The Weyburn Public Library is an extremely busy place, as residents treat it as “an extension of their home”, the board heard from head librarian Dawn Silver at their annual meeting on Thursday night.
Silver was sharing the statistics of how many programs and attendees come to the library, noting on that very evening while the annual meeting was on, three other programs were also being held.
There were a total of 888 programs in 2023, with an attendance of 8,988 people of all ages.
“If you’re finding it harder to get a space at the library, that’s why. It’s incredibly busy,” said Silver. “People are treating it as an extension of their home, and it’s part of their evening. It’s been very gratifying to see this.”
She started her position as head library in November of 2023, so she admitted she hasn’t been there long, but loves what she is seeing so far.
Broken down by age groups, there were 222 adult programs, attended by 1,344 people; 241 children’s programs with an attendance of 1,936; 225 teen programs, attended by 1,326; 69 family programs with an attendance of 1,445; and 131 virtual or passive programs, with an engagement of 2,448.
Silver said the staff are always innovating with new ideas for programming, and they accept suggestions and ideas from the public on what they would like to see offered at the library.
“We’re striving to be community-led, so we’re open to the community to come forward and let us know what programs they would like to see,” she said.
In her report, board chair Laura Morrissette noted there was a large change-over of personnel on the board in 2023, so there has been a learning curve for the new board members.
The semi-annual book sales were both highly successful, she noted, with total revenue of $11,966, which goes towards library programming and materials.
Board chair Laura Morrissette noted that the teen programmer was able to enlist the volunteer efforts of a number of teens for the setting up and taking down of the fall book sale, and many said they'd be back for the upcoming spring book sale in April.
Other revenue sources include the City of Weyburn grant of $24,000 for programming, direct public support of $3,122; fundraising of $11,292; grants of $2,550; room rentals brought in $1,025; and printing and photocopying had a revenue of $10,635, with miscellaneous revenues of $4,776, for a total of $57,402, and total expenses of $44,607, for a net income of $12,795.
Kate-Lee Nolin of the Southeast Regional Library noted the City pays just over $400,000 to the regional library, which helps pay for operations, with about 85 per cent of those funds going to wages.
In the election of officers for 2024, Morrissette was acclaimed as the board chair, with George Barker as the new vice-chair. Susan Atkinson is the treasurer, and the other board members are Brianna Eagan and Laura Martindale.
