Legislative Secretary Terry Dennis has completed the report on Saskatchewan public library system that examines the main concerns and ideas about the existing library system.
Dennis collected inputs from representatives from the 11 public library systems in Saskatchewan, including board members, staff and municipal representatives, as well as from other library stakeholders, including the Saskatchewan Library Trustees Association, Saskatchewan Library Association, Multitype Library Board, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, and Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
The Southeast Regional Library chairperson Dianne Sander talked about the new report.
“The report is a summary of everything they heard when they spoke with the groups that are listed. It is that first groups say on what they consider to be important,” Sander said.
Sander explained that to make their contribution into the summary they first had to collect all suggestions and ideas from representatives of all municipalities in the southeast region.
“We had all of our representative trustees who came from each of the municipalities. There was a representative trustee from every RM, from every village, from every town, there were some from the cities. Every one of those contributing municipalities has the right to send a trustee to that meeting. So we started at that meeting and we went through all of those questions with that whole big group of trustees,” Sander said.
Later, when the Southeast Regional Library executive committee and management team met with the panel, they were able to speak on behalf of the entire region. Sander believes they provided valuable input as to how the southeast region and people within it feel. Sander also noted that the report captured all of their suggestions.
“I think it was universally that we wanted to have the ability to have ‘One Card, One Province’ system. That you can go to any library in Saskatchewan, use your library card to take out a book, and you can return your books to anyone. That fact that you can borrow from each and every library in the province is extremely important,” Sander said.
Another point outlined by the southeast was the availability and affordability of all services offered by the library system.
“Equally important to us was that our services remain free of charge, so that everybody can use their library. You don’t have to have x-amount of dollars in order to go into the library,” Sander said.
Sustainable funding was one of the main concerns addressed by the Southeast Regional Library as well as by other participants of the research.
“Sustainable funding – critical. I think they expressed it real well. That was across the board. We need to know that we are going to have funding in order to do what we can do. We need to know that we can plan ahead sometimes,” Sander said.
The report outlined eight main themes identified by Saskatchewan’s library sector during the engagement process including. It will become the base for further library system development. Yet, it’s too early to predict which path this development will take.
When it comes to provincial-wide processes, Sander believes regional libraries serve as a hub and fulfill a number of important functions.
“Your regional library is your headquarters, and it’s the headquarters that the government funds. The headquarters do a number of functions: they do payroll, they do the human resources, they do the IT (the information technology), they co-ordinate the receiving and sending out the material. The regional libraries are a hub. If you eliminate them, you still have all of those functions that have to be done at the more local level. That’s where the regional headquarters become important,” Sander said.
Sander expects that if the provincial library system was to undergo same changes as those experienced by the health care system, libraries would face a number of challenges.
“I think the concerns are from a lot of the smaller communities, and we heard this over, and over, and over again, and loud, and clear: bigger is not always better,” Sander said.
She pointed out that it is important to have local voices when it comes to decisions on materials and programs provided to communities.
Now that the libraries expressed their visions and concerns, the public is invited to make its contribution. People are asked to participate in the online survey and express their opinion about the existing library system and services it provides. Sander encouraged the general public to take time and complete the survey.
“We still need their input as to what would be important for their libraries to do for them into the future. That is going help at the provincial government level for them to understand the importance of the libraries in the communities. And it also helps us, as we look at it from the headquarter side, and I’m speaking on behalf of the regional here, it helps us to know what communities want, what’s important to them, what kind of focuses they want us to have,” Sander said.
The survey is available at the government of Saskatchewan website. It will remain open until Jan. 25. Feedback from the survey will be compiled for consideration by the Ministry of Education.
