Your Library Provides so much more than Books

Your Library Provides so much more than Books

The library has played a vital role in the community, and continues to do so by increasing the number of programs, resources, and materials they have to offer Vegreville and area residents.

Donna Williams, Manager of Vegreville Centennial Library, said they have a variety of in-house programs and have developed a lot of partnerships with other organizations over the years. The library also delivers programs throughout the community.

Donna Williams, Manager of the Vegreville Centennial Library, is excited about its 100th anniversary and special initiatives that will happen in 2020.

(Rosanne Fortier/photo)

“We go over to St. Martin’s School and deliver a weekly program. On a monthly basis we deliver a program at the Vegreville Community Daycare. Groups from A.L. Horton School come to the library for programs twice a week. We also have a variety of other programs we offer after school and during the evening at the library. The vast majority of the programs we offer are children’s programs. There are a couple of clubs for adults that take place in the library but we don’t run them, we just support them. We are open to providing more programs for adults. If anyone is interested in having a program, please approach us and we will try to develop a program.

As well as the physical collection of over 50,000 materials at the library; we also have through TRAC- ‘The Regional Automation Consortium’ and the provincial borrowing network, access to over three million books, audio books, DVDs, CDs, and video games. We have some fabulous e-resources which include everything from the ability to be able to access e-books, e-audio books, e-comic books, newspapers from around the world, learning resources, consumer reports, DIY (Do It Yourself) resources and magazines, as well as, movies, music, and TV shows. There is Solaro, an amazing e-resource that offers online study help and exam preparation site that covers Grades 3-12, and is based on the Alberta Curriculum. In it, they have practice quizzes, practice exams, and lessons. Students who access this said it decreased exam anxiety a lot,” Williams explained.

“This year marks the Library’s 100th Anniversary so we are really trying to focus on letting people know the value of their library and what resources are available with their membership. Every month, we will focus on a different decade going backwards to 1920. January is the 2010s. One of the things we had in 2010 that we didn’t have in other decades was the e-resources and the technology. Every Thursday will be Tech Thursday and people can come in with their device and we will help them access our e-resources. Every month we will be doing a Crafting through the Century which is a crafting program and each month will have a craft related to the decade we’re focusing on.

As a special gift for our anniversary if a person purchases their membership during a month, we will do a draw at the end of month and two people will have an extra year added to their membership. The library currently has 2,156 patrons. A yearly membership is $20 for adults, $10 for seniors, and no charge for kids under the age of 18 years.

Library funding comes from a variety of sources; we receive funding from our municipalities (Town of Vegreville and the County of Minburn), the Province of Alberta, and funding from our own sources and fundraising. There isn’t a set per capita rate for municipalities; but the province does have a set rate. The Town of Vegreville pays a levy to Northern Lights Library System (NLLS) and Vegreville Centennial Library pays the same levy which is $31,489. The County of Minburn also pays a yearly levy to belong to NLLS.

“If we weren’t a member of NLLS our patrons would only have access to the materials in our physical collection. They wouldn’t have access to materials from across the province or the e-resources. We also wouldn’t have the buying power that we have because a lot of the purchases we make are through NLLS so we get a bigger discount.

“If anyone has questions about the programs and services we offer, feel free to stop in, e-mail us or send us a message through Facebook,” Williams added.