About the recent strike in Cookshire-eaton
It is amazing what you discover when you are told that you have to close down your local library. I had been happily working at La Bibliothèque de Sawyerville for a week while the strike was going on, blissfully unaware of the consequences of that action, when I received a phone call from the Municipal Office saying that, because it was a municipal service, I would have to close the library for the duration of the strike. My response was an angry one - I explained that I worked as a volunteer and so was independent of any strike action, and that I refused to close down the library.
The intensity of my anger surprised me. I have managed the Sawyerville town library mostly on my own for over thirty-five years. I have taken pride in the kind of service that we can offer in a small rural community...dropping off and collecting books at people's home, relaxing lending policies when required, and being able to make recommendations about books to read based upon an intimate knowledge of the reader's preferences. This is life in a small-town library. To have this taken away so abruptly was deeply upsetting.
On the other hand, once I calmed down, I realized that I had to respect the workers' situation. What to do? I decided upon a compromise. I put a notice on the door saying that the library was closed during the strike, but I phoned my regulars to let them know that if they got desperate, I would open the library at their convenience. In the end, because the strike was resolved fairly quickly, this did not happen although I did go in myself to make sure that I sent off in time the books that had been ordered through our inter-library loan service...something that grows our tiny library exponentially. There was no way that I was going to be responsible for the return of over-due books.
What I discovered from all of this is that depriving dedicated readers of their access to books has the same emotional impact as depriving them of essential garbage pick-up service...life without books and magazines to read is unbearable. One compensation during that time was that I indulged in a delightful fantasy with one of the most dedicated users of the library. We imagined meeting at the library in the dead of the night, dressed in dark clothing and searching for books by the light of a flashlight. This is the extent to which some of us, those of us without the resources to invest in on-line options, would go, in order to be able to read. I find this life-affirming.
I also came to the understanding that although La Bibliothèque de Sawyerville does not figure very prominently in the statistics gathered by the Réseau de Biblio Estrie (we are after all, a very small library) we have quietly had an impact upon our community over the years that is immeasurable.