Not only books, but now also a variety of entertaining and educating toys can be checked out from the Estevan Public Library (EPL) and enjoyed at home.
For Christine Batke, the children and adult program co-ordinator, the creation of the toy library was a long-time dream.
"My partner had always spoken very fondly of the Weyburn toy library. When he had grown up, he would have checked out toys there, and that was one of his fondest memories of that library. So when I came here and I told him that we didn't have a toy library, he was a little bit disappointed in me,” said Batke.
“So that was always one of the main goals that I had, to get a functioning toy library up and running because if something builds a memory that strong in somebody, it's an important thing to carry on.”
It took a long time to get the project going, but as of last Thursday, the EPL officially announced the opening of their new toy library.
"It's been nearly two years. It took me a long time to get the funding for it," Batke recalled.
Affinity Credit Union provided the library with the initial funding to get the toy library up and running last summer, and then Batke started accumulating the toy collection. She purchased the toys from Your Toy Store and More as well as from local craftsman Garnet Hall.
"It was really important for me to keep it all local because that's where the money was coming from," said Batke.
It also took some time to get the proper shelves built. The library commissioned Estevan Diversified Services to do it, and they created exactly what Batke was envisioning, with windows so the toys could be seen. And a local locksmith put in little locks.
"It's a little kismet maybe, that it's coming out right before Christmas, during COVID when people maybe are trying to shop less, and our kids' area is not functioning just because of sanitation reasons. So I think it's really perfect timing for it," Batke said.
The toy library has about 40 toys for kids anywhere from infant up to eight years of age. They are spread all across the diverse educational needs of different ages.
"We have toys that will help children with their math, there are toys that will help children with their life skills, toys that will help children with their science. And then there are gross motor ones there too. So we are hopefully encompassing a variety of learning activities for the kids to check them out," Batke said.
Toys can be checked out just like books and can be used for up to three weeks. When returned to the library they are kept in quarantine and then sanitized when necessary, before they can be returned to the shelves.
The Estevan library doesn't have an official limit on how many toys each child people can check out at a time, however, since the collection is not very big yet, they are asking people to try to stick to one toy at a time so that more people could benefit from the service.
Toys wear and tear pretty easily, and the library wants to grow the collection to meet the needs of more people in the community, so going forward, the hope is to find consistent funding.
"What we are looking for right now is somebody to fund it long-term. Weyburn (library) has somebody who funds (their big toy library) every year, and they would give a grant or a bursary to it every year. And so we are just looking for somebody who would be willing to make that investment with us," Batke explained.
The closet with toys available for check out is located inside the library on the left side by the entrance.
The first day of the toy library was also Batke's last day in her position with the library.
"I have been very, very grateful to the community of Estevan. I always was a member of the community and actively involved in the community prior to my position here, but it really increased my community awareness and my community involvement, so I've been really grateful to all the different organizations. We have just a beautiful community here with so many beautiful involved and engaged people," Batke said.
