But as it turns out, quite to the contrary.
Not only are active user stats up substantially over the previous set of numbers from 2016, the percentage of the population using libraries in the Palliser system has increased. And the provincial government has noticed, with libraries throughout the province receiving a one per cent increase in funding – a boost of $128,000 to $6,018,000 for the entire region.
That’s all very good news, says Palliser Regional Library director Jan Smith, who pointed out that keeping up with the changing times has made the difference.
“People are enjoying the new digital features we have to offer, especially the audio books,” Smith said. “Everybody is using audiobooks these days, which we have no objection to at all. Then people are downloading online and they’re able to get it when they want, where they want, including in the middle of seeding fields. They can just download their next book in the middle of whatever work they’re doing.”
Having that ability is one of the factors that led to an additional 1,997 active users in 2018 to a total of 17,302 patrons. That’s a total of 31.19 per cent of the population Palliser covers, with 67 per cent of that number coming from Moose Jaw itself.
The overall collection size has seen a reduction of 1,616, most of which were seen in fewer adult books on hand across the 20 branches. That number was nearly balanced out by the increase in audio and talking books, DVDs and BluRays, juvenile books and magazine and serials.
“But people also want the books in hand, so you have to be able to balance things,” Smith said. “Even with DVDs, things aren’t falling as much because of people in rural areas, where access to Netflix is spotty at best at times. And it’s getting harder and harder to get DVDs… someday we might even have our own servers, that’s something we’re thinking about.”
That’s part of the entire idea of improving and modernizing as much as possible in the future.
“I see a balance between books, digital services and the library as a community hub,” Smith explained. “A place for people to go, a place for people to use and meet, to sit down and talk, do the book clubs or whatever they’re into. We have one branch where they actually dismantle tractors in the middle of it for programming. So I see a balance of all three in the future of the library.
“We’re constantly looking for more ways we evolve and improve as the years go on.”
