The Bonnyville Municipal Library is a popular destination for patrons.
Representatives from the Northern Lights Library System (NLLS) made a presentation to Town of Bonnyville council on June 25, outlining where the town’s just over $65,000 contribution goes for programs and services that have users coming from all over to utilize.
”Bonnyville is actually a very well serviced area,” explained Julie Walker, executive director for NLLS.
According to Walker, patrons come in from communities as far as Lloydminster, Sherwood Park, Frog Lake First Nations, Calgary, and the County of St. Paul.
”It’s a very well used library, and it’s a very interesting fact that there’s actually more county patrons registered at the Bonnyville library than there are from the actual town itself,” she explained.
The town’s levy payment is set at $5.07 per capita based on a population of 6,422 that was recorded in 2016.
The libraries in Cold Lake and Bonnyville receive a rural services grant from the MD of Bonnyville that NLLS divides between them, with the town’s contribution coming in at around $17,500.
While all of the funds originally went to the local libraries in 2018, there’s going to be a slight change this year.
”We will be taking one per cent of that for administrative services, simply because the MD of Bonnyville folded their library board and we now have to deal with that extra expense of distributing those funds,” explained Walker.
In order to cut down on costs, NLLS has Shared TRAC Services, which gives patrons access to over 3.6-million books. Programs such as OverDrive, Novelist, and Cloud Library Platform are included.
According to NLLS, patrons at the Bonnyville library checked out over 4,400 OverDrive pieces, such as audiobooks, in 2018.
”The average cost of these items are $45 per item. That was a total savings of around $202,000, which is how much you would pay if Bonnyville were on their own,” noted Walker.
Since the Bonnyville library is a busier location, there are van deliveries to bring resources twice a week. The town’s share of this comes in at just over $5,300, which covers mileage and the 50 trips made per year.
A portion of the municipal levy goes back into the library to purchase new materials. Bonnyville pays just over $13,800 for this service.
New books are processed by NLLS at their headquarters in St. Paul.
”It gets barcoded, lamented, tagged, and we make sure that by the time it comes to the library, it’s shelf-ready, so all they have to do is check it in, and put it on the shelves,” Walker said.
The town has around $23,700 going to NLLS for this portion.
Public services for Bonnyville is just over $15,400, which allows the library access to email and telephone consultation, training by professional librarians, access to headquarter’s collection of materials and programming, along with workshops and training sessions designed for library needs.
The fee for IT services include HelpDesk Support, troubleshooting, installations, and upgrades and maintenance of servers.
The administration costs to maintain the facility, insurance, the purchasing of office supplies, vehicle expenses, and memberships comes in at just over $17,300 for the town.
NLLS estimates a total value of $138,000 for services offered to Bonnyville.
Mayor Gene Sobolewski believes the municipality is getting the most out of the levy.
”Particularly with the popularity of the library. When we were talking about moving the library to the C2 and that whole issue came up, there was some very passionate people. It tells me there’s interested patrons, and they’re in tune with what things are happening and we need to basically continue on with what we’re doing.”
