{"id":39154,"date":"2026-10-22T15:41:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T19:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=39154"},"modified":"2026-10-22T15:41:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T19:41:53","slug":"raise-your-voice-for-apl-for-ontario-public-libraries-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/raise-your-voice-for-apl-for-ontario-public-libraries-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Raise Your Voice for APL for Ontario Public Libraries Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Public Library kick-started Ontario Public Libraries Week on Saturday with a cavalcade of entertainment in its Living Room space, including live music, circus performances, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The party was a far cry from the era when libraries were typified by a sharp \u201cShh!\u201d from a librarian when they thought you were being a bit too loud \u2013 but it was very much in keeping with the theme of Ontario Public Libraries\u2019 Week: \u201cLoud for Libraries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s celebration was the start of the commemorative week, which underscores \u201cthe vital role libraries play in bringing people together and enriching lives\u201d \u2013 and it\u2019s a theme that struck a chord with Jodi Marr, CEO of the Aurora Public Library (APL), who has been at the forefront of refining what APL means to the community and highlighting the value of each and every dollar invested in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLibraries aren\u2019t your typical spaces anymore. They are so much more for residents,\u201d says Marr, noting that the Saturday party was a way to showcase that APL is about more than just books \u2013 although that remains a critical component of what they provide to patrons and the community as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 2025, we welcomed almost 400,000 people \u2013 393,180 visits \u2013 and we circulate 646,000-plus books,\u201d she continues. \u201cWe delivered 1,886 programs with almost 40,000 participants and our membership grew by 13.9 per cent. In a single year, that story is more compelling. Library visits have increased almost 50 per cent since 2019 and, at the same time, our cost per visit has decreased. Residents aren\u2019t just telling us that libraries are relevant; they\u2019re showing us they\u2019re relevant by coming and showing up. They want what we have to offer, whether that\u2019s technology, learning a new skill, experiencing a cultural program, a welcoming place to work or study. We\u2019re doing a little bit of everything. Libraries are about books, of course, but today\u2019s public library is also about learning, technology, creativity, culture, access, and just connecting with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the Valuing Ontario Public Libraries Toolkit, Marr estimates that every dollar invested in APL translates to a value of $6.42 to the community. She estimates that in 2025 APL generated approximately $27.8 million in community benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt sounds like a crazy-big number, but think about everything that a library card can provide: your physical and digital collections, your programs, your technology, learning opportunities, access to shared spaces, pooled community resources so that everyone can have access and opportunities that could be much more expensive or simply unavailable for every household to get access to individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so much easier for a business to translate something into revenue\u2026whereas all of the benefits that come from what we do are about the stories that people tell. \u2018I learned to read with my reading buddy at the library.\u2019 That isn\u2019t seen until a few years down the road. \u2018I\u2019m a retiree and I can no longer afford the internet or a newspaper, so I come to the library and use these resources, and that [improves] my quality of life, my access to information,\u2019 and it\u2019s those stories that people tell that really resonate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the stories Marr says she wants to hear \u201cloud and proud\u201d as Ontario Public Libraries Week continues through October 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTell us how a public library has changed your life and tell the people that will invest in us so that we continue doing the wonderful work that we do,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you haven\u2019t visited the Library recently, please come. Discover what we have to offer from our Library of Things, to our Discovery Passes, our wonderful partnerships with the community. We partner with over 45 different community partners, so the work we do is not in isolation. We want to be seen as that trusted partner. We are that person, that place that you can go to, and we’ll help put you in on the right path and find the direction you need to go. We\u2019re just happy to be here and be well used for entertainment, leisure and everything else.\u201d
And, yes, there will be some noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGuaranteed, I will get called out on the floor sometime this week [by someone] who says, \u2018I want to complain because the teens are too loud and the libraries are supposed to be a quiet space.\u2019 My answer is, I don\u2019t agree with you. Libraries are a well-used space and part of that usage comes with a little bit of noise,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you would like to go for quiet study, then go to your school library, go to an academic library [but] we are a public library. We\u2019re going to have events, we\u2019re going to have things happening for the entire community so they can connect and celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Aurora Public Library kick-started Ontario Public Libraries Week on Saturday with a cavalcade of entertainment in its Living Room space, including live music, circus performances, and much more. The party was a far cry from the era when libraries were typified by a sharp \u201cShh!\u201d from a librarian when they thought you were being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":39155,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[4,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-headline_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-abw","publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2026-10-22-12.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39154","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=39154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39156,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39154\/revisions\/39156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}