GUELPH – Wellington County library branches will not be borrowing materials from outside the county system in light of the recent decision by the Southern Ontario Library Service (SOLS) to end its inter-library loan delivery service.
The SOLS announced April 16 it is facing a 50% budget cut from the province.
The move flowed from the April 11 provincial budget, which reduced funding for the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport by almost $60 million, from $1.55 billion to $1.49 billion.
Two days later SOLS announced it would be ending its inter-library loan delivery service as of April 26.
SOLS serves almost 200 municipalities in southern and eastern Ontario and provides librarian training and inter-library loans.
The Wellington system lends about 400 books a month to other systems and borrows about the same amount.
“With the Southern Ontario Library Service announcement and the funding cuts we have adopted this policy that we will not be doing any borrowing from greater Ontario and we’re looking at how it can be best managed inside our budget,” said councillor Mary Lloyd, chair of the county’s’ library board, at the April 25 county council meeting.
Busy break
March Break programs at county libraries for 2019 were “well received,” with over 1,800 members of the public participating in 70 special programs.
Chief librarian Murray McCabe noted in a report to the library board the numbers include 89 children who took the Red Cross babysitting course offered through the libraries.
Hogwarts Express
The library’s first ever Harry Potter program has now been confirmed to take place at the Palmerston branch on June 15.
McCabe noted in a report that staff have invited the Palmerston Railway Heritage Museum to partner with the library on this event and are anticipating significant participation by children of all ages.
