BMO has donated $100 000 dollars over five years towards Indigenous programming at the new Ottawa Central Library at Ādisōke.

"We are thrilled that BMO recognizes the importance of public libraries as providers of critical resources, programs, spaces, and tools for everyone. Developing Indigenous services and programs are a major focus for Ottawa Public Library as we continue to work with the Algonquin Anishinābe Host Nation and the urban Indigenous community to advance reconciliation."

         - Chair of the OPL Board, Councilor Matthew Luloff.

With this gift, BMO has invested in the future vibrancy and prosperity of our city and community. By supporting the Unlock Potential fundraising campaign for the future Ottawa Central Library, donors are supporting a lively, informed, and prosperous community.

Ms. Jane Beaumont, a long-time advocate of library services for persons with vision loss and print disabilities, and the past chair of the CNIB National Board of Directors and the CNIB Library Board, has donated $250,000 through the Cajole Inn Fund she set up within the Ottawa Community Foundation.  Ms. Beaumont’s generous donation will support accessibility services and technology for persons with vision loss and print disabilities at the future Central Library at Ādisōke.

“This is an exceptionally generous gift and a meaningful contribution to our community. Libraries are for everyone and OPL plays a critical role providing accessible services and resources. With Ms. Beaumont’s gift, we will be able to provide leading edge accessible services and technology for people with print disabilities and vision loss. We are so grateful”, commented the Chair of the OPL Board, Councilor Matthew Luloff.

"OPL has a long history of supporting library services to persons with print disabilities and was an important supporter of the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) from the start.   I am delighted to support the plans to ensure the Central Library at Ādisōke continues that tradition", said Ms. Jane Beaumont. 

The Crabtree Foundation has made a generous donation to the Unlock Potential campaign for the Ottawa Central Library, to the amount of $200,000, in honour of Ms. Dorothy L. Davidson.

Ms. Davidson, a founder of the Crabtree Foundation, used and enjoyed the Main branch of Ottawa Public Library as a regular library user for many years. In her later years, she would take a city bus from Sandy Hill to head for the Main branch, where she would borrow large print books regularly. Ms. Davidson went to the Library as an outing, to see people and feel connected to her community. While she had the means to hire a car, she preferred the independence and connection that her excursions to Main branch provided her.

We look forward to using this generous gift to enhance the experience for older adult clients at the Central Library at Ādisōke, honouring Dorothy’s passions and her legacy.

Ottawa Public Library is extremely grateful for Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association’s (FOPLA) most generous commitment of $750,000 to the new Ottawa Central Library Unlock Potential campaign.     

“We are proud to be commemorating more than 20 years of friendship with OPL and contributing to the development of this important community space in the capital,” said Kathleen O’Connell Renaud, President & CEO of FOPLA.

The gift will fund, in part, the restoration and installation in Ādisōke of several OPL public art pieces, including the stained-glass window from the Main branch on Metcalfe Street. The window honours literature, writers, and readers, and is the only remaining piece of the original Carnegie-funded library that opened in Ottawa in 1906.

FOPLA has been OPL’s top donor for many years and this most generous gift the Unlock Potential Campaign is one of largest gifts the Friends has ever made to Ottawa Public Library.