Winnipeg Public Library app will be down into the new year

An image from the city's website shows operations in its Winnipeg Public Library app that are no longer functioning. (Source: City of Winnipeg)

The city says the Winnipeg Public Library app is currently unavailable, and will remain that way until the new year.

According to a post on the city’s website, the app’s ability to connect to its main catalogue servers is broken, which means some features may still appear to work, but are in fact showing old, outdated information.

“We recommend that people delete the current Winnipeg Public Library app from their devices as the information it shares is no longer accurate,” the statement said.

It notes the outage does not affect services like Libby, Hoopla and other digital library services.

The city also included a message from SirsiDynix, the owner of the library’s mobile app. It notes another vendor controls access to the app, and they unexpectedly disabled it.

“We have also been aggressively developing an entirely new, next-generation mobile app for your library,” SirsiDynix CEO Bill Davison said in a statement.

“While it is not yet available for general use, we anticipate it will be ready in the next few months. This app will deliver the functionality you enjoyed in the original app, along with many new features.”

The city says there is no other app to use in its place, but notes users can still search the library and access their accounts using the mobile version of the city’s website.

The city told CTV News Winnipeg it was unable to accommodate an interview about the issues with the app, and referred us instead to information available on its website.