To sum up a year unlike any other in recent memory, COVID-19 and the global pandemic completely transformed our lives in 2020. Guided by Ottawa Public Health and provincial authorities, we quickly learned to keep our distance and stay home to slow the virus down.

Many services that were normally delivered in person went online, and Ottawa Public Library was no exception. The words contactless and curbside became more frequent in our vocabulary, among others. OPL staff worked to ensure the virtual remained human as they stepped up, time and time again, to safely provide services to cardholders and residents of Ottawa. Thanks to staff’s adaptability and clarity of purpose, I saw the Library shine brighter than ever in sustaining and inspiring our community through these times.

Before 2020, OPL had already been giving serious thought to the impact of late fees on our community, like many other libraries across North America that recognized them as a barrier to library use for many potential library customers. After suspending late fees in response to the pandemic, the Board voted unanimously for the elimination in October 2020. I am incredibly proud to have helped make this happen as it shows we can, and will continue to, take action to improve equity in our library services.

The Board approved various other key recommendations in 2020, including awarding the Order of Friendship to The United Muslim Organizations of Ottawa-Gatineau, the posthumous naming of the program room at Cumberland Branch in honour of volunteer Helen Tweddle, By-Law revisions to allow us to hold virtual meetings, and the 2020-2023 Content Services Framework.

We also said goodbye to former Board Chair, Councillor Tim Tierney, who has been a champion of the Library well beyond his chairship. In my first year as Chair, I am grateful for his counsel, and I recognize how the Library has benefitted from his deep commitment. In him, we continue to have a friend of the Library on Ottawa City Council, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of the entire Board, for his incredible contribution to this fine organization.

Board members

Chair: Councillor Matthew Luloff

Vice-Chair: Kathy Fisher

Trustees: Steven Begg, Councillor Riley Brockington, Mary-Rose Brown, Allan Higdon, Councillor Carol Anne Meehan, Harvey A. Slack, Councillor Tim Tierney