When you think about a library, the usual first thing that comes to mind for a lot of people is books.
But the Yellowknife Public Library (YPL) has started doing something else which has nothing to do with books. Would you believe it has to do with gardening?
The library has set up what’s known as a seed exchange program. It was an idea pitched by one of the city’s residents two years ago and is aimed at helping people start growing their own food.
“A lot of the time when you buy a seed package, you usually get too many seeds for you to use in that year, and when they get older, they lose their ability to grow,” said Brad Cremasco, a public services librarian and who’s an avid gardener himself. “This program is an opportunity for people to donate those seeds to the library and distribute them to people who are interested in starting to grow food themselves.”
The program will run from now until the fall, providing people a chance to collect seeds during the spring to grow whatever they need. Once everything is harvested, people donate the seeds as a byproduct.
The evacuation last year left the library with nothing for the public to take this spring. As a result, the library had to buy seeds online this year.
“Food prices up here are high, and anything you can do to help that is great,” said Cremasco.
In addition to the exchange, the library is hosting poetry-themed programs in April in honor of National Poetry Month.
Poem a Day is a program that people can sign up for to receive a poem per day via email throughout the month. The poems are selected by library staff.
Another program, Ekphrastic Poetry Reading, will be taking place in the library’s meeting room this Saturday at 2 p.m. The Pandemic Poets, a group of people who came together to write poems during the height of isolation in 2020, will be hosting a live reading. The poems are based on photos that were submitted during a photo contest held by the library last year.
“It’s really cool that the library can combine Yellowknife poets and Yellowknife photographers to create this art show,” said Cremasco.