Saint John Free Public Library

Bright and spacious, with modern library services and facilities, the Central Branch library has a capacity of 240,000 books. It also serves as headquarters for the Saint John Regional Library, encompassing eight other libraries in Southern New Brunswick. Appropriately, the official opening of the current location took place on the 200th anniversary of the landing of the city's Loyalist founders who endowed the city with the literary heritage it sustains through its library services. Today, the Saint John Free Public Library consists of this Central Branch and two satellite branches. West Branch, the first mall library in the Maritimes, opened in Lancaster Mall in 1967. Its initial annual circulation of 58,193 increased to over 100,000. East Branch opened in 1968 in Loch Lomond Mall with 5000 books and 1925 patrons. It moved to its current location in Westmorland Place in 1973, where it offers over 26,000 items, including a large talking book collection, to 6300 patrons.