A message from our CEO and Board Chair

A library is only as strong as its understanding of the community it serves. After two years of helping to safely bridge the gap between the uncertainty of a pandemic and the needs of our community, our team tackled the 2022 year with empathy, excitement, and a deep understanding of our diverse city.

Services like extended study hours and our traditional Summer Reading Club program returned and gave our community the opportunity to use our spaces in familiar ways. We also relied on feedback from our community to improve our spaces, resulting in the addition of an outdoor workspace at Central Branch and new service desks at Richmond Green and Richvale branches. Plus, our Oak Ridges Branch was recognized for excellence in architectural design with the Ontario Library Association’s New Library Building Award.

We continued to be a space for community connection and collaboration. We established meaningful, local partnerships with Hillcrest, which allowed our team to bring digital literacy and learning into Richmond Hill’s local shopping centre; and we began working with Odeiwin: Connect to bring Indigenous-led programming into our branches.

We made community-informed decisions to grow both our physical and digital collections, including expanding our multilingual offerings that better represent our residents. We looked for ways to support newcomers to our community – in particular, individuals who were settling into Richmond Hill as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war. We launched our Ukrainian collection to support newcomers, and we also introduced digital resources like Road to IELTS for persons who are learning English as a Second Language (ESL).

While our team accomplished many things in 2022, we also laid the groundwork for launching a new brand and website in 2023, and building out important strategic frameworks for our Diversity, Equity Inclusion (DEI) strategy, as well as our soon-to-be-updated Facilities Master Plan.

Thank you for your interest in Richmond Hill Public Library. We’re committed to supporting your growth and building our community, by fostering connections, innovation, equity, and opportunity. A world of possibilities to discover right here in Richmond Hill.
 

Yours sincerely, 

Darren Solomon, Chief Executive Officer
Stephen Chait, Board Chair

Customer Experiences

• Our Richmond Green Branch received a much-needed refresh, which included new paint, carpet and an accessible service desk. 
• New service desks and automatic sorters were installed at Richmond Green, Central and Richvale branches. The new sorters automate the sorting of returned materials, which means our team is able to get materials back on our shelves faster than before.  
• We reintroduced extended study hours following pandemic-related restrictions to Central Branch, and saw 890 community members visit our branches in 22 days during our after-hours study program. This year, we also provided extended study hours at our Oak Ridges Branch for the first time.
• We launched the availability of lendable Chromebooks for in-branch use at our Richmond Green and Central branches. 
• Our community saw makerspace services expand to Central, Richmond Green and Oak Ridges branches. Together, our branches offered digital conversion stations, fabric printing and 3D printing. 
• Our Oak Ridges Branch was recognized with an Ontario Library Association (OLA) New Library Building Award, and was also a key tour destination for OLA’s Annual Institute on the Library as Place conference.
• We partnered with local cafe and bake shop Cafe Louise BakeHouse to provide delicious snacks and artisanal beverages at our Central Branch.  
• Thanks to the expertise of our librarians, we provided timely, reliably-sourced information on issues that mattered the most to our community, which included content on the 2022 municipal election, and current events including human rights protests in Iran. 

Community Engagement

• We began an ongoing partnership with Hillcrest that allowed us to offer holiday crafts, storytimes and activities alongside Santa in our local mall. 
• Dozens of teen volunteers supported our community initiatives through reading buddies and other opportunities to facilitate literacy and learning among community members. 
• We brought back our in-person Indie Author Day, which welcomed fourteen local authors and illustrators to share their unique creations with our community. 
• We worked with the City of Richmond Hill to provide library programming and outreach at events like Merry Marketplace, Moonlight Movies and Concerts in the Park. 
• A day-long celebration of arts, culture and diverse stories was presented through our Culture Days celebration, which showcased interactive events including group dance through the Dance Together Project, Taiwanese paper crafts, drag queen storytime, origami and more. 
• Over one thousand school-aged children enjoyed our Summer Reading Club, which consisted of weekly virtual meetups, prizes, and StoryWalks at each RHPL branch. 
• We welcomed MP Majid Jowhari and MPP Daisy Wai for tours of our branches, and built long-term relationships with government representatives in our community. 

Innovation

• We continued to be a space for important conversations. More than fifty thousand Ontarians gathered for a rally outside of Central Branch to protest atrocities against women’s rights and freedoms in Iran.
• We welcomed mother-daughter duo Wang Zi and Zhu Dandan as our 2022 Artist in Residence. The two artists with worldwide experience provided engaging workshops that allowed community members to explore visual paths that can be used to tell their family’s unique history. 
• With funding from the Government of Canada’s Healthy Communities Initiative, we added an outdoor workspace with enhanced wireless internet to Central Branch. 
• We introduced new digital resources that would best support our community. This included The New York Times, New York Times Cooking, and New York Times Games; G1.ca, Road to IELTS, and Gale Business Plan Builder. 
• We partnered with the City of Richmond Hill’s Recreation Department (Aquatics Division) to enhance access to resources used for lifeguard training programs by adding them to our collections. 
• We added Chinese, Persian and Russian language eBooks, and also launched a new print collection of Ukrainian titles. 
• Over 70 team members joined together for our first-ever Team Creativity Day, a day of learning and staff development that’s dedicated to innovation, creativity and sharing ideas.