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The Provincial Structure for Public Libraries
- Provincial Library is part of Municipal Affairs and
Housing. Its role is to coordinate the province-wide
public library system, as well as to encourage cooperation
and resource sharing among all types of libraries throughout
the province.
- As a result of The Public Libraries Act, 1996,
all municipalities in Saskatchewan must participate
in the public library system. This does not include
First Nations.
- Seven regional library systems deliver library services
in southern Saskatchewan. Each library system has a
regional board, made up of at least one representative
from each municipality. This board elects an executive
committee, whose responsibilities include managing the
annual budget, policy development, ensuring the delivery
of public library services in the region, and hiring
the regional librarian.
- The services provided by the regional libraries include:
payments for branch staff, purchasing, cataloging, and
circulating library materials (e.g. book block rotation,
reference and interlibrary loan services), coordination
of resource sharing activities, library automation,
and policy development.
- Regina and Saskatoon are classified as municipal
libraries, and have their own systems to deliver library
services to the two largest urban centres.
- Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System (PNLS) provides
library services in northern Saskatchewan. PNLS is a
federation of public, school, special and post-secondary
education libraries. Funding is provided for northern
community public libraries.
- The services provided by PNLS are slightly different
than those provided by the regional libraries in the
south. PNLS provides a teacher's resource collection
and operates a Books by Mail program. PNLS does not
rotate book blocks, purchase or catalogue materials
for the member libraries, or maintain a centralized
library automation system. Member library are autonomous
and they pay their own staff, purchase materials, and
most have developed stand-alone library automation systems.
Aboriginal Peoples and the Public Library System
- Under The Public Libraries Act, 1996 First
Nations are able to negotiate an agreement with the
regional library in their area to receive public library
services, in exchange for a fee. Prior to 1996, participation
was not required of municipalities, and First Nations
were treated like other participating municipalities.
- Currently, 19 of 57 First Nations in the south, participate
in the public library system. Residents of non-participating
First Nations pay a fee to use the public library system.
- Off-reserve Aboriginal peoples receive public library
services, free of charge, but public libraries tend
not to attract Aboriginal people relative to their proportion
of the population.
- In northern Saskatchewan, the mandate of the Pahkisimon
Nuye?áh Library System includes serving First Nations.
- Throughout the province, First Nations public libraries
are typically located within the school, and act both
as public and school libraries.
- In addition to public library services, there are
other educational institutions offering library services
for Aboriginal peoples, including the Saskatchewan Indian
Cultural Centre (SICC), which is affiliated with the
Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), Gabriel
Dumont Institute (GDI) and the Saskatchewan Indian Federated
College (SIFC).
Funding for Library Services for Aboriginal Peoples
- Grants are provided to regional libraries, based
in part on population. The current provincial grant
pool for regional libraries does not encourage the regions
to actively seek to increase the number of First Nations
participating in their region, because there is no method
of increasing the pool to reflect the increased population.
Population growth in one region, due to the joining
of a First Nation, will result in an increase in that
regional library's grant, but it will be at the expense
of other regions.
- In the southern part of the province, First Nations
negotiate an agreement for services from the regional
library and pay a fee. Each regional library uses a
slightly different system to determine the fee for a
First Nation to participate. In Wapiti (based out of
Prince Albert), there is a general per capita fee to
belong to the public library system and other services,
including an on-reserve library, results in additional
cost.
- In the north, Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System headquarters
receives $419,000 a year to operate its headquarters,
and has not had an increase since its inception in 1990.
Apart from this grant for headquarters, all northern
community public libraries receive a maximum matching
grant of $15,000; this amount has not increased since
1985. The total matching grant pool is currently $210,000.
Some communities invest well over the $15,000 match,
while other communities do not reach that among in local
contributions so they receive a matching grant to the
amount they contribute. Dual-purpose libraries (school
and public) are allowed to use up to $7,500 of school
expenditures as their match.
Initiatives for Library Services for Aboriginal Peoples
- A Minister's Advisory Committee on Library Services
for Aboriginal People was established in 2001 to look
into the issues surrounding library services for Aboriginal
peoples in the province and to make recommendations
to the Minister. Ten of the 15 committee members are
of Aboriginal ancestry. The members represent a number
of Aboriginal organizations, such as the Federation
of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), the Gabriel Dumont
Institute (GDI), and the Saskatchewan Indian Federated
College (SIFC), as well as various libraries and library
systems, including Albert Library, the Saskatchewan
Indian Cultural Centre (SICC), PNLS, and two of the
seven southern regional libraries.
- In 1992, a Library Services for Saskatchewan Aboriginal
Peoples Committee, composed of representatives from
school public, special, and post-secondary education
libraries, was established. It continues to work to
promote and improve Aboriginal library services within
the province.
- A model library for service for Aboriginal peoples
is the Albert Library, a branch of the Regina Public
Library. It serves an inner city community with many
Aboriginal residents. It has the largest Aboriginal
collection of the Regina Public Library, Aboriginal
staff, Aboriginal art work on the walls (the final projects
of the Fine Arts graduates through the Saskatchewan
Indian Federated College at the University of Regina,
and offers culturally based programming. There is a
computer lab for public use, and the library requires
the young people to take a 10-minute lesson to improve
computer literacy before they are able to use the computer
freely.
- The public library in Turtleford, near the Thunderchild
First Nation, in the western part of the province is
a best practice rural library working with a First Nation
to provide quality library services. Thunderchild participates
in the Lakeland Regional Library.
- Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System offers many services
and programs for Aboriginal peoples. Their annual report
is written in English, Cree and Dene; they have a significant
collection of First Nations and northern materials and
a northern photograph collection. Their programming
has a strong Aboriginal flavour, including initiatives
such as Aboriginal storytellers who visit all the public
libraries in the north, and their summer and winter
reading programs.
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