The Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) is hoping to see changes in the provincial libraries act.
“Some of the concerns they have are around staffing under rural library systems,” explained general manager of strategic initiatives for Cold Lake Andrew Serba.
He continued, “The main concern is some of the hiring requirements that are required from systems and municipalities with certain population levels, they’re required to hire professional librarians with post-secondary background, and while the regulations may work in areas with a high population density, the RMA’s take is that it’s failing in rural areas where there’s a bit of a conflict between the need to hire professional librarians at a certain level as well as provide services with various access points across a broad area that’s relatively sparsely populated.”
The RMA is also hoping the province will update the population numbers they’re using.
According to Serba, they’re still relying on 2011 statistics.
“Using the more updated ones could help with some of the funding issues,” he noted.
Coun. Vicky Lefebvre, who is also chair of the Northern Lights Library Systems (NLLS) board, confirmed that this is an issue experienced by their region.
She noted, based on their population, there are several libraries within the NLLS that must have librarians with a master’s degree in library science, including the Cold Lake and Bonnyville locations.
“What we’re saying is you don’t need someone with that professional designation to have someone doing the cataloging, but because of the requirements this way, we have to hire those professionals, which costs us more money,” she added.
