Palliser Regional Library (PRL) is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023 and is looking for celebratory ideas and prize donors to contribute to the festivities.
One activity the organization is pursuing is a “PallisAir weekly challenge,” which will see a micro-drone fly over every town in the region with a library and capture photos of the building, explained PRL director Jan Smith. PRL will then feature a photo regularly so people can guess which library it is.
The organization is also collecting donations and prizes from people who want to promote their business or municipality. Moose Jaw Tourism has already contributed a trolley family pass to the celebration.
“I wanted to do something different that wasn’t just your usual barbecue in the backyard of your branch. I wanted to engage people online … ,” Smith said during the Nov. 4 regional fall meeting. “The board was generous and gave us some money to spend on this 50th anniversary.”
Smith asked the online attendees to send her ideas about how to celebrate the organization’s half-century birthday — besides having hamburgers and hot dogs — because PRL headquarters’ staff needed support.
“We want to be relevant to the communities,” she added.
Storybook trail
Smith thanked everyone who contributed to the “Follow the Plot” Canada Healthy Communities Initiative this past summer, particularly those who dug post holes, filled post holes, measured the holes and offered coffee during the work.
This project saw contractors manufacture 200 metal and Plexiglass trail stands, which were then delivered to eight locations and installed. Pages from books were attached to each stand, while readers could follow a path from page to page.
PRL completed 55 book sets with accompanying at-home activities, while the eight locations are turning over titles monthly until early December. Meanwhile, another nine locations are being added to the project.
“Our staff reports that the communities are enjoying the reads, the fresh air and the ‘do at home activities’ provided through QR codes,” said Smith.
Staff are already planning programs for Remembrance Day, graduations and summer reading field trips. In particular, over 100 homeschoolers in Moose Jaw and classes from Central Butte have walked the Tugaske trail.
Palliser is also partnering with the South West District Culture Recreation and Sports to receive an extra $500 per year to supplement the storybook trail collection without having to apply for a micro-grant annually.
Summer reading club
Over the summer, 465 readers participated in the summer reading club and read 339,084 minutes. Furthermore, 3,991 children up to age 11 attended 168 programs during those months, while a total of 5,493 people participated in 371 programs.
Library2Go
As of Oct. 31, patrons province-wide had borrowed 1,371,028 e-books and audiobooks through the Libby/Library2Go/Overdrive platforms, Smith reported.
Of that number, Palliser patrons borrowed 59,910 e-titles from Libby, while they borrowed or renewed 271,788 physical materials such as books or DVDs.
Meanwhile, out-of-region patrons borrowed 69,967 titles from Palliser, while Palliser patrons borrowed 38,069 from elsewhere.
Based on all the borrowing PRL patrons did, they saved $4,604,095 in actual book-buying costs.
“It’s a pretty good savings,” added Smith. “We’re nowhere near in spending that.”
