Members of the Lawrencetown village commission realize it’s an ambitious project, but the community has the volunteers and talent needed to operate an independent library.
Vice-chairperson Jane Baskwill said that when commissioners first saw a report from the Annapolis Valley Regional Library (AVRL) board in January requesting increased funding from municipalities to avoid potential closures, they noted the Dr. Frank W. Morse Memorial Library in Lawrencetown had the lowest circulation rate of the 11 regional library branches.
Baskwill said they realized if this metric were to be used to determine which branches would remain open, they would have a difficult time increasing circulation given their hours of operation as a regional library branch and a general lack of programming being offered.
The commission didn’t want to see the library close and started exploring the possibility of operating it independently.
“We felt a responsibility to the Morse family that bequeathed it to us to look after it in the way it was meant to be, which was a library,” Baskwill said.
Over the winter and into the spring, they put together a possible governance structure, considered policies, and determined how many volunteers they would need.
Baskwill said they “were ready to scrap it all if suddenly we were part of a functioning library, a library we could see ourselves taking part in again and not just be a storehouse for books.”
By the time the regional library announced in early June that five branches would close, including Lawrencetown, the commission had already done a lot of research and decided to operate the library independently.
Even though the Annapolis Valley Regional Library board granted a temporary reprieve for the branches that were set to close on July 20, this didn’t change the commission’s decision. Baskwill said they didn’t want to have hopes dashed again if it turns out that additional municipal and provincial funding can’t be secured.
Annapolis Valley Regional Library CEO Julia Merritt confirmed that July 18 was the last day of operations for the Lawrencetown library as a regional library branch.
“The AVRL wishes to extend its heartfelt thanks to the residents of Lawrencetown and area who have been library members and supported the AVRL during this challenging time,” Merritt said in an Aug. 11 email.
“While AVRL isn’t providing service in Lawrencetown, we look forward to seeing you at one of the other branches.”
The Lawrencetown library is closed to the public as it transitions to independent operations. A specific date for its reopening has yet to be determined, but Baskwill said they hope it will be sometime this fall.
Baskwill, who is an author and literacy educator, said perhaps the most important aspect of a library is getting people into the library to use it. They’ll be working to build a more diversified group of library users in terms of age, interests, and backgrounds, partially by focusing on new programming and special events.
“We’re looking forward to being able to explore some of those possibilities, and people have some amazing ideas, so we’ll see what comes of that,” she said.
Baskwill said there is a definite sense of excitement among members of the village commission when it comes to the project, and community members have expressed a great deal of support.
She said the village has a history of providing for itself when the community needs something it isn’t getting from another level of government.
Examples include the Lawrencetown Community Development Co-operative broadband wireless internet and VoIP phone services, the community health clinic with two doctors, and the village water commission.
Volunteer effort
She said much of what the village has accomplished has been through volunteer efforts, so they decided to take a similar approach to operating the library. It will be run completely by volunteers.
An information session was held a few weeks ago that was attended by about 65 people and resulted in 23 coming on board as volunteers. Baskwill said they’re currently reaching out to them to find out the capacity in which they’d like to volunteer and how much time they’re able to commit.
She said the village has the talent, and people have been stepping up and offering help in a variety of ways. They plan to have two volunteer hosts at the library at any given time.
Baskwill said this isn’t a great departure from the past, as Lawrencetown used to have a library that was fully operated by volunteers before joining the regional library network.
Even after joining the regional library, there were still many volunteers helping a paid employee. However, she said the involvement of volunteers “came to an abrupt halt” a few years ago.
Baskwill said that as things change to modernize and become part of a larger regional system, it sometimes seems the bigger the system gets, the more it loses sight of what individual communities need or want.
“We wanted more community interaction with the programming and the events that took place,” she said.
They investigated how other independent libraries operate. She said they’ve had a lot of help from the Canning Library, which operates independently, in terms of having questions answered.
They made several trips to Canning to see how it works and attended the library’s annual general meeting. Baskwill said the people at the Canning library have been “amazing” in terms of sharing lessons learned through more than 30 years of practical experience.
