Halifax library plans don't include Dal

Dalhousie says it’s interested in incorporating its Sexton campus with the site of Halifax’s new central library. But it maintains the library is closing the book on any co-operation.

The parking lot at Spring Garden Road and Queen Street, future site of the Halifax Central Library. Photo: Peter Saltsman.

They might share a city block, but Dalhousie University's Sexton campus and the proposed Halifax Central Library aren't being neighbourly when it comes to planning.

The federal government announced this week that it was giving the Halifax Public Libraries $18.3 million in economic stimulus money to build a new public space on Spring Garden Road.

This funding comes at a time when Dalhousie is also investing in its own aging buildings. The Sexton campus is at the heart of Dalhousie's Campus Master Plan, which outlines the university's development goals.

Sexton campus, which primarily houses Dal's engineering and architecture schools, is also right beside the site of the new library, which will be built on the parking lot at the corner of Spring Garden Road and Queen Street.

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People leaving the Spring Garden branch. Photo: Peter Saltsman.

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The Halifax Central Library will be right beside Dalhousie's Sexton campus.

Related Websites

• Dalhousie University's Campus Master Plan
• Halifax Public Libraries

But the two institutions couldn't be further apart.

Three years ago, Dalhousie was part of a land planning study commissioned by the Halifax Regional Municipality and the province. The university was asked to discuss the potential of integrating the library's plans with Dalhousie's, says Jeff Lamb, assistant vice-president of facilities management at Dalhousie.

That was then. With the funding announcement, things have become more complicated.

"At the moment there isn't a conversation going on with Dalhousie," says Judith Hare, CEO of Halifax Public Libraries. "No one has approached me."

Lamb says there's more to it than that.

Dal envisions library as "more of a community centre"

"I was just on a trip with people from the HRM, and as late as last week I was talking to HRM planners about the library," he says.

"The head librarian for HRM has been hesitant for (co-operation with Dalhousie)," says Lamb.

Dalhousie would be interested in collaborating with the public library because the two institutions could effectively share the space they have. Lamb suggests that with Dalhousie's input, the building could be "more of a community centre than libraries were looked at in the past."

That would include things such as public meeting halls, a public lecture hall used by Dalhousie during the day and the community at night, and a collation of the university and public library catalogues.

City councillor Sue Uteck, vice-chair of the Halifax Public Libraries board, is concerned about the cost of collaboration. "That would be more money for us," she says.

But Dalhousie would bring money along with its plans. Plus, it's already collaborating by planning to share a heating system, says Lamb.

"We have too many silos in our society," says Bernie Smith of the Spring Garden Business Association, who thinks collaboration would be best for the public. "We don't want another situation of government progress delivered in isolation."

In the third report of the Campus Master Plan, released in September, Dalhousie acknowledged the potential for growth alongside the community, stating, "the pace of campus development will need to be phased in concert with other public and private sector initiatives over time."

While the library project is not mentioned specifically, that doesn't mean it's not on Lamb's mind.

"If I can express this with my military background, the library is on the tactical level and the Campus Master Plan is on the strategic level," he says.

Despite that military keenness, Dalhousie will have to settle for voicing concerns at public hearings and speaking not as a collaborator, but as a neighbour.

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