By Saara Itkonen
Did you know that October was National Library Month in Canada? The provincial government celebrated by releasing an official proclamation and members of the legislature shared their love of libraries during the October 23rd legislative session. MLA Kelly Greene of Richmond-Steveston said:
“It’s impressive that more than 2 million people have library cards in B.C. That’s approaching half of all British Columbians, providing free access to services and resources at B.C.’s 71 public libraries and 250 branches…
Recognizing the invaluable contributions of public libraries, our provincial government supports libraries with $14 million in annual operating funding. This year, we provided an historic $45 million to help libraries keep pace with demand by improving access to books, digital collections, programs, spaces, literary technology and operating hours.
Of course, it’s also important to remember that we recently recognized Banned Books Week, an annual event that celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. Intellectual freedom and the opportunity to access diverse viewpoints means that we can explore and discuss ideas that may challenge our preconceptions. Librarians are always at the forefront of those defending the right to read, alongside teachers, authors and citizens, so if you haven’t already thanked a librarian this literary powerhouse of a month, please do so now.”
At our library we asked patrons to fill out a heart-shaped post-its sharing why they love our library. Thank you to everyone who took the time to write us a note or show us you care in another way. But now, as we finish celebrating ourselves and the work we do to support our communities, I’d like to now take a moment to highlight some of the ongoing challenges that we face in doing that work and how you, the community, can better support us.
Recently, the Canadian Urban Institute and the Canadian Urban Libraries Council released an 89 page report on the status of libraries in urban and rural centres. It is based on research over the past 3 years, beginning with how public libraries responded to the COVID pandemic. The report argues that “with a vast physical and digital network across Canada, the time has come to recognize libraries as a national asset. Increased investment and strategically leveraging their potential are essential for renewing post-pandemic social cohesion, economic well-being and community resilience. Libraries are the one institution that provides a remarkably broad array of critical supports to our communities, including for knowledge distribution, culture, health, reconciliation, belonging, and our democracy.” (pg. 9 https://canurb.org/publications/overdue/ )
The report makes the following recommendations to all levels of government that fund public libraries:
“Relieve current operational pressures to ensure libraries remain safe, accessible, and welcoming libraries to everyone.
Treat libraries as critical infrastructure where community resilience is strengthened through funding of libraries to deliver government priorities
Formalize sustainable investment streams that recognize their expanding role.”
Our regional district carries the largest burden of the public library’s funding (thank you!) and has continually responded to our requests for financial support in a timely manner, most recently funding a full-time Children’s and Teen Librarian position so that we can provide sustained, high-quality, free children’s and teen programming for the community.
The provincial government, however, reduced library funding back in 2009 and froze it at the same amount since then. This past year, after library advocacy efforts, they provided an additional one-time grant for libraries to use over the next three years (thank you!), but, unfortunately, we are still waiting and campaigning to secure guaranteed annual operating funds (like the regional district provides) to keep up with our annual, increasing expenses (most crucially, staff wages). Grants are great for buying cool things but, in order to pay for people to use the cool things, we need guaranteed annual increases to funding.
All of this is to say, please consider taking the time to write or call your local MLA to let them know that public libraries are important to you and that we want them to be funded with increased, ongoing, operational funds so they can continue to support communities throughout the province. There is so much more we would love to do for our local community but we absolutely need to be able to pay people to do it.
Thank you!
Saara Itkonen is Library Director at the Creston Valley Public Library