It's a common scenario — you're not sure what to get that special someone for Christmas. You know this person loves to read but can't decide on one title over another.
Why not get them 100,000 books? The St. Albert Public Library is now offering membership gift certificates for a donation of at least $30. Chip in $40 and you get a tax-deductible receipt since the library is a registered charity. It's the kind of gift that you give to someone else and yourself at the same time, plus the library really depends on those extra dollars.
"If people are passionate about the library, as we know many are, then we are hoping they will encourage others to try us out by giving them a membership certificate in their Christmas stocking this year," said Julie Collison, communications and fund development co-ordinator. "Hopefully that personal endorsement [that the library is a great place to visit] will encourage people who have not yet tried us to come down and make use of everything that's on offer."
Last year the library raised more than $40,000 through donations from individuals, companies and organizations, including $14,000 from the Friends of the Library, the major contributor. When asked about the value that these extra contributions have to the regular functioning and planned growth of the library, Collison had this to say:
"The words that I would use in response to that are that they are very important to the library. It needs money over and above what it gets from the city and province."
According to her statistics from 2009, it receives 77 per cent of its annual funding from the City of St. Albert plus an additional nine per cent from a provincial grant. The remaining 14 per cent must come from various sources including membership fees, fines and donations, among others.
"It does that in a couple of ways. It secures grants throughout … mainly for specific projects, and it looks to raise funds over and above those grants. Our main fundraisers are obviously the Friends of the Library and they do a sterling job. Then we try and supplement what they do by having a number of fundraising initiatives, some of which run all year and some of which are seasonal, like this one. It's really important that we do secure donations from the community because that's what helps us to continue to grow and develop services."
New services and products
The library has been on a spurt of new additions and services lately, including its new electronic catalogue and the recently established video game shelf. In true expansionist fashion, it doesn't let the space constriction in its facility limit the scope or volume of its collection.
"We're continually trying to add new products and services. We don't normally remove something in order to add something new. We don't stop doing something because we've added eBooks. We don't stop doing something because we've added video games. We're doing things that help us to remain relevant and vital to people in St. Albert and all of that obviously comes at a cost."
You can learn more by calling 780-459-1530 or by checking out www.sapl.ab.ca.
