Her final point is the most relevant and one that I’ve wondered myself – even if a government misunderstood the value of modern public libraries and/or misread the public’s love of libraries (the “Save Sask Libraries” group on Facebook recently surpassed 7000 members!), why would they proceed with these cuts at great harm to, not just the province but also to themselves and their chances to maintain power in the future?
The good news is I suspect that we’re going to see some effort at damage control from the Saskatchewan government, restoring that $3.5 million library funding, at least in part, in the near future.
Not because it’s the right thing to do, mind you.
No, rather because in no world does it make any sense for a political party to continue to inflict this kind of damage on itself over $3.5 million.
First, you lose the hospital.
The grain elevators close and are replaced by an inland terminal in a bigger town down the line.
You used to have a handful of churches and soon you’re down to two or one or maybe even none.
The local school closes and the kids get bussed to the next down over.
Over time, you start to lose the handful of small businesses that exist – maybe a Co-op gas station, a coffee shop that serves homemade Saskatoon pie, a branch of the regional Credit Union.
No matter what, there are three things remaining that still let you know you exist.
There’s a rink – probably a combination curling/hockey rink. (Unless it burns down, it’ll never close.)
There’s a hotel. (Well, a hotel that no one ever stays at but it has a bar that does a brisk business.)
And there’s a small public library, only open a few hours a week but that also opens your life in a small town or village to the entire world.
Now, it’s not a new debate to discuss whether Saskatchewan has too many tiny towns and villages and whether we should be moving towards a dozen or so “regional service centres” for different areas of the province.
There are lots of reasons, officially and unofficially, being discussed for why the government decided to cut rural libraries so severely (which probably deserves its own blog post someday.)
And who knows? In a province where the number of family farms has fallen significantly, where there’s already a constant stream of people leaving smaller centres for bigger ones, and where we don’t have the people *or* the money to support hundreds of smaller villages and towns, maybe this move, on some level, was meant to hasten the end of many of the province’s smallest towns and villages that are still “hanging on”?
I mean, that’s pure speculation on my part but, as I’ve said before, wouldn’t there be a huge irony if the Sask Party, with their stated desire to modernize the province but also with a strong base in rural Saskatchewan, ended up making moves like the cutting of libraries and STC that end up hastening that process?
Anyhow, time will tell what will happen.
But I do know that if small towns lose their libraries, as is looking likely, the only thing left to draw people to many small towns will be a hockey rink and a hotel bar. Maybe that’s all you need for some people but for most, it’s another nail in the coffin of rural Saskatchewan.
As a slight break from non-stop “Save the Library” posts lately, let’s just take a moment to appreciate the incredible crassness of this grocery store Easter display (which I saw on Reddit and I think is from somewhere in the US.)
I recently came across this picture I took at one of my branch libraries soon after I started working as Branch Supervisor for Southeast Regional Library in 2007.
Like the communities where they’re located, many rural libraries are often relatively “conservative” in the dictionary (as opposed to the more loaded political) sense of the word – they’re authentic, cautious, practical, fiscally responsible — a traditional institution that’s inherent to social stability.
That’s why the cuts to libraries, so disproportionately affecting rural libraries, that are being imposed by a rural-based, conservative political party are such a head scratcher for me.
I mean, this photo alone has so much that defines rural Saskatchewan in my mind – the tablecloth (probably handsewn by a local volunteer), the flower print folding card table, the bunny ornament (lent by a local library board member?) and the daffodils, perhaps picked right from the branch librarian’s flower bed in the spring? (These are all things that simply don’t happen in city libraries. If flowers show up at my branch, they’re usually from the flower shop in our strip mall!) 😉
Another thing to note about this photo – these are pretty much all some older, worn books – the only kind that many less-well-resourced rural libraries had access to before the Sask Party funded the “One Card, One Library” model in 2007 and likely the same type of books that rural library patrons will only have access to once again as the province-wide system is dismantled – should those small libraries continue to exist at all.
So, to make an Easter analogy – here’s hoping that our rural libraries can be resurrected during this holy time celebrating renewal and rebirth.
I can’t remember if my boss had told me to do this or if I chose to do it to get more “natural” response but I didn’t identify myself as a library employee when I wrote to the three major parties at the time (not sure why I didn’t bother writing the Greens but did write the Liberals.)
Anyhow, here’s what the Sask Party, who were on the verge of being elected to government for the first time ever, said at the time (which was also, by far, the most professional *and* substantive reply):
November 2, 2007
Mr. Jason Hammond
jason@hammond.net
Dear Mr. Hammond:
On behalf of Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall, thank you for your recent e-mail. Mr. Wall is busy campaigning and has asked me to respond to you on his behalf.
Public libraries in Saskatchewan provide a vital service for many people in our communities. We believe it is very important to support Saskatchewan’s public libraries.
If we are fortunate enough to form government on November 7th, we will continue to fund public libraries in Saskatchewan. A Saskatchewan Party government will work the libraries to ensure they have sufficient resources.
Once again, thank you for your e-mail and interest in the Saskatchewan Party.
(As a general rule, I don’t do disclaimers on my blog. But given the fine line that exists between my place of employment and my interest in this issue as a taxpaying citizen – not to mention the fact that I’m someone who grew up in rural Saskatchewan and previously worked for a regional library as well which further complicates the issue, I will start this post by saying the tweets below are my own, were based on what I heard at an open information session this evening and do not represent Regina Public Library in any way. Any errors or mistakes – especially a glaring typo where I inserted the word “thee” into one tweet for some unknown reason – are my own.)
I made a quick video of some of the highlights from the DEARSask protests that happened on Friday. These read-ins saw nearly 6000 people at 85 sites across the province protesting the drastic cuts to the province’s public libraries.
My biggest problem making this video? Way too many pictures to choose from!
So this video includes a pretty random selection of ones I grabbed from my Twitter and Facebook feeds but there are enough other great pics out there that I could probably do a whole other video.
(Hopefully the Sask Party realises that there is a lot of vocal opposition to these cuts right across the province – more than any other issue coming out of their budget – and does the right thing and reverses the cuts so I don’t have to make that other video!) 😉
PS – Feel free to share this video to spread the word!
