IQALUIT - Fifteen new computers along with new desks and chairs, a new printer and a wireless router are now at the Iqaluit Centennial Library thanks to Nunavut's Community Access Program.

The grand opening of the newly-equipped CAP site was held June 15.

Yvonne Earle checks out a new computer during the grand opening of the newly-equipped Community Access Program site at the Iqaluit Centennial Library on June 15. - Kassina Ryder/NNSL photo

Catherine Hoyt, chair of the Friends of the Iqaluit Centennial Library, said people have already begun to make use of the new facility which is available six days a week during regular library business hours.

"We've had a pretty full house," Hoyt said. "We're expecting hundreds of users per month."

Deputy minister of education Kathy Okpik was present at the opening and said she remembered a time when computer access in Iqaluit was a lot more difficult.

When Okpik was a teacher in 1984, she and students held a 24-hour dance-a-thon to raise money to buy a computer. She said having computers at the library is a great way to merge technology with books.

"It's one of the best places to have computers, to pair it with reading," she said. "It's great to have this technology in the community."

There are three computers located at the front of the library equipped with children's educational software and another 12 at the back of the building for use by the general community, Hoyt said.

CAP program co-ordinator Darlene Thompson said the computer access sites in communities provide residents with a "building block for capturing culture." She gave the example of a group in Clyde River that taught youth to take videos of cultural activities which they brought back to their local CAP site and transferred to CDs.

"When I look at a place like this, I see a room full of tools," she said. "These CAP sites can be the centre of a community, a springboard."

She said economic development and preserving culture are just a few ways residents can benefit from computer access sites in a community.

"The community can take it in any direction it wants," she said.

There are 24 sites across Nunavut, Thompson said.

$30,000 in funding for the new equipment was provided through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the Nunavut Community Access Program, Hoyt said.

Head librarian Grant Karcich said planning began shortly before Christmas last year and the library received the computers at the beginning of June, but it took some time to get the computers equipped with the software needed for the grand opening.

Karcich said Iqaluit residents are taking advantage of the new computers.

"We've already noticed they're fully used throughout the day," he said.

Michael Nadler, regional director for INAC, said the CAP sites help communities towards "working to close distances and open minds."

"It has been a great privilege for our department to be involved," he said. "It's quite a remarkable achievement."