Why are 16,000 fewer kids going to Hamilton's libraries?

Hamilton Spectator

16-05-2025

Thousands of
Hamilton
children have stopped going to the library.
Membership dropped nearly 40 per cent at the
Hamilton Public Library
(HPL) for kids under the age of 13 compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of children with library cards was down to 25,720 in 2023, compared to 41,913 in 2019.
'Obviously we're concerned,' said Paul Takala, CEO and chief librarian at HPL. 'If we don't have the kids coming into the library, we're really missing an opportunity to open them to the world of reading.'
Kids are missing from
libraries
across the city — it's not one branch or area of Hamilton that is driving the decline that saw kids fall to 12 per cent of library members in 2023 compared to 18 per cent in 2019.
HPL is considering several measures to bring kids back, including potentially moving the children's section at Central Library to a separate floor and expanding programs like story time.
'More and more, we're learning the importance of early childhood development … so we really need to double down on engaging the people that we haven't been able to,' Takala said. 'I think the big thing that's working is when we offer free programs like story times, we get people coming, so we need to do more and more of that.'
Overall, circulation of children's materials decreased 17 per cent in 2023 compared to 2019. It appears the numbers continued to fall last year, but the data is considered unreliable because of the
ransomware attack
on the city in February last year.
Data provided by HPL shows just five of the city's 23 library branches saw an increase in the circulation of children materials from 2019 to 2023 — Mount Hope, Valley Park, Locke, Kenilworth and Greensville. Parkdale doesn't have information going back far enough to determine a trend.
The rest saw decreases ranging from three per cent in Carlisle to 42 per cent at Central Library. Nine library branches had declines of 20 per cent or more — they were located from east to west and from the Mountain to the lower city.
Takala says there is not one single reason for the fall in numbers.
Paul Takala, CEO and chief librarian at Hamilton Public Library, is concerned about the drop in children's memberships.
But there are some common themes. One is that lockdowns during the pandemic — and a slow restart due to staff shortages — kept kids away from the library, and they haven't all come back.
'One thing that I think we're coming to realize is the lack of social connection during the pandemic has had some lasting impacts that are going to take some time to heal,' Takala said. 'People got out of practice of coming and then you also have … the heightened anxiety that a lot of youth feel if you're not used to doing something.'
Another issue is that libraries are such a lifeline for some of the city's most vulnerable residents that
social workers
have been hired to be on site at Central. The libraries are available as
warm places
during the winter and cool places in the summer.
'We see people with addictions or mental health challenges and that is challenging our ability to create a safe public space for everyone at times,' Takala said.
The cost has been that some parents no longer feel comfortable bringing their kids to the library.
Andréa Ngombet thought Central would be the best place to take his four-year-old son when the youngster suddenly had to go the washroom while they were waiting for a haircut at Jackson Square on Feb. 28. The mall's public restroom was closed, so they scurried to the attached library at 55 York Blvd.
But instead of finding refuge, Ngombet was scared off going back to the downtown branch by what his young son encountered in the washroom.
'In the men's washroom, a couple — clearly unhoused — was engaged in intercourse inside a stall,' Ngombet wrote in an
opinion piece
published in The Spectator March 31. 'In another corner, a man was vomiting into a urinal. My son, eyes wide and confused, gripped my hand a little tighter. We turned and used the women's washroom, which, while not much cleaner, at least came without the same soundtrack.'
In an interview, Ngombet said he felt he had to speak out about the experiences that are driving families away from Central.
'Every time we went there, there was always something that was not right,' he said. 'I'm not comfortable in that children's section.'
In the past, he says, they've seen fighting and evidence of drug use or intoxication at the library. Adults without kids often sit in or near the children's area. Ngombet said his hat was stolen in January while he was at Central and he had a cold walk home without it.
The bathroom incident was the last straw for the family that came to Hamilton from Paris, France, about one year ago.
'I was very upset,' Ngombet said. 'It's not safe for the kids.'
He now takes his son to the Westdale branch by bus despite it being farther from their downtown home.
'There's a lot of space in the (Central) library, but the only place where people are is close to the kids,' Ngombet said. 'You need to separate the kids.'
Takala said the dad's message 'really hit home' for him when he read it in the paper.
'I understand what he's going through,' Takala said. 'We as a society, as a community, need to create a good public space for everyone, but especially our youth if we want them to engage.'
HPL is working on better separating kids from the rest of Central Library. In the short term, sound baffling is being set up in the coming months to create a sense of separation and reduce noise in the children's area. The layout of the furniture on the first floor is being reviewed and the library will try to make sure the family washroom is used more exclusively by parents with kids.
For the long term, Takala is creating a plan and looking for funding to relocate the children's department — potentially to the second floor. It would be a larger space dedicated only to people with children and would have its own separate washrooms. However, no final decision has been made and there is hesitation around losing the view into the farmer's market.
'I think we're realizing, given our current downtown and the challenges that it's experiencing, we probably do want to create more sense of, 'I'm in the children's department,'' said Takala. 'It's clearly a separate and unique space in the library, so there is a lot of work to do around that.'
However, more issues are at play than safety downtown considering the Barton branch had the second-lowest decrease in the circulation of children's materials at eight per cent, while libraries in more affluent parts of the city such as Westdale had a drop of 32 per cent and in rural areas such as Lynden saw a decline of 33 per cent.
To get kids back, the library has been expanding the number of children's programs it provides by about 68 per cent to 6,087 in 2024 from 3,632 in 2019.
HPL is also trying to make it easier for kids to get library cards — one potential project would see them added to the parent portal used by the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.
The library is looking to get the attention of teens by offering 10 free prints a day of photocopying or computer printing.
Kids aged six to 12 can get a free PRESTO card from branches, and a library card gives free access to Hamilton's eight city-owned museums.
'I can't say how important it is that we help families grow the next generation of readers,' Takala said. 'It's really important that we have places where people with different backgrounds can come together and where kids can experience community.'