If one conclusion could be drawn from the two public forums the Westlock Library held in Jarvie and Fawcett last week, it’s that residents in both hamlets want to maintain a physical library branch.
With the fate of the branches up in the air following the Pembina Hills school division’s decision to close Jarvie and W.R. Frose schools, the library board held open houses in Jarvie on March 18 and Fawcett on March 19 to find out residents’ thoughts on what kind of service they would like to see once the schools close.
There were three potential solutions to keeping library service afloat: a permanent collection roughly equal to what is there now, a mobile collection in the form of a bookmobile, or a blended service consisting of a smaller permanent collection supplemented by a bookmobile.
In the end, library director Doug Whistance-Smith said residents in both hamlets expressed a desire to see the library maintain a physical presence in their communities, to varying degrees.
In Jarvie, the preference was to keep the service status quo.
“Let’s say they were able to take over the school,” Whistance-Smith said. “They would like to keep the library in the school as part of a community drop-in centre. And I think that’s great.”
In Fawcett, with the school building being much larger than Jarvie School, it would not be too feasible to maintain the building in its current state. But the interest was still there to have a physical presence.
“It looks like a blended service would work better in the Fawcett community,” he said.
Attendance at the forums was strong, he said, with 11 community members showing up in Jarvie and nine in Fawcett. Both forums also included Yellowhead Regional Library representatives and Westlock County councillors Bud Massey, Dennis Primeau and Mel Kroetsch.
Whistance-Smith said Massey commented on the fact removing the permanent collections in both communities and replacing them with an itinerant, or transient, service like a bookmobile simply wouldn’t be the same as having a physical presence.
“And he’s right,” Whistance-Smith said. “If we were to completely replace two physical libraries with an itinerant service, it’s an incredible downgrade and would not suffice to support and supplement the habits and demands of the community.”
Library board chair Dr. Tanya Pollard also acknowledged the pushback against the idea of a bookmobile, which in addition to being a transient service, also comes with increased capital and operating costs.
She also recognized the strong will of the communities to maintain a physical library with “bricks and mortar, and doors and windows.”
“Hopefully we’ll be able to work together to make sure that happens,” she said.
Whatever the final solution may be, Pollard said the public forums did their job finding out what the communities want to see happen to their libraries.
“It was really worthwhile to find out what exactly the community wants,” she said. “It’s all well and good for us to go ahead and make plans to do lots of different things, but in the end nothing’s going to work unless it’s supported by the community.”
