Help my former branch celebrate 50 years!

The Children's department, St Laurent Branch, Ottawa Public Library
Photo credit: the library's own official camera wizard, Rhéal Doucette

For a year, in 2009-2010, I worked as the supervising children's librarian at the St Laurent Branch of OPL. This coming Saturday, October 20th, the branch will dedicate the children's department to the city's first bilingual chief librarian Claude Aubry. Aubry served as chief librarian for 26 years, which also makes him the longest-serving individual in that role; he also got the Bookmobile on the road, so, you know, I have a soft spot for him. He has an amazing list of achievements under his belt during his time at OPL; check them out at the end of this document.

Aubrey was also Ottawa's own renaissance man: he was a children's author (IBBY Canada has an award named after him) and an accountant. The St Laurent Branch was first opened during his tenure, in fact, giving Saturday's event a nice simpatico.

I can't be there to celebrate with them, but you should go if you can!

As it says in the lobby of the Don Gamble Community Centre, outside the library entrance:

"A library is not a luxury; but one of the necessaries of life."
- H. W. Beecher

"Un livre est une fenêtre par laquelle on s'évade."

-Julien Green