At times Lynn Grocock feels more like a packing clerk in a grocery store or a computer technician than a librarian offering book advice.
Grocock, a librarian at the Wainwright, Alta., Public Library, said staff spend a good part of each day packing books, unpacking books, hauling books to the courier or post office and phoning people who have requested books through the interlibrary loan program.
At the same time, staff help patrons who want to log onto one of the library’s six public internet sites. On the weekends there is a long wait for the library computers.
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Then there’s the regular work of helping customers find books the old-fashioned way.
“Some days it’s a lot of work,” said Grocock.
In October, the Wainwright Public Library loaned 322 books through interlibrary loan and received 466 books through interlibrary loan.
Long gone are the days when libraries were simply a collection of books, said Phil Valleau, a councillor in the Municipal District of Wainwright and a member of the Northern Lights Library System, one of seven regional library associations in the province.
“The library mandate has changed,” said Valleau.
He wants the provincial government to increase the amount of money it gives libraries to account for the increase in work created by technology.
About four years ago Alberta launched a program that allows every person with a library card to borrow any book from any library in the province, including university libraries.
A high school student working on a biology project in Hanna, Alta., can log onto his home computer or the public library computer and request one of the 25 million books and periodicals in the provincial library system.
The book is then packed up from the library where it is held, mailed or couriered to the student’s local library, unpacked and the student phoned that the book is in.
Rural godsend
The advent of the province-wide interlibrary loan has been a “godsend” to Rebecca King and her farm family at Wainwright.
“I love the interlibrary loan system,” said King, who requests an average of 20 books a week through her home computer. Whenever King has five minutes, she will browse through the computer program and order a book she thinks is interesting.
One week this summer, 60 books she ordered came in at once.
“I am so envious at the amount and selection and variety available at Edmonton libraries. This is helping country people get more access,” said King.
The uptake of the interlibrary loan service has been tremendous across the province, said Bonnie Gray, a library consultant with Alberta Community Development, the government department in charge of libraries.
“People love the service. It’s a really wonderful service for small communities that don’t have many resources. It equalizes access big time,” said Gray.
But on the flip side, there has been no more money added to the library system to support the extra work.
In 1992, the provincial government’s operating grant was $4.29 per capita, which translated to about $12 million in funding to the province’s 310 libraries, or about 20 percent of the cost of their operation. In 2002, the government’s operating grant was the same. Because of a population increase the amount rose to $17 million, but the province’s share of library funding dropped to about 15 percent of the cost of operating libraries.
The rest of the funding comes from local counties and municipalities, raffles, garage sales and other government grants.
“I feel libraries are very important and they’re underfunded,” said Valleau. He made a motion at the recent Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties meeting that government funding for rural libraries be increased.
Don Gulayec, a councillor with the County of Two Hills and vice-chair of the Northern Lights Library System, said that without additional funding rural libraries are becoming second-class facilities.
A healthy library network is the only way rural schoolchildren will have the same access to books as their city cousins.
“I want my children to have all the opportunities as a child from downtown Edmonton,” said Gulayec.
“Unless you get the funding our kids won’t have the same ability to get the special texts they need.”
The resolution from the rural council meeting requesting more provincial money for rural libraries passed, but not all municipalities support their libraries. In 2002, 70 of the province’s 357 municipalities didn’t provide money for their libraries.
Three large counties around Calgary – Rockyview, Kneehill and Wheatland – don’t give money to the regional library system, nor does Cypress County in the southeast or Saddle Hills in the northwest.
“Those municipalities don’t see it as their responsibility,” said Gray, who raises an eyebrow at the request for more provincial funding when some municipalities still aren’t giving any money to the rural libraries.
Ben Armstrong, Wheatland County’s reeve, said only one percent of the ratepayers were in favour of joining the Marigold Regional Library System when they were asked.
“It’s nothing the county has against it, but until the ratepayers want us to join, it’s a dead issue,” said Armstrong.
County residents who want to use the libraries within their towns have to pay $60 each year for their library card and are not able to use the regional services.
It’s that attitude that has Gray raising an eyebrow.
While the provincial share of library funding hasn’t gone up significantly in the past 10 years neither has the municipal funding, said Gray. She said the two levels of government are at a stalemate.
“The province is not going to put more money in if the municipalities are not, or if the municipalities are going to reduce their money,” said Gray.
In the meantime, rural libraries struggle along and Valleau will keep trying to raise the issue whenever he can.
“Libraries are one of the best forms of education we’ve got. They’re good from two years to termination of life.”
