Library volunteer calls minister's request to keep book transfer program with less money hypocritical

Saskatchewan Education Minister Don Morgan has no right to demand libraries continue the library-to-library loan program in the wake of funding cuts to provincial libraries, according to one rural library volunteer.

Librariesacrossthe province announced Tuesdaythat the service, where anyone with a library card can request and return books to any library in Saskatchewan, will not continue given the new budget constraints.

• Don't shut down library-to-library loans, urges minister despite funding cuts

"How does he think these books are going to move around? Fairy dust?" saidChristineFreethy. "Who is going to pack them? Who's going to manage the computer system that does it all? You can't say we're going to have something youde-funded."

Freethylives in Rabbit Lake, Sask., andalong with her family, she uses the library-to-library loan system regularly.

She was dismayed by Morgan's comments earlier this week that libraries keep the loan system even while facing massive cuts.

"The funding to make it work was removed by this government. They cannot expect for it to continue. It's the definition of insanity,"Freethysaid.

Loan program important to rural communities

On Tuesday, Morgan said the provincial government had"alarge investment" in the"One Province, One LibraryCard" system.

He urged regional libraries to restructure themselves in order to maintain the service, but hedid not commit more money to keep the program going.

Freethysaid that is hypocritical.

She said the program is especially important for rural Saskatchewan.

• Laid-off library workers speak out about budget cuts
• Library manager 'debunking' province's budget cut defence

"It will greatly diminish the resources available to people. It's basically destroying a system that took years to build and is recognized all over as being the gold standard in library services,"Freethysaid.

On Wednesday, Morgan doubled down, saying libraries should find more effective ways to get books from one library to another and that they should keep the program.

"They ought to look at every option to keep it. And they ought to look at efficiencies and economies," he said.

The total $4.8-million cutto libraries included $1.3 million for the Saskatoon and Regina library systems.

STC shutdown would have affected library loans

Besides the $4.8-million cut to provincial libraries, the province also shuttered the Saskatchewan Transportation Company, which libraries from across the province usedto ship books from one region to another.

• 'It's going to be quite a nightmare': Passengers outraged by STC closure

But according to Cheryl Bauer-Hyde, the chairperson of WapitiRegional Library,STC's pending closure was not the main reason the province's libraries were forced to stop lendingeach other books.

"The cutting of STC has an impact," said Bauer-Hyde. "But the larger impact was the budget."

Carol Cooley,the CEO of Saskatoon Public Library, agreed, saying that her library used STC to ship books to and from the city, but that it used a variety of other methods to ship from branch to branch.