Alberta Community Development

Public Libraries Section
Libraries, Community And Voluntary Services Sector Branch

Annual Report
Provincial and Territorial Library Directors Council (PTLDC)
2005

PTLDC Annual Reports Index

Mission And Mandate

Public library service in Alberta is managed by the Libraries, Community and Voluntary Services Sector of Alberta Community Development. The branch has a broad mandate. It supports the voluntary sector, volunteers and volunteerism as well as development and consulting initiatives that strengthen Alberta's communities. It also provides secretariat and staffing support to the Wild Rose Foundation.

The Public Libraries Section promotes equitable access to public library service for all Albertans by administering 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. It 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 Act. Some of the emerging issues are trends for shared local service through "joint" boards, municipal dissolution, and network 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 2004/05. 6 were completed in the last year. Major service issues continue to include financial and staff costs from resource-sharing. Pressure for increased space, and funding for staffing are ongoing concerns. Public response continues to be positive and usage continues to increase.

Audits are showing that there is a continued need for more and better communication and training for boards. Boards are not maintaining their planning and policy development roles. Many of them have neglected the job and let either librarians or municipal administrators do the work. They are also not conversant in the changes that are taking place in their libraries and have not been able to advocate for support or plan or market their services effectively. The audits are providing an awareness and training opportunity and are assisting with an overall documentation of service needs and emerging trends.

On March 31, 2005, there were 228 municipal library boards, 1 community library board and 7 library system boards. There were 310 library sites. These boards served 3,000,007 people or 98% of the provincial population of 3,066,257.

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, 5 of whom are in the Public Libraries Section.

The Branch has five areas:

1. Regional Services – there are 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. They also provide facilitation services for province-wide initiatives
2. Volunteer Services – programs support volunteer initiatives including the annual Vitalize Conference and the board development program.
3. 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.
4. Strategic Information – provides planning, information and budget support to the Community and Citizenship Services Division.
5. Public Library Services – Staff administer provincial legislation and provide policy advice to the department. They administer library grant programs, provide consultation and training to library trustees and staff, work with provincial network agencies, and provide policy and planning assistance to library boards.

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 228 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 municipal boards 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 2004/05 was $11,864,547. 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 2004/05 was $3,948,876.

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

• Alberta Library Trustees Association
  • Project grant $70,000
• Chinook Arch Regional Library Board
  • Resource Sharing project ILL $28,708
• Edmonton Library Board
  • Capital Region delivery project $70,000
• Library Association of Alberta
  • Project grant $50,000
• The Alberta Library
  • Annual operating grant $200,000
  • The Alberta Public Library Electronic Network (APLEN)) $1.5 million to administer the program.
  • One-time grant of $800,000 to pay for library edge devices to link library computers to the Alberta SuperNet

Activities: Network And Automation

APLEN (Alberta Public Library Electronic Network) Actions
APLEN continues to work 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. 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/aplen.cfm

Library Systems
Library system boards continued to attract new member municipalities. 87% of the province's public libraries are now in library systems.

Library systems are sharing common ILS platforms. The Regional Automation Consortium (TRAC) now involves 4 of the 7 library systems. Two other systems are also investigating a shared ILS. Four of the seven systems are also offering services to school authorities for technical and consulting services.

Libraries
In the last year, library use continued to increase. Our 2003 statistics report that library visits increased to 16,845,981, an increase of over 400,000 from 2002. Nearly 1.1 million of these visits can be attributed to people using library computers. Circulation increased to 30,672,272 or 10.37 items per person. Interlibrary loans increased to 643,730 from 215,151 in 2000. 89.8% of customers found what they were looking for. Over all, on a scale of 1-5, 4.43 people were satisfied with their library. 6 libraries expanded or moved into new locations.

Current Issues

• Transition to high-speed broadband through the Alberta SuperNet.
• Service delivery in small rural libraries. Small libraries do not have the tax base or resources to maintain service levels.
• Extension of 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/

Prepared by: Bonnie Gray, Manager Public Library Services June 13, 2005

Appendix

A.   Total provincial government expenditure on public library service in 2004/05: $18,768,902

B.   Library Statistics 2003 Summary:

PTLDC Annual Reports Index