The local library believes it has outgrown its current facility and is hoping the newly-elected town council will agree to providing them with more land and permission to seek funding to meet the growing need.

Executive director Jeri Maitland says based upon library standards it's half of the size required to meet the current population without even considering the rapid growth projected for Cochrane.

Maitland realizes the town has a lot of financial pressure to deal with other issues, but if they got the land she's confident they could get the funding elsewhere to complete the project.

"There's lots of money out there right now," she says. "The current government, love them or hate them, really does support arts, culture and libraries and we're part of that, so now's a good time to take advantage of the money that we could get."

She's also concerned Cochrane will continue to fall behind in getting the space they need to serve the community. They're already using ever inch of the 8,000 sq, ft. building and it's now limiting the services and programming they can provide.

"I feel this is a critical moment for the library. It would just be a shame if we get left behind and we get forgotten in the rush of everything else that is going on. The key message I'm trying to get out there is we need to be granted the space and permission to start looking for funding."

"If we don't look ahead 10 years down the road, then were going to missing the boat, so why not plan a facility that is going to serve the needs of the people now and serve them 10 -15 years out. Then we're looking at 50,000 people."

Her preference is the land adjacent to the current library, which the town owns. The most the current building can be expanded on its existing land is about 5,000 sq. ft. and how it can be enlarged is limited because its electrical, heating and air systems are all in the ceiling.

"I love the look of this building. It looks like a old train station and you have a train track right across from us and we can embrace the fact that the train races through Cochrane multiple times a day. I would love to see it expanded and keep that same train station design."

The library currently has 13,200 members and there are many more who drop in to utilize their many services provided free of charge. Libraries no longer are just about books and people who haven't been there for awhile may not realize how they have evolved.

"People still use a library as a library, but we also spend a great deal of money on electronic resources and training people on how to use them. Most people that have been away for the library for a long time, forget that we're here and what the purpose is. They think automatically of books, but there's all the digital resources. We provide free online homework help, how to learn a second language, it's all free. There's over 300 newspapers from around the world, including the Calgary Herald."

"It's a gathering place for people."

Youth and libraries are a good fit, as proven at libraries elsewhere, but there isn't adequate space to fully embrace.

"You just need to create a space where they can come and where they feel comfortable and we can work with them. Teen programming and public libraries fit together really, really well and I've done that in the past in Calgary."

With Golden West preparing to open their seniors complex right next store shortly, they're expecting a further influx of users.

"We were told by Golden West that a lot of people bought there because of the library. They are going to overrun this place next month and we're very excited to have them."

Maitland's specialty is fixing broken libraries, and has done so in such places as Calgary.  That city is expanding and building two new libraries, included the new $245 million central library. She also points to communities serving similar population to Cochrane and each has at least double the space and have further expansion plans in the works. Even Hanna, with a population of 3,000 people, is moving into a 10,000 sq. ft. location.

"We're kind of struck right now We can't really up our programming and we can't offer meeting space for the community."

Maitland explained this need while Culture and Tourism minister Ricardo Miranda visited on Oct. 1.

Miranda says are his ministry does offer captial grants, normally 50 cent dollars, but it's up to the municipalities to set their cultural priorities.