Chinook Regional Library concerned over impact of significant cut

An unprecedented cut to library funding in Saskatchewan’s March 22 provincial budget will have a yet to be determined impact across the Southwest.

Dr. Jean Mckendry, Director of the Chinook Regional Library, said she is still waiting for official notification as to the exact dollar amount Chinook will receive, so she is waiting to determine exactly what is going to happen.

“We know we lost 58 per cent of our provincial funding, so there’s a few things that we don’t know yet,” she explained during an interview late last week.

“This has never happened before. We’ve never had such a big funding cut, without any notice. So it’s really not a good way to have to run Regional Libraries.” The Chinook Regional Library oversees 32 rural public libraries and 14 corner libraries across the Southwest. Mckendry does not know the full extent of the budgetary cuts to the library, and to their municipal funding partners, so there are no hasty decisions planned.

Mckendry is concerned with the suggestion by the Minister of Education that regional libraries merge with school libraries in rural Saskatchewan, as over 90 Saskatchewan rural communities with a library also have a school library.

Mckendry explained that because school libraries have collection materials based on curriculum, they clearly are not capable of offering public library services.

“If we had to move our public libraries into school libraries, there would be teachers that would be concerned that some of the books in the public library collection would be inappropriate for students attending school. And it would create all kinds of problems,” she said. In addition, schools are closed on holidays, summers, evenings and weekends, precisely the times when people would want to use a public library.

She also dismissed the notion that running electronic libraries is a solution to making material more accessible across the province. She notes

Publishers limit the number of check-outs, and after a certain number is achieved the book becomes unavailable. At that time, the library has to re-purchase the lease for the ebook a second time.

“Running a digital library is actually very expensive. Having access to information is not free,” she said.

Communities across the province are preparing to host Read In’s during the noon hour on April 7 to voice their opposition to the library cuts. Organized by Saving Saskatchewan Libraries (savesasklibraries. ca), these events are designed as peaceful gatherings where people simply read a book on the sidewalk in front of an MLA office to protest the funding cut to libraries across Saskatchewan.

A Save Our Libraries event will be held in Swift Current this Friday at noon to 12:30 p.m. at Premier Brad Wall’s Swift Current Constituency office at 233 Central Ave. N. Some participants will be meeting at the Swift Current Library at 11:30 a.m. and marching to his Central Ave. N. office for the start of the noon event.

Mckendry noted that another impact of the library cuts is that effective April 1, library patrons can’t put a hold on a book from another region. There remains a courier system in place within the Chinook Regional Library region, so inter-branch borrowing will continue for books in the collects across the Southwest.

“We have no guarantee that our books will be returned if they’re borrowed out of region. So it’s going to have an impact on people. And people aren’t going to be happy about that,” she explained.

“It’s the uncertainty that’s causing part of the problem.”

“We’re not going to pretend that everything’s OK, because it’s not.”