Alberta

Libraries Section
Libraries, Community And Voluntary Services Sector Branch

Annual Report
Provincial and Territorial Library Directors Council (PTLDC)
2003 - 2004

PTLDC Annual Reports Index

Mission And Mandate

Public library service in Alberta is delivered by the Libraries Community and Voluntary Services Sector of Alberta Community Development. The branch has a broad mandate in that it supports the voluntary sector, volunteers and volunteerism as well as development and consulting initiatives that strengthen Alberta's communities. The Branch also provides secretariat and staffing support to the Wild Rose Foundation. The Libraries Section promotes equitable access to public library service for all Albertans by maintaining public library legislation and governance structure, providing funding assistance to public library boards and establishing a province-wide network for communications and sharing of library resources. The Branch provides leadership, co-ordination and facilitation aimed at maximizing public library resources through increased co-operation, collaboration and enhanced competencies.

Legislation

The Libraries Act RSA 2000, Chapter 11 and the Libraries Regulation govern public library service delivery in Alberta. The Act and Regulation was last amended in 1998.

The Libraries Act sets out conditions of free basic public library service:

• access to library facilities;
• use of library resources in the library;
• borrowing library resources;
• acquiring library resources through interlibrary loan;
• consultation by library staff and/or;
• basic information service.

Library boards may charge a card fee if the fee is part of a bylaw ratified by municipal council.

The Libraries Act defines the roles of the partners in library service. At the local level, it recognizes the municipality as the foundation for public library service and library boards as the major building blocks. At the regional level, it allows for cooperation between municipalities and school authorities to provide equitable and enhanced service to local libraries through library systems.

The Libraries Act sets out the governance structure for public library service. It provides for the establishment of municipal and community library boards at the local level and system boards at the regional level. These autonomous boards cooperate through provincial networks and resource sharing agreements to give access to public library resources to all Albertans.

There are no immediate changes being contemplated to the basic board structure as set out in the Act. Some of the issues that are beginning to emerge are trends for shared local service through "joint" boards, municipal dissolution, and policy and guidelines being set at a regional or provincial level. Other factors include the proliferation of partnerships in the delivery of service. These all extend the scope and range of local library service and impact policy decisions.

The regulations are also not likely to change in the near future. Branch staff continued library "audits" in 2003/04. 18 were completed in the last year. Preliminary findings show that at the operational level library staff are making the transition to online service delivery. Major pressures come from online resource sharing (this is new in Alberta) and the time it takes to ship books. Other constraints result from lack of space, budgets that do not cover staffing costs and rising costs particularly in the smallest libraries. The public response to service enhancements is very positive, but there has been no change in the service support environment to backstop the new methods of service delivery.

Structure

Public library service is now included within the mandate of the Libraries, Community and Voluntary Services Sector Branch of Alberta Community Development. The Branch has 69 staff and is divided into five areas:

• Regional Services - consists of four main regional offices and five sub-offices. Staff work with community groups to build capacity and strengthen their ability to improve life within the local community. Staff also provide facilitation services for province-wide initiatives.
• Volunteer Services - includes programs that support volunteer initiatives including the annual Vitalize Conference and the board development program.
• Wild Rose Foundation - provides grants and funding to support not-for-profit organizations that are involved in community-based service development. There is also an international component to this funding program.
• Strategic Information - provides planning, information and budget support to the Community and Citizenship Services Division
• Public Library Services-Staff administer provincial legislation and library grant programs.

Our website is www.cd.gov.ab.ca/building_communities/
public_library/index.asp

Services To Government, Public Libraries And Library Systems

• Manage provincial library legislation and regulations
• Provide consultative advice and training to library trustees
• Administer library grant program
• Support library development including working with municipalities to establish new library boards and to join library systems
• Coordinate provincial resource-sharing among libraries and work with APLEN
• Liaison with provincial library associations

Grants/Finances

Funding is regulated by the Community Development Grants Regulation. Operating grants are provided to library boards. Each of the 230 municipal library boards is eligible for provincial funding.

