View Royal’s only library, the View Royal Reading Centre, is closing its doors after 80 years of service to the community.
The small yet mighty library on Island Highway has been fighting overhead challenges for years with funding provided by the Town of View Royal every year.
The non-profit library received $30,000 from the town, but it was not enough to keep the doors open.
Manager Christine Jackman has been managing the book hub for 14 years and understands this moment has been coming for a long time.
“We’ve been fighting for quite some time. We actually started having problems in 2008, so every year we’ve revisited the issue. Are we going to have to close? Can we keep going?” said Jackman.
“Every year, we manage to just scrape by.”
Although the View Royal Reading Centre does apply and receive yearly funding from View Royal, it’s not part of the Greater Victoria Victoria Public Library system, so resources are limited, making it difficult to cover overhead costs.
View Royal councillor Gery Lemon is a library member and is sad to see the staple book centre close its doors.
“It’s a real loss as a community hub and as a library. I popped over there the other day to see how they were doing with their grant applications, and they haven’t been successful,” said Lemon.
The View Royal Reading Centre will keep its doors open until the end of February 2024.
Tchadas Leo
