New Brunswick Public Library Service

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

PTLDC Annual Reports Index

Mandate

The mandate of New Brunswick Public Library Service is to provide public library service to the residents of the province of New Brunswick.

Legislation

New Brunswick Public Libraries Act (1997)
New Brunswick Public Libraries Foundation Act (1997)

Structure

Public Library System Overview
In New Brunswick, public library services are offered through a partnership between the provincial government and participating municipalities. New Brunswick Public Library Service (NBPLS) is the agency responsible for the management and development of public library services in the province. NBPLS has been part of the New Brunswick Department of Education since April 1, 2000. It is made up of one provincial office, 5 regional offices, 51 public libraries, 11 public-school libraries and 4 bookmobiles.

Through NBPLS, the Provincial government is responsible for strategic planning, general administration, provision and supervision of programs and services, human resources, collection development, cataloguing and processing of materials, management of the provincial union catalogue, automation, as well as administrative, operational and professional support. Participating municipalities are responsible for providing and maintaining facilities as well as furnishing and equipment required for the provision of quality public library service.

For public-school libraries, school districts are a third partner, contributing half of the cost of salaries, ensuring curriculum-related collection development, and providing and maintaining necessary facilities to serve the school users. In this type of partnership, participating municipalities have the same responsibilities towards the community as in partnership agreements for public libraries.

Overall, the Provincial government provides approximately 70% of the budget allotted to the provision of public library service in the province, while the contributions of participating municipalities represent roughly 30%.

The provincial office of New Brunswick Public Library Service is responsible for ensuring that the intent of the New Brunswick Public Libraries Act is carried out. It manages the provincial budget, sets standards, policies and guidelines, and ensures that they are respected.

The regional offices (Albert-Westmorland-Kent (A-W-K), Chaleur, Haut-Saint-Jean (H-S-J), Saint John and York) supervise and coordinate the provision of library services in their individual areas.

Public libraries, public-school libraries, and bookmobiles are responsible for providing direct service to the population. The public library network provides equitable access to a collection of more than 1.9 million items, provides reference and readers advisory service, offers Internet access, literacy initiatives and public programming for all ages. Public library use positively impacts literacy levels and lifelong learning for New Brunswickers.

Each public or public-school library has a library board, with members appointed by the participating municipality or, as with the francophone community centres, by the administrative council. The library board manages the budget allocated by the municipality and ensures that the library facilities are adequate. It also plays a support role by promoting the library in the community and by ensuring that services offered meet the community's needs.

Several times a year, representatives from the public library boards from each region meet in regional forums to discuss common issues. The Regional Directors chair forum meetings. The regional forums elect one representative each to serve on the New Brunswick Public Libraries Board.

Members of the public library boards (trustees) can belong to the New Brunswick Library Trustees Association Inc., an independent organization that advocates for public library service in the province and fosters the education and training of library trustees.

The New Brunswick Public Libraries Board consists of five elected representatives, one from each region, plus up to eight additional members appointed from the public-at-large by the Minister responsible for public library service, and of the Provincial Librarian, who is a non-voting member. The Board provides advice to the Minister responsible for the public library system on provincial issues such as budgets, policies, guidelines, standards and services, and supports the New Brunswick Public Libraries Foundation in fundraising and promotion activities.

The New Brunswick Public Libraries Foundation, consisting of up to ten members appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, conducts fundraising activities and encourages, facilitates and carries out activities to improve collections in public libraries.

Finances/Grants

The 2004-2005 total annual budget allocated to New Brunswick Public Library Service by the Department of Education is $11,088,000.

NBPLS received $150,000 for the purchase of library collections from the New Brunswick Public Libraries Foundation.

NBPLS received $29,985 through Industry Canada and Connect NB Branché through the CAC Financial Assistance Program for the support of access centres located in libraries.

NBPLS received 118 summer student positions from the Department of Training and Employment Development to support the Summer Reading Club and the Literacy Program for Kids.

NBPLS received a grant of $15,000 from the Department of Inter-governmental and International Relations for the coordination of a collections analysis and development project for French collections.

NBPLS Made Grant Contributions to

Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award - $3,500. This grant supports the operation of an Atlantic region children's choice book award.

New Brunswick Library Trustees Association - $6,000. The Association receives an annual operating grant from NBPLS.

