Library staff and board members gather with Chief Librarian Allan Wilson to receive cheque from Telus Northern BC GM, Chris Jensen (far right)

Prince George, BC – The ‘launch’ of the Prince George Public Library’s Skylab occurred last June, but staff and board members gathered today for a cheque presentation marking the largest single corporate donation to the project…

Telus’ General Manager for Northern BC, Chris Jensen, presented a cheque for more than $34-thousand dollars – the direct result of a six-month campaign that saw the company donate $25 dollars from every new optic tv sale within the city. 

"It’s a beautiful space – you’ve got to love the colour scheme, too, with the greens and the purples that come out," he says with a laugh.  "It’s a great place to come relax, surf the internet, get in touch with friends and family, do online education."

Chief Librarian, Allan Wilson says while people were initially upset with the project, it’s now a soaring success.  "When we were building it, we actually saw a drop in traffic as people were disturbed by the actual construction of the SkyLab."

"The neat thing is:  we re-couped all those people," he says.  "In the six weeks following the opening of SkyLab, we had 5,500 new visitors."

Between the Bob Harkins branch and the Nechako branch, the library sees about one-thousand people through its doors each day, but Wilson says, "We have a lot of new traffic, new faces coming just because we have SkyLab.  There are people using it for e-resources, e-training."

In fact, wireless use at the library jumped 78-percent last year, compared to pre-SkyLab stats from 2011.  And Wilson says it’s an asset that will continue to position the library well with all that’s to come in the community.  "A community group can literally come up to SkyLab and jack in a USB and actually have a small public display, or a training session.  We’ve had Enbridge hearings, for example, being broadcast outside of SkyLab."

"So we see a great future for SkyLab."  Wilson expects it will be put to good use during the 2015 Canada Winter Games, with the library falling within what will be part of the Athletes’ Village.