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When Kristel Fleuren-Hunter was growing up in Antigonish, she remembers the bookmobile – a library on wheels – coming to the school and her and the other children picking out books for the classroom.
As she got older, she borrowed Nancy Drew books from her small local library.
Trecia Schell remembers singing “skinnamarinky dinky dink” at story time at her local library in Kitchener, Ont.
As she grew up, she read all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books in a competition with a neighbourhood boy.
Now the two early book lovers are librarians with the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library. The library is hosting the Nova Scotia Library Association’s annual provincial conference being held in Pictou from Sept.18-20.
The conference is a chance for those working in the library system to connect, share ideas, and tackle challenges facing libraries in a changing world.
This year — and every year — the main challenge is funding. Core provincial funding for libraries has increased 15 per cent in 14 years while inflation has more than doubled.
At the same time, the role of public libraries is growing more complex. Access to technology and digital services is now a core function, such as helping someone set up an email account or fill out a form.
“There are a lot of services out there where you don’t get that in-personal connection,” said Fleuren-Hunter, children’s services librarian in Antigonish.
“A lot of government forms are online, for example. They’re told to go use a computer at the library, but if they don’t know how to use one, they need help. So, just connections with people and with technology is important.”
Nearly 350,000 people visited the seven branches of the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library in the last fiscal year. The branches are in Antigonish, New Glasgow, Pictou, Trenton, River John, Stellarton and Westville.
In the past year, the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library had 33,891 computer bookings and 1,216 personal one-on-one technology training. It also offered 1,820 programs to 17,068 visitors.
Funding shortfalls leave the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library and its eight regional counterparts looking for grants, donations and community partnerships to offset rising costs.
The Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library has launched a fundraising campaign to overcome a $140,000 shortfall, so it won’t have to cut services.
The nine regional public library systems in the province are supposed to raise three per cent of their operating budget. The Pictou-Antigonish Library raises closer to 10 per cent.
The additional funding helps the library pay for the supplies needed to offer its various programs and more flexibility in providing responsive programming.
The library gets donations from community groups that understand the role of libraries in addressing social issues, such as loneliness among seniors and isolation among new parents.
“The purpose is to provide equitable access for everyone, which means it’s important for it to be free of charge,” said Schell, community services librarian in Stellarton and Trenton.
“For families coming to those programs, it’s a very important opportunity to get together and meet with other parents and caregivers, and for the children to play. But, also for the adults to meet other people.”
She said libraries play an important role in literacy, access to information, digital inclusion and community connections.
The most popular programs at the Pictou and Antigonish branches include connection, like book clubs, craft workshops, stitching circles for all ages, opportunities for children and parents to socialize, and the annual summer reading program.
More stitching circles are being added in regional branches because of their popularity. Stitching circles outnumber book clubs.
“It’s about building community through stitching circle,” Schell said.
“It’s amazing those friendships that form over that and just that key impact of social connection and giving people a place to go.”
The library offers a weekly Library Club in New Glasgow, Pictou, Westville and River John geared towards older adults. It includes a guest speaker, an activity and a snack.
The program is possible because of funding from the Aberdeen Health Foundation, which understands the link between connection and population health. The grant provides free transportation to library programs, an important service in rural parts of the province without public transit.
This summer, Schell and Fleuren-Hunter have noticed a trend at the Antigonish library of more middle-school children coming to the library, using computers and talking to each other.
These trends and how libraries respond to them is part of the sharing that happens at the provincial conference. The theme of this year’s conference is Making connections.
“We go there to steal ideas,” Schell said.
“We hear about all the other great things that other libraries are doing and what worked well, tips on best practices and what they learned, so you’re not reinventing the wheel. Because the role of libraries and communities is changing quite a bit.”
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