Our City: Albert Library Branch
Regina Public Library, Albert Branch at 8th Ave & Robinson Street, built in 1927. Ca. 1927, Regina Archives.
Built-in 1927 on 1401 Robinson Street in collegiate gothic style architecture, it was originally home to the Albert branch of the Regina Public Library.
Designed by Joseph Warburton who emigrated to Canada from England around 1912-1913, and also designed the Connaught Branch. The Albert Branch library originally opened on September 8th, 1913 on the corner of Robinson and 8th where the ‘new’ building currently stands.
Programs specifically targeted to the Indigenous population in North Central where the Albert Branch was located were offered in the late 1960s. In 1972, Mrs Davis (a member of the board at the time) made the suggestion of developing more material on First Nations in Saskatchewan, such as Cree cassette tapes. In response to community members' request to see more Indigenous art in the library a special branch was made off of the North Central Community Society, the North Central Community Society Library Committee in August 1976, to work with the Regina Public Library to ensure the communities needs were met. In 1980 a new branch librarian was hired, Maureen Woods and much of the success of the Albert branch is said to be attributed to her. When the library reopened in June of 1980, Woods embraced Indigenous culture in the first week. Woods addressed the needs of the community by omitting late fees and instead implemented a different optional program where community members could bring in a book of their own to replace the lost book. The direct relationship the library has with the community is not something you always see especially in terms of compromise and understanding. You hear similar stories in regards to all of Regina’s library branches, that as a kid their parents would take them there and that's what got them into this, and now as an adult, they take their kids there, and so on.
In 1999, the Albert branch head, Wendy Sinclair presented a paper at the International Indigenous librarians forum in New Zealand. She had this to say, “The Albert Branch is unique in the sense that we don’t expect people to come to us. We’re not your typical library or viewed as a typical library where we are just a building in a community that houses books. We go out into the community and promote library services. We go to where the community is. We’ll take programming out to all schools in the community, all daycares.”
Regina’s libraries are an integral part of the community and It’s very clear that the Albert branch has been very responsive to the needs of the community, and continues to do so today. However, in May of 2017, the building was put up for sale with plans to relocate to the new (at the time) Mâmawêyatitân Centre in the summer of 2017. The Buddhist Centre of Regina now operates out of the heritage building.