Update: October 2024, The Essex County Library board recently did a review of the Kingsville Branches. The report gives a brief history as well as recent statistics on membership and circulation. The good news is that Kingsville branches have bounced back from the pandemic closures.

Update: June 2024, council approved, with some tweeks, the conceptual design for a new Cottam Community Centre which will include new library space.

Update: July 2023, at the Committee of the Whole meeting, members confirmed their support of the Ruthven Library by voting to retain the library building contrary to what had been recommended by the consult during our facility review. Members also directed staff to do a Cottam facility needs analysis to include consultation with user groups including the Essex County Library.

Update: Ruthven and Cottam branches reopened in March 2023.

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Libraries in Kingsville are governed by County Council, which is made up of the mayors and deputy mayors of the municipalities in Essex County. In February, the Essex County Library CEO, on behalf of the library board, presented a report to Kingsville Council that would see drastic changes to our community’s library access.

At a time when so much of our information is available digitally, some may argue that the need for libraries has passed. For me, libraries are an integral part of the community. And instead of closing them as technology is embraced, we need innovative out-of-the-box thinking for how these spaces and resources can meet the changing needs of our community.

What good are libraries:

• Safe space for all ages
• Internet access
• Digital resources and more
• Learning and innovation hub
• Collaboration and coming together
• Promote education and higher learning
• Centres for community betterment
• Summer reading programs to instill a love of reading and maintain literacy skills over the summer months.
• and more…

You may have noticed that the libraries in Ruthven and Cottam have not opened back up. In February, Kingsville Council was informed about the library board’s decision to reduce services. You can read the report, watch the meeting video and learn why the library board made this decision here: Essex County Library Service Delivery Adjustments. The board has asked Kingsville to do renovations to the Ruthven and Cottam library buildings for accessibility requirements. While these changes are not legislated to be in place for a few years, the library board has decided to require them now and have shut services down at these locations. They’ve also advised that, even after the renovations are completed, library services will not return to the level they were prior to covid.

Council has asked for a facility review, including our library buildings. It is unfortunate that the library board did not advise Council about their decision until after the 2022 budget had been set. Especially considering the board and the county council members were aware of these pending changes the previous year.

It remains to be seen what will happen to our library services in Ruthven and Cottam. The existing library board’s vision for our smaller communities is unclear and leaves a lot to the municipalities to sort. The fact that we already pay County taxes for this service to be provided by the County, didn’t seem to factor in to the decision to download some of this responsibility to the municipality. With an election looming this fall, the uncertainty is likely to continue and it will be up to the newly elected representatives to determine what a post-covid library system for our region looks like.

If library services are important to you, or if you think they bring value to the community – you may want to ask your candidates where they stand. And if the candidate is someone presently on the County Council, you may want to ask them how they came to support the decisions made thus far.