a ribbon cutting with Mayor Tom Mrakas, which members of the public are encouraged to attend, set for Thursday, July 24, at 3.30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As members of the APL team inspected the kiosk in its new location on Monday afternoon, it already attracted the interest of SARC patrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Books now in place within the kiosk represent some of the most popular items that are checked out regularly at the APL\u2019s home branch at Yonge and Church Streets, but is a collection unto itself that was specifically secured for the micro-branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each volume has an RFID tag and the kiosk machine runs a scan every time it closes to keep up-to-date on inventory, what book was taken out, and onto whose library card. When you return a book, you put it back in, and the process repeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just as easy as scanning your card, opening the door, and placing it on the shelf \u2013 the only rule is, if it\u2019s full, please don\u2019t jam it in!\u201d says Marr with a laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Library will continue to consult with residents as the kiosk is used and collect data on what\u2019s borrowed and what\u2019s returned in order to gauge what community members want in the future and they can adjust the collection accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice, it\u2019s bright, it holds about 196 items and is a mix of fiction, non-fiction, children\u2019s, youth, teen and picture books,\u201d says Marr. \u201cYou can even take things out when you\u2019re here for a class [with one of your children], read it, and return it that same day. It will hopefully [also serve] people who are using the SARC and need something to do, and we\u2019ll see about putting some other fun stuff into it in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, Marr says she would love to see these types of kiosks expand beyond the SARC to other municipal hubs, such as the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre and other recreational facilities, and points to examples elsewhere that have similar set-ups at retirement homes and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is our first new collection within the community \u2013 it\u2019s a huge investment, but it\u2019s worth it. This is one way for us to serve community members more fully, without building a bricks-and-mortar branch,\u201d says Marr, adding now that the micro-branch in place, she sees an opportunity to expand APL programming to the SARC down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes [we\u2019ll get comments on machines like these], \u2018Well, I guess we don\u2019t need librarians anymore. We\u2019ve got this.\u2019 I want to definitely say that librarians are key for curation and selection of materials and this machine does not replace the work that our staff does. This is just a support so that we can expand within the community and get our staff to come out and do more and other engaging events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SARC Browse & Borrow to formally open July 24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-17-04b.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9vX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 06:45:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36578,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36577\/revisions\/36578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}