Today’s column is a potluck as there are a few different things to mention. First, the Friends of the Library fall book sale is on today (Friday) from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and tomorrow 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. As usual there is a great selection of books at great prices and we have some surplus office chairs and whatnot available as well. Thank you to the Friends for supporting us.
Speaking of beloved traditions, Pecha Kucha Vol. 24 is happening Nov. 30 8:20-10:30 p.m. at the Esplanade. If you haven’t been to one before, Pecha Kucha involves talks from passionate people about interesting things in our community. Boredom is not possible because each speaker gets 20 slides that automatically advance every 20 seconds. There’s a suggested donation of $5, and cash bar and snacks available.
In the last column we asked you to consider volunteering for the library board. Someone was apparently listening because the city received quite a lot of applications. This is wonderful because we will get enthusiastic and skilled board members, but disappointing because not everyone will get to serve. We have 10 board members and this is the maximum under provincial legislation. If you applied and you don’t get on the board, thank you very much for your interest and the offer of your time. We do have other volunteer opportunities at the library and I would love to speak to you (or anyone else) about these.
Between the play space we are putting in the children’s area and the HVAC upgrades that the city is doing to our building, there has been a lot of construction activity in the library this fall. Thank you to the city for maintaining our building and for assisting us with our projects. Apologies to our patrons for the various minor disruptions they have suffered. Everything should be mostly resolved by Christmas and the play space will be opening in January.
We receive a provincial operating grant each year and we of course awaited the October provincial budget with some anxiety. I am happy to report that there were no cuts to public library funding. Both the operating grants which go directly to public libraries and the other support such as electronic content have been preserved. Thank you to the provincial government for recognizing the importance of public library service.
Ken Feser is chief librarian at the Medicine Hat Public Library.