“We also learned about the system for cataloging books and for signing books in and out, and that it’s made for small, independent libraries,” Baskwill said.
They were provided tutorials on the subscription-based online library management and cataloging systems, which are called TinyCat and LibraryThing. This is how the Lawrencetown library will manage its collection of books and resource materials.
Patrons will be able to view what the Lawrencetown library has in its collection online and do searches but will have to visit the library in person to borrow books because there won’t be a delivery system.
Building a collection
Merritt said regional library assets were removed from the Lawrencetown library in the days following July 20, as requested by the village.
Baskwill said that when Lawrencetown was part of the Annapolis Valley Regional Library, there were about 5,000 books on the shelves with room for more. Their goal is to build a collection of about the same number of titles for the independent library.
Baskwill said Canning is in the process of culling out some of its duplicate titles and books that haven’t been borrowed very often and has donated several boxes to Lawrencetown to help start their collection.
A Tremont resident, who worked as a chef and was moving to British Columbia, has donated four boxes, including many cookbooks and philosophy books.
Baskwill said that although they’ve already received several donations, when volunteers are ready to start cataloging them, Lawrencetown will be putting out a call to the public for books. Until then, they’re asking people to hang on to their donations.
She said the village will be providing five computers for library users who need internet access.
Baskwill said they plan to have a section dedicated to local history, although what that will include and what it will look like depends largely on what is donated by individuals or institutions in the community. Many people have said they have journals, records, or other documents and artifacts they’d be willing to provide.
Baskwill said whether library users notice a big difference between the Lawrencetown library as a regional library branch or an independent library would depend on what services they’re looking for.
For example, people who are used to using the regional library system to put a hold on a book online and dropping in to the library to pick it up when it arrives will notice a difference. Another difference is that the Lawrencetown library won’t have subscriptions to various magazines or publications.
The Lawrencetown library has a meeting room that has been used by many community groups in the past that will still be available after the transition to independent operations, and they still plan to have activities such as story time for children.
Baskill points out that people in the Lawrencetown area can still use regional library services if they’re willing to travel to Bridgetown or Kingston.
She said the village hasn’t ruled out operating in some sort of partnership or in other co-operative ways with the Annapolis Valley Regional Library in the future, such as having the Lawrencetown library serve as a place where regional library resources could be dropped off and picked up.
When asked if there is potential for future regional library partnerships with the Lawrencetown library, Merritt said it’s too early to say. The regional library needs to confirm sustainable funding before expanding partnerships.
Funding operations
Even though the County of Annapolis contributes financially to regional library operations, the Village of Lawrencetown has been providing the building, furnishings, and covering overhead costs.
Baskwill said the village budget for this is about $6,000 a year, and they don’t foresee any significant increases if it’s run by volunteers moving ahead. They’ll also be looking for other funding sources, such as grants, wherever they can find them.
The library will be applying for charitable status to help access funding from various foundations, and so they can issue charitable tax receipts for donations.
Regional library funding
Four Annapolis Valley Regional Library branches that were set to close as of July 20, including Hantsport, Kentville, Middleton, and Port Williams, were granted a temporary reprieve by the library board.
At a special meeting in Wolfville on July 13, the board voted to use reserve funds to keep the four branches open until Sept. 30. The board also voted to go back to the eight partner municipalities to ask them to provide the full increased budget amount requested earlier this year.
If all eight municipalities agree to provide the full amount, all remaining regional library branches could remain open until March 31, 2027. Only three partners, Kentville, Annapolis Royal, and West Hants, initially provided the full amount requested.
Merrit said that as of the end of July, Middleton has also contributed the full amount requested, while the County of Annapolis has confirmed it’s maintaining its previous commitment, 26 per cent of the ask.
Kings County, Berwick, and Wolfville councils are taking a break in August but will address the regional library’s request in September.
When asked if there has been any change in position by the provincial government in terms of a new, sustainable regional library funding formula, Merritt said the Council of Regional Librarians has not received any new information as of Aug. 11.
Source: Annapolis Valley Register