With the landscape continuing to evolve, the Southeast Regional Library has taken a look at where it fits in Estevan's future.
The organization that governs libraries throughout southeast Saskatchewan recently began the process of conducting a needs assessment study in each of the communities it serves.
The assessment for the local branch, which was among the first completed, was presented to Estevan city council at a recent meeting. Regional branch manager James Richards and Kate-Lee Donohoe, the branch manager for Estevan, both appeared before council to speak about the assessment and field questions.
Richards said they looked at the assessment as a way of gathering information on each community's opinions, needs, assets and challenges.
"When we did this project we didn't go in with the intent of trying to evaluate if we have the right hours, do we have the right materials, do we have the right staff those kinds of things," Richards said. "This is looking at the community of Estevan and how can the public library better serve this community, how we fit into this community. We want to build a more inclusive and relevant library."
To accomplish their goal, Richards said they first went to the local library board for their input. They also contacted 19 people who were deemed to be influential in the community and asked them a series of questions about their thoughts on Estevan and other pertinent information.
"We asked them to speak on behalf of the community, not speaking of their own personal experience so much but more about as a representative of Estevan," said Richards. "We spent about four months doing this one. When we got through these 19 interviews we found that patterns developed very quickly."
Donohoe spoke about the Estevan-specific results and noted the interviewees come from such areas as education, healthcare, sports, arts and culture, service groups, real estate and finance.
She said the first question was what attracts people to Estevan, and the most popular answer was employment. The second was on the challenges facing the city and not surprisingly, affordable housing was among the leaders. Donohoe said other issues raised were traffic, making newcomers feel welcome and infrastructure.
Other questions focused on such issues as how the interviewee would change Estevan, hot button issues and topics of interest.
"Health care and the lack of doctors and services were a hot button issue followed by the lack of available housing," Donohoe said. "Topics of interest that were mentioned more than once was the lack of childcare, recreation, home and personal safety, development of the local ecomony, traffic, the transient population and drugs and crime."
The final question was what do you want Estevan to be for the next generation. The most common answers centred around creating a safe city with less crime, while others would like to see a cleaner city. Others hope to see more parks and greenspaces.
"There were a lot of answers to each of these questions. I don't think (anything on the list) is new to anybody."
Once completed, the assessment was given to the local library board, who then created an action plan, which will be carried out over three years. As housing was a prevalent topic, the library is working to provide information to the public on all aspects of housing in Estevan and plans to create a brochure.
With Estevan's demographics continuing to change, the board also wants to help bring awareness to cultural activities and events that celebrate the city's diversity.
They have also brought more people into the library by offering their meeting rooms to local groups and hosting events for children and parents. Donohoe also plans to work with a local school this fall on a research study about how to get more teens to use the library and its services more often.
"As you can see, the library is working to meet the needs of the community. Some of the action items have been addressed and some may take the whole three years to complete."
In all, 47 needs assessments are being completed and Richards estimated it will take up to five years to complete them all.
