Our History

The Stony Plain Public Library started as a project of the United Church Young People's Club. It first opened in January of 1945 on 50th Street with 500 books on the shelves.
Over the years, it has been in a variety of locations; the hotel dining room, the Town Hall above the Fire Hall, the Community Centre, the former Recreation Office on 51st Avenue and ultimately in the present location in Forest Green Plaza. The Stony Plain Women's Institute sponsored the library when it came under the Provincial Library Act in 1948.

2003 Expansion

In 2003, the Library expanded, moving into two new bays in the Forest Green Shopping Centre. In addition to increased physical space, key library facilities such as the program room and the children's area were renovated and refurbished. The "reading railroad" train and murals painted by local artists were added as major improvements to the children's section and computer services in all areas of the library were expanded. At this time, the interior of the library was refreshed with new paint, upholstery, and furnishing.

The library officially re-opened on February 7, 2004, with a huge celebration that was attended by Library Board members, Stony Plain Mayor Donna Cowan, then MLA and Seniors Minister Stan Woloshyn, Alberta Community Development Minister Gene Zwozdesky, and Lt. Gov. Lois Hole.

Mini-Expansion 2005-2006

In 2005-2006, the Library expanded into another bay. In this round of expansion, the library added a teen reading cafe that features comfortable furniture, computers, and young adult books. A meeting area was constructed for Library and community functions. Finally, a storage area was constructed to house Town records.

Mini-Expansion 2010

In 2010, the library expanded into another bay. This expansion gave us room to grow by adding more book shelves in our adult, teen and children’s section. An office for our children’s programmer was constructed and our meeting room was moved to accommodate an outside entrance making it assessable for after-hour meetings. This expansion also gave room for comfortable seating areas and displays throughout the library.
The celebration of our 65th Anniversary coincided with the grand re-opening in December 8, 2010. The Meridian School Choir was on hand with excellent entertainment throughout the evening. There were many in attendance including members of the Library Board, Friends of the Library, Stony Plain Mayor Ken Lemke, Fred Lindsay, MLA for Stony Plain, Phyillis Kobasiuk, Mayor of Parkland County, Kerry Anderson, Library Consultant, and Kevin Dodds, Yellowhead Regional Library Director.

The Library Today

We now have a collection of over 55,000 items that includes over 3800 DVDs, 1300 CDs, 1450 audio-books, 680 large print books and 94 magazine and newspaper subscriptions.

As a member of the Yellowhead Regional Library System and The Alberta Library, we have access to the holdings of over 300 libraries in Alberta through online catalogues.