BONNYVILLE – Residents from the Town and MD of Bonnyville aren’t facing a financial barrier when it comes to accessing the local library’s services.
With around $6,500 left over in the library’s budgets as a result of former librarian Ina Smith retiring, the Bonnyville Municipal Library board made the decision to offer free library cards in 2020.
“In the change in leadership, we had some extra money and we thought that it would be a good place to put it in support of the community,” explained library manager Leah Woodford.
According to local library board chair David Sharun, the Bonnyville location was one of the few that was still charging patrons for memberships.
“That’s kind of why we were thinking it would be a great initiative to try to get more people involved, and especially with the economy today… we see a lot of patrons who are using our services in a lot of different ways. We thought this was a wonderful initiative to get more of the community involved in our library,” he expressed, adding town and MD patrons who purchased a membership prior to Jan. 14 can request reimbursement from the library.
For users outside of the town and MD, such as the Village of Glendon, Sharun said it’s business as usual.
“They pay a non-residential fee, we give them a receipt, and then they go back to their municipality and get reimbursed for it.”
The library saw 1,220 active cardholders in 2019, with roughly 550 coming from the MD and 560 from town. Woodford and Sharun said they hope their numbers will see an increase as a result of the free memberships.
“Some people may not have been able to afford it,” Sharun said. “By opening up the library… it will probably entice them more.”
Previously, the cost of a membership for an adult was $12 and a senior was $8. Anyone under the age of 17 was free, and families could purchase a joint account for $25.
Owning a library card users access to everything the local facility has to offer.
“They can utilize the library to the best of their ability, because we have not only books, but we have a variety of online services too,” detailed Woodford. “Even if residents find it difficult to get into the physical library, they can certainly use our virtual library to read our Ebooks and downloadable books and use things like Lynda.com and resume writers. Those are now available to anybody who wants a membership.”
According to Sharun, there is no shortage of those utilizing the library’s programming.
“Every time you go in, there’s a different crowd in there. It doesn’t matter whether you go in there at lunchtime, in the afternoon, or in the evening, it’s a happening place. There’s a lot of people utilizing it, and I believe we provide services for all different gamuts of the industry,” he expressed.
According to Sharun, the library board only voted in favour of implementing the change for this year and will discuss the possibility of continuing it at a future meeting.
For more information, call the library at 780-826-3071.
