While North Battleford city councillor Len Taylor had plenty of positive news about libraries at council Monday, he also noted some emerging capital issues at the existing North Battleford Public Library.
A big issue this summer was the storm flooding that ended up impacting the library. There was significant flooding in the basement, said Taylor, including the North Battleford Sports Hall of Fame.
The damage was mentioned by director of utilities Stewart Schafer in the last couple of weeks, Taylor noted. One thing noticed was “there’s no drain in that part of the building,” and that the water in the basement had to be vacuumed out.
The water in the basement was an inch and a half deep, Taylor also said.
Taylor noted the staff did “a tremendous job” in responding to the situation. But he noted there would be other capital needs there as well, including the roof.
He urged other councillors to “pay attention” to capital needs for the library at budget time, not only for the library but “for the incredible basement institution we have in the Sports Hall of Fame. We cannot have any of the artifacts that are there damaged in any way.”
Otherwise, Taylor was upbeat as he reported to council on his attendance at the latest Lakeland Library Region board meeting a week ago. Among the positives: Taylor reported that the stats presented there showed library use was in record numbers.
For the month of August, the number of books borrowed, e-books, and computer use were the highest for the whole year so far, he said.
Taylor noted that locally there has been a change with the North Battleford branch. There is a new librarian, Richard Bee, who is a recent grad of the University of Alberta with an MLIS. Bee is originally from southwestern Manitoba and had worked at the U of A library in Edmonton for 10 years, including four years as a library assistant.
He replaces Amanda Foster, who has returned home to Ontario to take a library position there.
Coming up from Oct.15 to 21 is Libraries Matter Week, said Taylor, who then noted the overwhelming public response in support of library funding following the budget cuts earlier this year.
“People said loud and clear libraries matter,” said Taylor.
He encouraged the public and members of council to go and show their support for the library that week.
