I have never before written a letter to the editor of the Gazette, but I am so disgusted with our mayor and council over their refusal to honour the will of the people when it comes to opening a new, and may I say totally unnecessary, second site for a library, that I can no longer be silent.
Within a week of her tenure, our mayor showed her total lack of respect for citizens of St. Albert who voted 2 to 1 not to waste taxpayer money on a second library, by stating we were too stupid to understand a simple plebiscite question.
Subsequent to that, about a month ago, I participated in a small focus group in which a PR firm asked residents about current library usage and engaged participants in brainstorming what could be done to improve library services.
I was shocked to see that out of approximately 40 participants, only one adult actually used the library regularly while one other occasionally used space there to study. The vast majority did not use library services at all. Participants agreed that preschool programs, such as story time and art programs, were well attended and provided a valued service.
The firm facilitating the focus group appeared reluctant to state the purpose of the focus group and added that as the library was their client, no report or information gathered would be shared with the public.
I asked if the focus group was a PR exercise and the facilitator nodded in agreement. I guess that is why they asked such insightful questions as ”What colour comes to mind when you think of libraries?” Really …
To summarize the discussion, participants strongly felt no additional library space or second site was needed within our city. We agreed the library needed to expand their e-book capacity and develop lending partnerships and services/programs that would be valuable to adults within the community at the current, centrally located site within city hall. It was clear that our library is underutilized currently.
My solution to the library issue is as follows. The city should approach our two school districts and develop a partnership that includes augmenting school-based library budgets and perhaps developing floating collections that could move between school libraries and the city library as needed to enhance the scope and enhance programming to school-aged children, youth and families/seniors within the community.
This would ensure every neighbourhood had access to a better equipped library, and promote the ability to accurately gauge programming/service needs once citizens reach school age and become adults.
Extending access to these libraries to late afternoon or Saturdays could become part of the joint lease agreements between the school boards and the city, and would help families to easily access library services.
If the city would stop to think about the needs of its citizens, or perish the thought, actually listen to them, it should become clear that a focus on a location for a library is short-sighted and will not allow our valued library services to become the flexible, responsive and agile type of service we need in our changing world.
Wake up, city council, and start thinking about how to better utilize existing resources to create an integrated and diverse web of library services that is user friendly and adaptable to emergent needs.
Niki Wosnack, St. Albert
