History of Shawnessy Library

Shawnessy Library opened in September 2001, and is located inside Cardel Rec South, a recreation facility in south Calgary. It is also the only location to share facilities with a school. On opening, it replaced the Midnapore Library, which opened in 1998, but quickly required greater capacity to serve this growing community.

Shawnessy was the only Library serving the area south of Fish Creek until the opening of Seton Library in 2019. To bring necessary services to patrons on the edge of the city, the Book Truck based at this location made five bi-weekly trips into the community, more than any other regular Book Truck route.

Library staff are known to move between locations during their careers, but Shawnessy Library is famous in our system for hanging on to staff. Many of the people who work at this tight-knit location have been there since opening day! 

Photo: Calgary Public Library Archives, Our Story in Pictures