Town of Barrhead councillors open for library funding discussion

To access the majority of Barrhead Public Library services you need a library card and to get one you need to purchase a membership.

However, Town of Barrhead councillors are not sure they should and are open to having a discussion about increasing their contribution to the library so that they no longer have to charge membership fees.

That was the crux of the discussion councillors had after hearing Coun. Rod Klumph’s report on the library during their Jan. 22 meeting.

Library membership fees are: $12 for adults and $5 for youths and seniors. The library also has a $20 membership for families and one for institutions such as day homes for $50.

In 2018, library memberships generated about $9,000 for the Barrhead Public Library — $1,889 in Neerlandia and $7,085 in Barrhead. The library in Neerlandia is a branch of the Barrhead Public Library.

At the joint Barrhead municipalities council meeting in November, Barrhead Public Library director Elaine Dickie announced they would be increasing their adult membership to $15. Although the other membership rates have not been announced, Klumph said the board is considering doubling the youth and senior rates to $10 and increasing the family membership to $25.

Klumph sad he is partly to blame for the increase.

He told them they would be more likely to get the per capita increase they were asking from the two Barrhead municipalities if they raised their fees. The library board asked for a $0.90 per capita increase to $18.44.

“There is something about user pay that is popular with people and they would like it to remain that way,” he said.

However, he said if the board had its druthers they would waive library membership fees.

“The board has discussed this numerous times. Mrs. [Elaine] Dickie is definitely in favour of having zero fees and it is something she has been lobbying for some time for,” he said.

Klumph added a no-fee library membership is something that is becoming the norm across the province.

However, because it is up to every library board to decide whether or not to charge fees it has caused some issues for adjacent libraries with differing policy.

An example told to Klumph from Yellowhead Regional Library (YRL) board chair Hendrik Smit, are Edson and Hinton.

Yellowhead Regional Library provides materials and services to public and school libraries, and other organizations, to assist them in meeting the informational, educational, cultural and recreational needs of their communities. Currently, it serves 54 communities, including Barrhead.

“Hinton didn’t charge for a library card, but Edson did. People from Edson would to go to Hinton to get their library card,” he said.

The result the number of library memberships increased exponentially while Edson’s dropped.

“The thing about it is that Edson still has those people to serve, they just get their card from a different spot and there is a cost to that,” Klumph said.

What Klumph was referring to is that because both libraries are a member of YRL they are able to use their cards to access its services at any of its member branches.

He added the same situation exists between Barrhead, which charges and Woodlands County that doesn’t.

“I can see people who live on the outskirts going to Fort Assiniboine to get a card and then going to the Barrhead library,” Klumph said.

While he realized eliminating library fees would mean the municipalities would in all likelihood have to make up the lost revenue, Klumph said he thought it was worth it to increase the number of users, especially among youth.

“Libraries are no longer just book emporiums, they are so much more than that,” he said referring to their online services.

Coun. Don Smith agreed, saying the idea of free library memberships had a lot of merrit.

“Education and reading are very important and if a membership fee is preventing people from getting their library card because they can’t afford it, perhaps it is something we should be looking at with our municipal partners [County of Barrhead] to provide that funding,” he said. “I think there would be more positives for our municipalities than negatives.”

Mayor Dave McKenzie added libraries are especially important to new Canadians.