It's been more than a year since the Windsor Public Library relocated its Central Branch to the Paul Martin Building.
CEO Kitty Pope says the branch relocated to the site at 185 Ouellette Avenue in February 2020 but was forced to shutdown a few weeks later because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She says there were some challenges and it was not the first year the library was expecting at the new site.
"We moved into the Paul Martin in February of last year and then of course the second week in March, COVID struck, we closed the doors and sent all the staff home," says Pope. "So it has certainly been a really challenging year for everybody in libraries."
She says it was a learning experience for all branches including the Paul Martin site.
"What we learned from this challenging year is that libraries are more important to Windsorites than ever before and when they're in crisis and need help, Windsor residents look to the library," she says.
Pope says the branch had to make some adjustments during the pandemic.
"The challenge of retooling our service so that we were reaching out to the community and the moment we reached out to the community, they responded like we've never seen before," says Pope.
The branch did reach an all time low at the height of the pandemic with only 204 checkouts in April 2020.
The second floor at the Paul Martin Building is housing the library's administrative offices while the 11,000 square foot main level is for public use.
The Downtown Mission was suppose to purchase the former WPL central branch at 850 Ouellette Avenue but backed out of a $10-million deal after it failed to secure a mortgage.
The mission sold the building to a developer for $3.6-million.