Read any good books lately? Best hurry while you still can!

The financial problems of the city of Prince Rupert have come home to roost at the one of the last great free things to do in the city, that of making use of the services at the Public Library.

The proposed city cutbacks to the Library (a 50,000 dollar reduction in funding) have forced the local institution to put in place some rather severe service reductions, the most obvious to locals the closing of the Library doors on Mondays. All told it’s a 20% reduction to the public, of a service used by many of the city’s population and one which is heavily used and relied upon by those on a fixed income or of reduced means.

The Mayor issued his take on the cutbacks at the library and how high a priority it may be at city hall. Mayor Herb Pond asked a rhetorical question with his reply of “How do you describe something that is really important but falls behind water, sewer, fire and police protection?” It’s a nice bit of deflection, but a tad dis-ingenuous of his honour.

Many locals are still trying to make sense of the change of financial structure and accountability of Citytel (now Citywest) of last year and our surprise purchase of a struggling cable operation. Maybe, some of the money that was “invested” in the Monarch cable purchase last year could have found its way into those necessary services such as police, sewer, fire and yes even that amenity of the library.

It’s all about priorities one guesses; perhaps our civic leaders just chose for us to sit in front of the television, rather than to pick up a good book.

For those that may have missed out on the Library story it was covered rather extensively in the March 14th edition of the Daily News, here’s the story in Podunkicized format.

FUNDING CUTS FORCE LIBRARY TO SLASH HOURS
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Page One

As the province and school district struggle toward the goal of raising readers, the city’s proposed cutbacks are forcing the library to reduce its services by close to 20 per cent.

In a letter sent to Mayor and Council on February 15, and also provided to the public at the library, Denise. St. Arnaud, chief librarian, said that this year’s proposed reduction of $50,000 from the city will result in the public having 19 per cent less access to the services and resources – both in terms of the amount of time the doors are open and the amount of time the doors are open and the amount of time staff will have to provide services.

“As for the public being able to walk in the doors, it’s about a 19 per cent reduction,” she said, in an interview.

Measures taken to save money as of March 4, in anticipation of the cuts, include closing the library on Mondays, closing the library every day of each long weekend, limiting part-time staff hours to weekends and emergency situations and collection purchases by 30 per cent.

St. Arnaud said the cutbacks will have the most impact on people who use the library every day as well as children who come after school and in the evenings.

“The library is a safe, warm, dry place for children to spend time and remains one of the only free activities available to all members of the community,” she said in her letter.

For the reading public, best-sellers will take longer to show up on the shelves, books won’t be updated as often, people will have to read older books or start interloaning library books from other libraries. But they had better do interloaning in advance as staff will have less time to spend on children’s programming, and processing interlibrary loans or book selection requests. Some reference questions won’t be answered at all.

The library, which saw 115,425 patron visits in 2005, is also in dire need of a new computer system, which will cost up to $100,000 to replace. While they could limp along with a new server, there’s no guarantees the entire system won’t crash. These cutbacks come on the heels of two years of squeezing – the city cut $140,000 from the library budget in 2004. Arnaud said she understands the city’s financial position.

“Council has to make a decision based on the information it has,” she said. However, they didn’t want to wait to make the cuts until May, when the city budget comes out, as the cuts would have had to go even deeper.

When asked about the library’s rank among city priorities, Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond said: “How do you describe something that is really important but falls behind water, sewer, fire and police protection?

“In terms of funding priorities, we would ensure there is adequate funding for bare essentials … and then we start to deal with recreation and amenities.”

Meanwhile, the library board which is supposed to have at minimum seven members, is down to two people as the city hasn’t made any committee appointments in the last three years and many board members have left the community.