Atlantic Provinces Library Association Conference - $3,000. This grant is awarded to support the annual conference of the association. It is only awarded when the annual conference takes place in New Brunswick.

Activities - Network and Automation

Recent improvements in networking and automation include:

• Completed the development phase of a new web application designed to provide an index to collections of genealogy and heritage materials held in public libraries throughout the province. We are now adding information to the database prior to making the service available to the public.
• Continued to upgrade public internet access to high speed as it becomes commercially available in rural communities. Eight libraries are still without high speed access which will be installed as soon as it becomes commercially available.
• Implemented a Virtual Private Network over high speed Internet solution for library automation and staff communications wherever high speed service was available.
• Implemented wireless communication for bookmobile service to allow "real time" access to the provincial online catalogue and to automated circulation.
• Signed an agreement for an upgrade of the library automation system. Began implementation of the upgrade.

Activities - Other Developments

NB Public Library Service Recent Achievements
As you can see, NBPLS is responding to people's needs and moving forward. Here's what we've done over the past year.

1. A Library Card for Every Public School Student

• Gave every child entering Kindergarten in New Brunswick a public library card as part of the Quality Learning Agenda, the province's development plan for the education system.

2. NB Public Libraries Week

• Organized and celebrated a variety of events as part of Public Libraries Week in October 2004. The theme "Surrender to Reading / Livrez-vous à la lecture" was aimed at encouraging New Brunswickers to indulge themselves in the pleasure of reading.
• Aired a television commercial during Public Libraries Week to promote public library service.

3. Library Programs

• Offered the Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award Program across New Brunswick in French and in English. More than 60 individual book clubs were established in public libraries.
• Offered the 2004 edition of the Summer Reading Club and the Literacy Program for Kids with the assistance of 118 summer students hired through the Priority Employment Project. The theme of the 2004 Summer Reading Club was Worlds to Discover / Des mondes à découvrir. More than 11,000 young people participated in the Summer Reading Club, while more than 1,200 participated in the Literacy Program for Kids.
• Developed a partnership with the Department of Family and Community Services to improve library collections of board books to support early childhood development and to develop a project to give library cards to pre-school children attending registered daycares and to parents of newborns through the Born to Read / Le goût de lire program.

4. New Bookmobile

• The first ever wheel chair accessible bookmobile in New Brunscwick began serving the Chaleur Library Region in May 2005.

5. Feasibility Studies / Needs Analysis

• Conducted and presented needs analysis for the following libraries: Campobello, Caraquet, Dr. Marguerite-Michaud, Kennebecasis, Lamèque, Petit-Rocher, Sackville, and Tracadie-Sheila for the purposing of assessing needs for moving, building or expanding library facilities.
• Conducted a needs analysis for the Haut-Saint-Jean Regional Office.

6. Provincial Structure

• Completed three phases of the standardization of the provincial structure of the library system by standardizing the technical services unit at the provincial office, the administrative support units at provincial and regional offices and by adopting a standardizing structure for the regional resource centres.

7. Virtual Reference Service Pilot Project

• Completed the development of an in-house virtual reference pilot project for launch in early fiscal 2005-2006.

8. Industry Canada Funding

• Coordinated CAC Financial Assistance Program funding of $29,985 which is used to support community access centers located in public libraries. This involved coordinating funding applications, providing purchasing advice, installing and supporting equipment and reporting to Connect NB Branché and Industry Canada.

9. NB Public Library Statistics

• Published the 2003-2004 Annual Statistics Report and modified the presentation of statistical information to reflect the changes of regional boundaries between the Haut-Saint-Jean and York Library Regions.

10. Youth Apprenticeship Program

• Promoted librarianship as a profession by participating in the Youth Apprenticeship Program. NBPLS hired two bilingual high school students selected for their interest in investigating the possibility of pursuing a career in library and information science to work in public libraries over the summer. The students were given an overview of the profession and of the field of study required in order to become a librarian.

11. Resource Sharing

• In January, we finalized an agreement with the Centre régional de services aux bibliothèques publiques du Centre-du-Québec, de Lanaudière et de la Mauricie to share cataloguing records. This agreement enhances our ability to retrieve cataloguing copy for materials in French and expedites the processing of these resources.

PTLDC Annual Reports Index