Head Tale

Vote Jim Holmes, executive member of the Friends of the RPL, for mayor of Regina.  A friend of mine in Regina has been doing a great job of tracking some of the improprieties of current mayor, Pat Fiasco Fiacco on the “Politics 'n' Poetry” blog (and yes, those two things do go together and should go together more often!)

Speaking of the Friends of the Regina Public Library, their story is a great one.  In April 2004, the Regina Public Library board announced plans to cut three branches (mostly in inner-city locations) as well as the Dunlop Art Gallery and Prairie History Room, both of which were housed in the central library.  The board planned to move from the current nine branches to a model with a central library and four branches in each quadrant of the city, preferably tied to shopping mall locations.  A Friends group sprang up and “In only 85 days, 26,048 Regina citizens signed our petition in support
of increased funding for library services. That's more people than
voted for all ten city councillors combined in the last civic election!” 

The drive was successful and nothing was closed.  How frickin' cool is that?  In our “Public Libraries in the Community” course, we're learning about the importance of friends groups and I think that story brings it home like no other (although our instructor's story of a group of seniors storming a public meeting when a branch that was popular with seniors was threatened is pretty cool too!)