The head librarian at the Estevan Public Library believes that as long as she and her team keep adhering to the three Cs, the programs can keep moving along famously.
It's about connection, communication and community as far as Kate-Lee Donohoe is concerned, and she has full agreement from library board member and Estevan's official representative to the Southeast Regional Library, Carol Cundall.
In some respects, Saskatchewan's public libraries are like our well-known medicare system. You receive the services free of charge thanks to a per capita assessment based on Canada Census figures. In Estevan's case, it's $31.45 per head to meet the regional library's overall funding needs to meet wages, infrastructure expenses, maintenance and capital costs. The local library also offers a passel of local operations such as workshops, educational seminars and public functions within a $33,500 local library budget.
So how much bang does the public get for their buck?
Well, this is where the three C concept comes into play.
"It's free for the general public. It's a warm place for people to come to for non-judgmental access. It's a safe and very social environment," said Cundall.
"We value our children and adult programs, and the co-ordinators we have available to deliver them," said Donohoe, who is now in her fifth year as the local library leader.
"When people come to us, they'll tell us what they want, and we can partner them with others who can help them, if we can't do it ourselves. Anyone and everyone can use the library."
The library personnel recently completed a modest needs assessment survey among traditional library users, reaching out for some input as to what they felt were the community needs.
Only one of the questions on the survey involved the library.
"We wanted to press the hot-button issues," said Donohoe, and while some of the responses were predictable, others weren't. The predictable major concern was the lack of affordable (attainable) housing. The library can't do much about that. Or could they?
"Well, we could provide a community bulletin board to help people connect to housing opportunities," said Donohoe. After all, the library can be considered the community's communication nerve centre, the melting pot for local ideas, including housing outreach. Why not?
"The local library programs are adaptive," said Cundall.
"Who do we target? Well, we target everyone," added Donohoe, answering her own question.
The library can't possibly be all things for all the people, but it surely can try.
So while some in the community might question a $31.45 per head assessment for library services, what is provided in return is fully transparent and widely-based services that go well beyond book borrowings.
What little bit of revenue they are allowed to generate through the rental of conference rooms goes straight to the City of Estevan. The library also provides all the Internet server connections for the entire leisure centre complex.
The library wouldn't mind lending e-reading devices for book borrowers who like to download their reading materials, but they have found that almost all these patrons have their own and don't want or need one from the library. The downloaded books are theirs to read for 14 days. After 14 days, the "borrowed" e-book is scrubbed from the user's system, but it can be re-borrowed or extended.
"And that is everywhere in the province, any book, any magazine, and the 30,000 newspapers in 70 countries that we have access to," said Donohoe. Just visit sasklibraries.ca.
There are hundreds and thousands of library users who still prefer to borrow hard copy books, take them home, read and return. They have a growing pool of inventory to choose from, too. But with the e-reading public, it's a lot more than signing out a library book on a card. It includes e-books all around the province. Hard copy books can also be borrowed from any provincial branch library and returned later to a home base library.
"We still average about 5,000 patron visits per month," said Donohoe. That means your grandmother's quiet little library has morphed into a buzzing, busy, action centre with kids, educators, moms, dads and grandparents all doing the interactive things at any given time.
"We get quite a few of our transient population here. They can check the Internet, the job postings, get to know the community in a relaxed environment and get a feel for things without judgment or anyone bothering them. We find that they know (inherently) that the library can be one of the first places they can go (to get information comfortably)," she said.
Cundall said they have learned that while there is a growing community of e-readers, many young readers and their parents still prefer hard copy books.
"It's tactile, they like to hold copies. In some rural areas, it's more difficult for e-reading. Holding a book in their hands helps children learn motor skills, touch, point, view pictures at their own pace and learn."
"Then we have seniors and large print books, large print e-readers," said Donohoe "It's knowing what our patrons want. The actual signing out of books is down, but e-book access is up, and we definitely have a lot more programming."
"I guess it's a willingness to get out there. No stereotypes," added Cundall.
"It's not your quiet little library any more. There is a lot of interaction events, and we are always asking what we can add and making sure the public knows where they can gather and what they can get from us," said the librarian.
Donohoe, who is currently completing a master's degree, is developing her thesis presentation on further involvement of teenagers in the library world. She said in the past teens haven't been big users of libraries, but that is now changing, even to the extent that they are beginning to be able to claim their own traditional spots in the library.
"So we work at making libraries more teen friendly by engaging them and giving them their time and space," Donohoe said.
"The library board is on board with that. We often talk about making the library even more welcoming than it already is," said Cundall.
"We can ask teens, we can get them involved in some participatory research," Donohoe said.
As far as finding them space, Donohoe said there probably isn't a library in this world that wouldn't like more space, but for now, the local library is still pretty happy with the bright and accessible space allocated to them with nine computer stations as well as thousands of books, social centres and two conference rooms, administrative and employee spaces. There are 47 libraries in the Southeast Regional Library system, with just two city facilities. All the rest are in towns, villages and RMs.
Cundall said she has learned over the last year as the regional representative, that the library patrons are adapting to change quite efficiently.
Donohoe said the new era of e-reading means staffers don't have to spend a lot of time cataloging magazines for instance, so the nine employees in Estevan (four full-time, three part-timers and two students) can turn their attention to more community-minded tasks.
"That $31.45 per person might seem to be significant for some, but for all the days the library is open and accessible and accountable and working at providing what they want, and finding out what they want, it's pretty cost effective," said Donohoe.
"We provide all kinds of additional services most people don't even think about. Like access for teaching English or other languages, proctoring exams for SIAST or other educational institutions. We do a lot of that no charge. Craft classes for all ages no charge, author readings and presentations, information gathering, downloading. We're user friendly. Our research shows that the under-30 patrons are using us more and more, so we keep evolving," said Donohoe. "We've seen a big growth in demand for graphic novels, so we provide them as efficiently and quickly as we can. Just another example."
By the way, these two library lovers like to read a lot.
What do they like to read when they find time? What book have they appreciated the most over the years?
Well, Cundall said she has picked up her copy of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee to read several times over the years. It's her classic "go to" book when she feels the need to be comforted. She also enjoys book club opportunities and exchanges book ideas with her now grown children who also have a love of literature.
For the head librarian, when she isn't busy writing a thesis, she loves to escape into the comedy world provided by author Jana Evanowitch.
"Whenever I want a laugh, I go to one of her books, and they never fail me," she said.
