As the Annapolis Valley Regional Library (AVRL) prepares to shut down nearly half its branches due to financial pressures, at least one affected community is refusing to let its library die.

The AVRL announced last month it will close five of its 11 locations on July 20: Hantsport, Kentville, Port Williams, Middleton and Lawrencetown.

In Lawrencetown, N.S., local leaders say they are already taking matters into their own hands by preparing to transition to an independent, volunteer-run model.

“From the very beginning, we knew Lawrencetown was one of the five on the chopping block,” said Jane Baskwill, vice-chair of the Lawrencetown Village Commission.

“Like everything else in this village, we don’t tend to wait around. We felt a responsibility as stewards of this facility to keep it going.”

Looking to Canning for a blueprint

To make the leap, Lawrencetown is looking to the community of Canning, N.S., which is about 75 kilometres away and is home to a library that has been independent and volunteer-run since it opened 30 years ago.

Lis van Berkel, co-chair of the Canning Library, said other communities have been reaching out to learn how they operate.

“It is inspiring people, which is neat,” van Berkel said. “I would be tickled if there were more little libraries around the province.”

Housed in a historic building on the banks of the Habitant River, the Canning Library provides book loans, computer access and programming like writers’ workshops and technology seminars.

However, van Berkel warned that independence comes with tight financial constraints. Aside from an annual $5,000 grant from Kings County, the library relies almost entirely on donations, fundraising and volunteers to keep the shelves stocked, the lights on and the doors open. Because of the limited budget, it cannot offer services like audiobooks or CD loans.

“We never really go there, because we can’t develop — like a real library can — those elements,” van Berkel said. “We just don’t have that kind of money.”

‘In most residents’ DNA’

Despite those challenges, going independent could present an option for towns losing their branches.

Baskwill said the Lawrencetown Village Commission has been in contact with Canning to learn about organizing operations, managing volunteers and handling day-to-day logistics.

Lawrencetown already owns and maintains its library building and most of its furnishings, meaning it would only need to source a book collection and computers.

Another change would be moving from paid staff to volunteers, but Baskwill is confident the community will step up. She noted the library was originally volunteer-run when it opened in 1921.

“Having a volunteer library in Lawrencetown is in most residents’ DNA around here,” Baskwill said.

“It’s how the rink is run, it’s how the fire department is run, it’s how the pool is run. And without the community … they certainly wouldn’t be up and running,” she said. “I think that that hasn’t been lost on the residents of Lawrencetown, from the people I speak to.

“Rural communities, that’s how we survive. We survive not by waiting, but by doing.”

For van Berkel, that spirit of stepping up gives her hope for the towns whose libraries are slated for closure.

“I think that’s the best thing about the cuts — which are terrible, I don’t agree with them at all — but that people are thinking, ‘We’re still going to have a library, thank you very much,'” she said.

Baskwill echoed her sentiment.

“I feel that libraries belong to the people. And I feel that the people should have, and could have, a more active role.”

Source: CBC Nova Scotia