Annual provincial grant funding for Wellington County’s library system will double under the recently delivered budget.
However the funding assumes the current government remains in place, says chief librarian Murray McCabe.
The March 28 provincial budget announced a sweeping array of social and healthcare expenditures that included a promise of increased funding for public library service in the province, McCabe noted in his April 10 report to the library committee.
“To date, annual provincial funding for libraries has not changed in over 20 years so this announcement – however tentative, is huge News for the public library world,” McCabe states in the report.
“Library administrators and their boards have lobbied successive governments since 1995 to restore and then increase the annual funding envelope. Unfortunately these lobby efforts have only resulted in some one-time special grant initiatives, until now.”
McCabe states the details of the newly promised funding will come “in time” if the government of the day is re-elected.
The announced funding would double Wellington’s annual grant of $152,000 and would assist with the purchase of e-books and electronic databases for all public and First Nation libraries across the province.
In addition to funding promised for libraries, the province also announced a plan to increase access to childcare for children 2.5 years to four years of age.
“Assuming there is a significant uptake on this new initiative by area families, the library’s program offerings will need to focus more on programs for the youngest children. The library would also look to expand after-school and weekend programs for elementary school age children,” states the report.
Retirement in Hillsburgh
Hillsburgh library assistant branch supervisor, Leah McLeod has retired after working her last shift on March 31. A small staff event was held at the branch on Friday afternoon.
McLeod had worked at the Hillsburgh library for the past 17 years “developing strong ties with squadrons of young children over the years and with outreach to their schools,” stated McCabe in his April report.
“Leah’s welcoming smile and sense of humour will be greatly missed by all her colleagues and the library community.
“The good News is that Leah will continue visiting the new library as a patron,” he added.
More Chromebooks
The Upper Grand District School Board recently provided the library system with an additional 30 Chromebooks to be used by any of their students who have an active Wellington County Library card.
The library is now the distribution point for 100 Chromebooks provided by the public school board.
In addition the library makes 15 of its own units available to the general public.
The Chromebooks have circulated 338 times in the first two months of 2018 and a total of 3,400 times since beginning the partnership in 2015, McCabe stated in his report.
Not failing in Wellington
Starting this month, the Wellington County library system is providing access to the New York Times.
“This Newspaper provides terrific coverage of current affairs but also provides feature articles about world politics and gives non-Americans a good sense of how they view the world,” McCabe said in his report.
Over the last two years the Fergus library has provided access to the print edition of the Sunday paper.
Patrons will be able to access the electronic version of the daily from home or on one of the computers at their library branch.
