Citizens of the 21st century should not have to be fighting a battle for literacy, in an age where data and access to data is of primary importance to all people, and accessibility to reading materials ought to be a right for everyone of every age and life experience.
It is thus difficult to understand why the residents of this province need to stand up and speak out in support of our public libraries, which is a cornerstone of literacy in the community, other than our education system.
Nonetheless, residents who support the library (which ought to be every person in every community) are being called upon to stage a peaceful protest by holding a “read-in” on Friday, April 7.
The reason is due to the budgetary cutbacks by the provincial government that saw all regional library systems slashed by 58 per cent, along with all funding to the libraries in Regina and Saskatoon. To rub salt in the wound, the cutbacks were made retroactive to January 1, even though the budget wasn’t announced until near the end of the first quarter, with all libraries operating under the false assumption that they would at the very least have status quo funding for this year.
For the southeast area, representatives of all branch libraries in the Southeast Regional Library system will meet on Saturday, April 8, at what was supposed to be their annual meeting, and will now be talking about what their future is, if indeed there is one.
This is an opportunity for the community to come forward and show the government and the libraries that they support these institutions, and that they are a needed part of the community. Libraries are not a luxury or an added expense, they are a centre of activity and a promoter of literacy, not to mention they provide books of every sort, both fiction and non-fiction, in both hard copy form and in electronic form.
The regional library system also helps to provide access to materials and resources from across the province with an inter-connected computer system — but if the regional libraries have to disband because of how severe the funding cuts are, we all will suffer, and there will likely be many library branches closing simply because there isn’t enough money to maintain them.
Does it matter to you if there is a library in your community that you can continue to use? If so, then take a cue from the title of the event, and “drop everything and read” at noon on Friday, April 7, at MLA Dustin Duncan’s office on Fourth Street, and show your support. — Greg Nikkel
