There are 243 publicly funded libraries in B.C. and over 60 per cent of B.C. residents have a library card.
Most of our funding comes from municipal taxes, but up to 10 per cent of what we receive is provincial.
With the 2009/ 2010 budget, our provincial government cut funding to libraries by 22 per cent, even though usage, since the economic downturn, has increased by more than 20 per cent.
In comparison, Alberta, which is experiencing an even greater economic pinch than B.C., has increased library funding by 39 per cent as of last April.
The service Ask Away is offered through our website. It allows you to ask any question of a reference librarian. It was available 56 hours weekly, the funding for that has been cut.
Libraries are working to see if they can keep it going for some hours per day, but the exact number of hours has still not been worked out.
Our databases, which provide access to such incredibly useful reference materials as World Book, World Book for Kids, (SO handy for school report writing), The Encyclopedia of B.C. and Access Science are being considered for cutting.
The quality of information available through these databases is simply not available through such search engines such as Google.
These resources also ensure that all B.C. residents, including rural and isolated communities, have access to all that larger communities do.
Books for Babies, another government sponsored program, which gave a book and an invitation to join the public library in a reusable book bag to each B.C. newborn's parents has also been suspended.
In this case, our Friends of the Library group have stepped in to contribute to the cost of the books. Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is delivering the books, and the library selects, orders, prepares and delivers the books to VCH.
Also no longer provincially funded are the books for the Inter-school Reading Challenge.
You can make your feelings about these cuts and proposed cuts known to our provincial government by going to our web page, squamish.bclibrary.ca.
Click on B.C. Libraries Change Lives then Share your Story - the first listing under Popular Links on the home page.
Click on Learn More, then How You Can Help. You can either craft your own letter or choose from one of two form letters.
Or you can go to www.stoplibrarycuts.ca.
If we don't speak now, who knows what will be taken from us next?
