No matter what you think of Coldplay, this is a pretty cool idea that might promote libraries to some folks who otherwise wouldn’t come through our doors (although as one librarian quipped, “I hope they make a donation to help cover the costs of a bunch of crazed fans ripping the stacks apart!”)
The number of people with library cards has climbed about 40 per cent during the past year, after the cards that used to cost $12 annually were handed out for free. About 163,000 Edmontonians had library cards a year ago, and that has now jumped to 228,000 people, the EPL numbers says.
I’m not completely plugged in to what’s happening in every public library in the the rest of the country but a lot of stuff emanating out of EPL (the article mentions a contest for a free trip to Iceland if you sign up for a card for example) makes me think that they’re, if not the top, one of the top public library systems in Canada right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lnk1Q87fr0
At the same time, the decision to remove user fees is a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned. Yes, the library will forego $700,000 in revenue but kudos to EPL board and management for doing the right thing for their citizens and maximum accessibility rather than focusing only on the numbers at the bottom of their balance sheet.
That’s what great public library service is all about!
Sasha decided to grab hold of the egg carton in our shopping cart the other day and dump a few of them on the grocery store’s floor.
Conveniently, Shea was in another aisle while I was with Pace who said “Let’s get out of here!” and pretty much took off running. (He also felt incredibly guilty about the broken eggs and thought his sister was going to get in trouble.)
Meanwhile, an old couple who happened to be walking by stopped to have a chuckle and help scoop the eggs out of our shopping cart. This was both embarrassing, kind, and somewhat scary since I kept thinking the old guy was going to crack an egg over our groceries – something we’d avoided since most of the eggs in the carton Sasha tipped landed on the two loaves of bread we also had in the cart and/or on the ground.
