The most obvious benefit of libraries is that they are a big building filled with information. That definitely was the inspiration behind the form of the Drop Everything and Read protest, as people across the province showed up at their local MLA’s office to quietly read. This is naturally important, and the books on the shelves are why libraries exist.
Since this is the most obvious part of why a local library is a good thing, I won’t actually dwell on that in this space.
Our local library naturally has a large number of books, along with movies and even games. That’s the thing everyone knows, it’s the definition of why a library exists.
Instead, I feel the need to support our province’s libraries by reminding people of the other things libraries give to a community, which is a space for people to get together, a space that allows community programs to happen, and a space that gives people the opportunity to connect with their community.
Some of my earliest memories involve a library, the one in Englefeld, Sk. which was the host of a preschool program. Since I was about three, I don’t remember the specific details that well, but I do remember that I enjoyed trips to the library in order to see friends and read books I didn’t have at home. The important thing to me, as a tiny child, was that it was somewhere unique and interesting to go.
That specific library no longer exists – it was moved into the town’s school years later – though I can still mostly remember what it looked like and that I enjoyed going there. Yorkton’s library also hosts a ton of programs for kids, on any given day one can see through to the back room and see a group of children doing something. It’s likely those kids are going to have the same happy memories of going to the library as I do.
The programs aren’t just for kids, of course. The local library does a wide variety of things for people of all ages. They work with the Yorkton Film Festival to screen films, with the Yorkton Arts Council to show art from local artists – including myself – and it works with other groups as they need it. The library is a community hub, a place where people can go to do a wide range of different activities.
That’s a big part of why we need libraries. The books are important, make no mistake, whether for entertainment or research, but the library’s function as a community hub encourages reading and literacy, especially among kids. Part of their function is to contain information, the other part is to get people to read it, and the work libraries do in order to engage the community is an important part of that function.
A library is a community hub, and a good library – the Yorkton Public Library is definitely a good library – finds a way to engage with the community and bring them together to use that hub. In a province where library funding is going down, I feel it’s important to remember that other part of why libraries matter, because it’s the part that’s most at risk, especially if staffing has to be cut. The books are important, but they’re not the only thing that matters.
