Building community partnerships is an important activity for all non-profit organizations, and the library has worked hard in developing closer relationships with Creston Valley Early Years, Lower Kootenay Band, Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy, Teen Action Committee, Creston Valley Food Action Coalition and many other local organizations. These partnerships help save taxpayer dollars, as well as ensure that we are meeting community needs as fully and efficiently as possible.
In addition to local partnerships, the library works closely with a number of provincial and regional bodies. Perhaps the most important of these are the Kootenay Library Federation and the BC Libraries Cooperative.
Unlike libraries in the Okanagan or Vancouver Island, Kootenay libraries are independent of each other, with our own boards of directors, funding bases and service models. The Kootenay Library Federation works with its twenty member libraries to coordinate a range of joint services and programs that enhance our local services and save us money.
A few examples include Kootenay Connect, which provides Creston patrons with easy access to Kootenay-wide library collections, shared database subscriptions and consortia purchasing of library supplies. The KLF also provides support for author tours, including the much-anticipated presentation by longtime BC Almanac host Mark Forsythe on April 18, and children’s performers, such as the upcoming concert by renowned educator and performer Kathy Reid-Naiman scheduled for April 15.
The federation model allows member libraries to be responsive to local conditions and needs, while also receiving many of the advantages that regional and urban libraries obtain through their larger economies of scale.
The BC Libraries Cooperative is a provincial non-profit organization that manages Sitka-Evergreen, the very complex piece of software that libraries use to store the library catalogue and patron records. Because this software is shared by over 60 B.C. public libraries, it enables a wide range of resource sharing opportunities, including shared cataloguing, interlibrary loans, consortia purchasing and more.
Creston is currently one of seven B.C. libraries participating in a “shelf-ready” pilot project co-ordinated by the co-op and enabled by Sitka by which materials we order through specific vendors arrive already processed and catalogued. Down the road, this could result in millions of dollars in savings for B.C. libraries by reducing duplicated services across the province. In addition, reducing the processing and cataloguing work on our end allows us to get the latest acquisitions out to our patrons faster than ever.
The co-op also negotiates better deals with book and database vendors on our behalf, and acts as a strong advocate for B.C. public libraries in the provincial political arena.
I believe that working together is the key to building stronger communities both locally and in the wider sphere. Do you have ideas on how the library can do more to support the community and build community partnerships? I would love to hear them!
Last but not least, the Creston Public Library Association annual general meeting will be held at 7 p.m. April 8 in the library meeting room. All library members are welcome to attend. And this Saturday, March 21, come by for the grand opening of our new and improved children’s area, with special appearances by storybook characters (courtesy of Footlighters Theatre Society) and free refreshments (thanks to Telus).
Aaron Francis is the chief librarian at Creston Valley Public Library. He is currently reading Beneath The Darkening Sky by Majok Tulba.