To be eligible for provincial funding a municipal library board must receive a minimum of $2.00 per resident from its municipal council. Municipal appropriations range from $2.00 to $64.00. The provincial operating grant to each municipal board is a maximum of $4.29 for each resident of the municipality. Library boards serving fewer than 600 people receive a flat grant of $2,600 and those serving between 601 and 1,200 receive a grant of $5,250. Total provincial funding to municipal library boards in 2003/04 was $11,884,891. The grant rate was increased to $4.29 per capita from $4.03 in 2002/03. A special one-time operations and maintenance grant totalling $1.125million was also provided to library boards in 2003/04.

Provincial operating grants are also paid to each system board. The amount paid to the system board is calculated at $3.22 for each resident of the municipalities that are part of the library system. Total operating grants to library system boards in 2003/04 was $3,901,257. The grant rate was increased to $3.22 per capita from $3.07 in 2002/03. Library systems also received the one-time operations and maintenance grant totalling $210,000 in 2003/04.

Project funding to support networking, resource-sharing, training and public library development initiatives was $524,253.

• Alberta Library Trustees Association
  • Annual operating grant $70,000
• Chinook Arch Regional Library Board
  • Resource Sharing project ILL $124,253
• Edmonton Library Board
  • Capital Region delivery project $70,000
• Library Association of Alberta
  • Annual operating grant $50,000
  • Website development grant $10,000
• The Alberta Library
  • Annual operating grant $250,000
  • The Alberta Public Library Electronic Network (APLEN) $1.5 million to administer the program.
• Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
  • Funding to update and convert the Library Operations Assistant program to web-based delivery $116,000
• University of Alberta
  • Subsidy for the 8Rs Canadian Library Human Resources Study $20,000

Activities: Network And Automation

APLEN (Alberta Public Library Electronic Network) Actions
APLEN provides a wide range of programs and services at the provincial level. It is currently working with the public library nodes to establish shared service delivery policies. APLEN also provides funding to subsidize licensing of electronic databases to participating libraries through their regional nodes. It continues to coordinate CAP initiatives in Alberta. It operates the Ask a Question virtual reference program. This year APLEN staff began to train public library staff in the use of the Alberta Government's Service Alberta information site. APLEN staff are also involved in planning and preparing libraries to be connected to the Alberta SuperNet which is the provincial government's broadband initiative. APLEN delivers the Media Awareness program and also funds access to Visunet. More information can be found at
www.thealbertalibrary.ab.ca/viewChannel.asp?channelID=2

Library Systems
Library system boards continued to attract new member municipalities. 85% of the province's public libraries are now in library systems.
Several library systems are investigating sharing a common ILS platform. The Peace Library System became a member of TRAC (The Regional Automation Consortium) 4 of the 7 library systems will now be sharing the same central integrated library system. Four of the seven systems are also offering contract services to school authorities for technical and consulting services.

Libraries
In the last year, library use continued to increase. Our 2002 statistics report that library visits increased to 16,444,460, an increase of 1.75 million from 2001. Nearly 1.1 million of these visits can be attributed to people using library computers. Circulation increased to 30,571,656 or 10.48 items per person. Interlibrary loans increased to 545,802 from 215,151 in 2000. 88% of customers found what they were looking for and another 9% were partially successful. Over all, on a scale of 1-5, 4.49 people were satisfied with their library. This is resulting in a greater workload for staff, particularly in the areas of shipping and receiving interlibrary loans and training the public in the use of OPACs and web-based and licensed online resources. Salaries are not increasing and librarians are finding that they must volunteer more of their own time to keep up. Many boards are planning new facilities to cope with increased use and to provide additional space for workstations. 5 libraries expanded or moved into new locations.

Current Issues

• Subsidized connectivity for libraries to the Alberta SuperNet
• Increase in grant rate to acknowledge inflation, cost of providing networked services
• Delivery of interlibrary loan
• Capital costs for network infrastructure
• Integrating public library service into provincial service structure

Links of interest

The Alberta Library: www.thealbertalibrary.ab.ca/
Alberta Library Trustees Association: www.librarytrustees.ab.ca
Library Association of Alberta: www.laa.ab.ca/

PTLDC Annual Reports Index