Taking time from their lunch breaks, library users from the Kindersley area gathered in front of Bill Boyd’s office on Friday, April 7.
The attendees read out of library books for the space of about half an hour, quietly objecting to the recent funding cuts to libraries across the province.
“The majority of my teaching materials come through the inter-library system,” said Jeanette Jackson, local home-educator and attendee of the event. “I think this effects homeschoolers more than your average user, and I’m plain horrified when I think of how this will impact my family.”
Last year alone saw over 693,000 holds filled between libraries province-wide, but with the budget cuts coming down the pipe, this service will no longer be available to many rural areas. The Saskatchewan Informational & Library Services’ (SILS) program, featuring the slogan, ‘One Province, One Library Card’ will be forced to end on April 10.
“I read about 5-7 books per week,” exclaimed Tina Bertram, an avid book reader. “I use the online interlibrary loan for practically everything, now I’m not sure what I am going to do.”
Librarians Marilyn Shea and Patricia Bohn were also present at the sit-in and confirmed that there will be some cuts to their current library programs. “We don’t really know the whole extent yet,” explained Shea, noting that story-times and workshops were the most likely to vanish. “We should have more information in May, and once that is in, we should be able to put some plans in place to help us carry on.”
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