Bowden town council has approved a three per cent increase in its share of the 2015 Parkland Library budget. Councillors also approved the overall $3.027 million PLR budget.
Council's decision means the cost for Bowden residents in 2015 will rise to $7.73 per capita (per person) for a total of $9,592.93 from $7.50 per capita (a total of 9,307.50) in 2014.
Parkland Regional Library (PRL) director Ron Sheppard presented the budget to Bowden town council Oct. 14.
Sheppard said one of the toughest problems the PRL faces is a lack of predictable funding from the province and the fact that the funding it does get doesn't necessarily reflect the current population in the library region.
“The provincial government has been using the same population figures for our operating grants as (it did) in 2010,” Sheppard said.
He said because each year, the PLR has no idea what it's going to receive in grants as it prepares its budget, it has forecast the same provincial grant figure for the next three years (2015 through 2017) as it received this year ($916,366).
“We need a policy from the province because we really don't know, from one year to the next, what the dollars are going to be, how they're going to allocate dollars for operating grants,” he said. “It makes it very difficult for us to do long-term planning.”
Bowden councillors sympathized with Sheppard's concern, saying they have the same frustration with the province.
“It's the same thing with the resources that they provide us with,” Sheppard added. “We often times have no idea until the spur of the moment.”
He cited the introduction of a new digital service called Hoopla, provided in June. It allows library patrons to instantly access movies, TV shows, full-length albums, and audiobooks from their computer or device.
“So we introduce a new program, people love it; then we realize we're going to run out of money, because it came in the middle of our fiscal year, there's very little money left,” Sheppard said.
“So then we say we have to impose limits; the libraries get mad at us because we're cutting back on the access to materials that the patrons are used to getting now. So it's just kind of bad all around.”
Other than those frustrations, Sheppard said a major factor in the 2015 Parkland Library budget is that its contract with schools to provide services ended this past June. So this is the last year PLR will receive money ($115,328) from schools for that service.
Sheppard said that's because schools are moving away from the traditional library.
“Really schools are moving more towards licensed resources. They're actually closing down their libraries in schools and deleting most of their school library staff,” Sheppard said.
“It's quite unfortunate in my opinion, but it's because they're trying to move toward streamed online resources that will be available to students 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“So it just means that the traditional library is becoming a thing of the past in schools.”
Parkland has also hired a permanent communications and marketing co-ordinator.
Sheppard said it's part of an effort to encourage more people to obtain library cards so they can take advantage of services offered by the library.
Sheppard cited one example of those services.
“If you get a library card you can download movies and TV series and watch them. It's kind of like having a Netflix, except you can get it through the library,” he said.
He said a communications and marketing co-ordinator helped get the word out about the new Bowden Library when it was created.
Sheppard said Bowden was one of only four municipalities out of 66 in the region which responded when the PLR sent out a letter urging municipalities to contact their local MLA and relay their concerns about library funding.
Mayor Robb Stuart said the town has always appreciated PLR.
“Parkland's always been excellent. Our library here's thrived under Parkland Regional. You're a real asset to us,” he said.
