Northwest Territories Public Library Services

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

PTLDC Annual Reports Index

Mandate

To provide all residents of the Northwest Territories with equal access to quality Library Services to meet their education, cultural and recreational needs, regardless of economic circumstances, language, age, gender, disability or geographic location.

Legislation

The NWT Library Act legislated in 1968 and amended in 1974 is woefully out of date. Major legislative changes in the past few years resulting from the division of the Territories meant that revision to the Library Act was deemed not to be a priority. Work continues on the drafting of a new statute.

Structure

In 2004 the NWT Public Library Services moved from a defunct Information Networks Division to become a unit of Education Operations and Development within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. The PLS provides the automated library system for all public libraries and the Legislative Library. It provides collection development and technical services for all public libraries except Yellowknife Public Library. A central library collection is maintained and used to rotate current material to smaller libraries. Service delivery is provided to residents in communities without libraries through access to the PLS web page and online catalogue and borrower by mail services.

Finances

The territorial and municipal governments provide funding for the public library system jointly. Generally, the municipality provides, maintains and equips the library facility, while the province covers staff costs, provides funding for books and office supplies for all libraries, except Yellowknife Public Library, and pays for the operation of the regional headquarters and automation.

Activities

The 2003/2004 fiscal year saw the completion of installation of Virtual Libraries to remote communities. This brings the total number of Virtual Library sites to 20. The virtual library consists of two computer workstations, a printer and furniture. In addition, this year each site was provided with a bookcase with approximately 240 titles for local use. Combined with the nine communities that have Public Libraries, this means that 99.3% of NWT citizens have Public Access computers available to them.

In January 2003, Public Library Services joined with Aurora College and the Legislative Library to form the NWT Library Consortium. Subsequently, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre joined the group. In September the consortium signed a contract to purchase the Sirsi "Unicorn" integrated library system. Migration to the new system began in January 2004 and the "Go Live" date for Unicorn is 21 October 2004. With the new system, the holdings of all four organizations will be available at one site for all residents of the NWT.

For fiscal years 2003/2004 the NWTPLS budget remained basically unchanged. However, an additional $30,000 was provided through the NWT Literacy Council for the purchase of library material.

PTLDC Annual Reports Index