Opinion: Time to get loud for libraries

Community has always been at the heart of the library.

Some of the most meaningful moments in my career have come from hearing how Edmonton Public Library (EPL) has made a difference in someone’s life. Whether it’s helping someone find a job, connect with their community, support their child’s learning, or take the first step toward a new future, these stories
remind us of the profound impact a library can have.

One story I heard recently has stayed with me. A customer told us she had been an award-winning fashion designer before she was forced to flee her country and seek refuge in Canada. When she arrived in Edmonton with no friends, no family and few resources, she started coming to the Stanley A. Milner Library downtown simply to feel less alone.

One day she noticed the sewing machines in our Makerspace, available for anyone to use. With access to those machines, she began rebuilding her career here in Canada, one stitch at a time. This year, she held a large-scale, and very well attended, fashion show at the Stanley A. Milner Library, the very branch that, in her words, is “a hub for hope.”

Stories like this one capture much of what I love about libraries. They inspired me long before I became a librarian, and after 17 years at the Edmonton Public Library, my passion for their impact has only grown stronger. Today, as CEO, those experiences continue to shape how I think about the library’s role in building a strong, resilient, connected community.

October is Canadian Library Month, a time to celebrate the essential role libraries play in communities across the country. This year’s theme, Loud for Libraries, invites us to celebrate and defend these vital spaces. Libraries remain one of the few places where everyone is welcome to gather, share ideas and simply belong.

The theme is especially fitting because 2026 has asked us to think more deeply about what libraries stand for. At a time when Albertans seem divided on many fronts, and even as public libraries across the province prepare to implement new legislation under Bill 28, libraries continue to serve as bridges between people and ideas.

They are places where curiosity is encouraged, understanding is fostered, and diverse perspectives can be explored in a shared public space.

The public library will never tell you what to read, listen to, or watch; only where to find it. That freedom to explore knowledge openly and decide for yourself what you believe is at the heart of intellectual freedom, and at the heart of what libraries stand for. Not everyone in the world enjoys that freedom, and even here at home, it can be too easily taken for granted.

More than 260,000 Edmontonians use EPL’s services regularly, and they do not always agree with each other, whether it be on politics, parenting, or what belongs on the shelf. But the library is one of the few public places purposefully built to accommodate those differences openly and respectfully.

This Canadian Library Month, I hope you will take advantage of what libraries have to offer: visit a branch, get a library card, browse our shelves or attend a program.

Libraries are ultimately about people. They stand for a fundamental democratic value: that everyone has the right to be curious, to encounter new perspectives, and to decide for themselves what they believe and who they are.

That’s worth being loud about.

Sharon Day is the chief executive officer of the award-winning Edmonton Public Library, where she is responsible for leading 700 staff and managing a $69-million operating budget.

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