How Are We Funded?

One of the questions we are most frequently asked is: If I live in Blue Mountains (or Wasaga or Clearview), can I get a library card at the Collingwood Public Library?

The short answer is: Yes, of course. 

But there is a caveat; you will have to pay for it.

Why?  The reason goes back to how public libraries are funded.   In Ontario, most of the funding for public libraries comes directly from municipal property taxes.  In our case, about 92% of our operating funds come from the Town of Collingwood.  The “free” public library, therefore, isn’t really free.  We all pay for it out of our municipal tax dollars.  It seems reasonable then, under these circumstances, to ask people living outside of the municipality to pay a non-resident membership fee—in our case, $120.00 per year.  This seems like a lot of money until you consider how much a book, even an eBook, costs these days.  Then it seems like a steal.

So if 92% of our funding comes from the municipality, where does the rest of the money come from? It comes from a variety of sources, such as donations, federal and provincial grants, overdue fines, photocopying fees, and room rental fees.

Is it worth the money?  Of course.  The Collingwood Public Library is the busiest municipal building in the Town of Collingwood.  On average, 600 people pass through our doors every day.  Forty-three percent of Collingwood residents have library cards. The library is well-used. 

Do public libraries benefit the local economy? Recently, the Toronto Public Library commissioned an economic impact study to ask just that question.  They concluded that for every dollar invested in the Toronto Public Library, Torontonians received $5.63 in return. (You can read the full report here).  Does Collingwood receive a similar benefit from the presence of its library?  Without a doubt.  But I think that most people support public libraries for more intangible reasons.

eBook Pricing and Public Libraries

As eBooks become more popular with our library patrons, we are constantly being asked when we are going to add more titles to our online digital collection.  The truth is, we would love to add more titles, and we do add new titles every year, but we can only afford to add a small number.  The reason for this is that publishers charge libraries from 2 to 10 times more for eBook titles than they do to individual consumers. For example, you can buy the Kindle version of  Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch on Amazon.ca for $12.99, but the publisher sells it to the library for $114.00.  That's almost nine times more! To try and address this situation, the Collingwood Public Library has joined with other public libraries in Simcoe County to pool our resources.  Each year, we put some money in the kitty and share eBook titles through our PULSE website.  But this can only take us so far.

Fortunately, the Toronto Public Library and the Canadian Library Association have recently spearheaded a campaign to try and get publishers to change their pricing model.  The story has been picked up in the news.  Here is a recent CBC report: CBC: E-book prices marked up too high, libraries protest

If you would like to learn more about the issue, you can also check the information found at Canadian Public Libraries for Fair EBook Pricing.

Collingwood Writers' Collective

Writing is a tough and lonely business.  When I was first hired at the Collingwood Public Library in the summer of 2013, several local writers approached me, hoping that the library would organize some kind of writers' support group.  I called a meeting and twenty-four people showed up. I was flabbergasted. Over the past two years that group has shaken down to about ten or twelve stalwarts, but new people keep joining all of the time.  I had to give the group a name, so I chose The Collingwood Writers' Collective.

Twice a month, on the first and third Tuesdays, we meet in the FreeSchools Room and share what we have been working on.  Each person brings several poems or 1000-1500 words of prose and reads aloud to the group.  We try to provide constructive feedback--tell the writer what is working and perhaps what is not, and try to suggest ways to make it better.  We check our egos at the door.  It's not a writers' workshop, rather a writers' mutual support group.

Having said that, we have brought some instructors to the library. Susan Swan, Karen Hood-Caddy, and Brian Henry have run workshops at the library.  Becoming a published writer, which is the goal for most of us, is becoming easier with self-publishing and eBooks, but earning a living through your writing is becoming more difficult.  A recent survey published by the Writers' Union of Canada showed that the annual income of Canadian writers has decreased by 27% since 1998, and that the average Canadian writer earns $12,879.00 per year (and these are professional writers who belong to the Union).

Still, we have had some successes. Several of our members have published poems and stories in literary magazines, and one, Arlene F. Marks, published her sci-fi novel, The Accidental God, in 2014, and has found a publisher for a second novel, which will be published in 2016.

Arlene reading from her novel at our book launch

--Ken Haigh

A Good Friend Retires

Last week, Gwen Wheeler, a consultant with the Southern Ontario Library Service, retired.  For the past twenty-five years, Gwen has helped to guide us through the often bewildering changes happening in the world of public libraries.  SOLS is a provincially-funded body that provides advice and training for librarians, and several times each year we have gathered with librarians from across the Simcoe/Muskoka Region to share ideas and to participate in workshops under Gwen's leadership.

This past week we looked at examples of how libraries were changing their physical environment to become more relevant in a digital age.  Most librarians expressed discouragement because we are expected to do more, but without any extra funding to add that extra layer of service. We discussed the current trend to streamline collections to free up more floor space for tables and computers, and how some libraries are cutting their collections in half so that they can create room for maker spaces and recording studios.

In the fall, the library board of the Collingwood Public Library will be starting a strategic planning exercise, to consult our community and to see how they would like the library to evolve.  It should prove interesting, but we will miss Gwen's guidance.  Fortunately, we have an new and able consultant in Allyson Fox. Goodbye, Gwen.  We will miss you.

A Community Garden

We launched our community garden on Friday. Michael Burgess, of Vibrant Green Gardens, approached us with the idea of creating a vegetable garden in the downtown core to be shared by local residents. It was a great idea, but we lacked the land to get it started.  We were rescued by our good neighbours, Richard and Anke Lex, who offered us a strip of land across the street from the library beside the old Enterprise-Bulletin building.  Once we had the land, the rest came together remarkably quickly. Bill Brown’s Woodworking and Building Supplies offered us free lumber to make raised planters, Canadian Tire donated plants and seeds, and the Town of Collingwood’s Parks and Recreation Department delivered several loads of topsoil and mulch.  Michael did all of the hard labour, preparing the site, cutting down the shrubs, grubbing up the roots with a pick-axe, and building the garden boxes.  Some adult volunteers helped to fill the boxes with topsoil and rake out the mulch.  Then on Friday afternoon, a group of volunteers of all ages arrived to plant the beds. Jocelyn Knoester, our teen services librarian, and her teen gardening crew will provide the weekly weeding and watering.  In the fall, we hope to use the vegetables we’ve raised in our own Food at Four program (feeding disadvantaged teens), and the surplus will be donated to the Food Bank. Thanks again to all of the wonderful people who shared our vision of a community garden.