Recently, the Sylvan Lake Municipal Library staff presented the 2025 budget to the Town of Sylvan Lake.
While there are not many big changes to the budget, the library, which is part of the Parkland Regional Library System, is asking for a two per cent increase from last year.
"$9,062 over last year's requisition," library director Haley Amendt said.
Another change in the coming year brought up in the budget presentation is that the library wants to make membership fees free.
"We are trying to make membership fees free so that will be a loss of revenue for the library," Amendt said.
"However, we are seeing an increase in revenue in printing and donations. With the growth in users, we can cover the offset of losing membership fees," she added.
With free memberships that will remove a barrier from the library.
"Our programs, our computers, and all of that stuff is primarily free but taking home any of our collection stuff does require a membership so we just want to make sure we can have as many people who want to have access, access to that," Amendt said.
The library staff during the budget presentation also shared a variety of highlights with council including:
- the library has circulated 59,903 items
- 3,213 children attended programs
- 91 teens attended programs
- 1,585 adults attended programs
- 1,270 people attended all-age programs
- 3,564 people attended outreach programs
- the printer was used 31,816 times
- the computers were used 14,147 times
- the library has partnered with 20 organizations for 100 different events
- over $9,000 was raised in cash donations for the Little Free Pantry
Another thing that has changed with this year's budget is that this year there are a couple of capital expenses the library has to cover.
"Every five years libraries are required to have a strategic plan otherwise known as a plan of service done up," Amendt said.
The strategic plan analyzes the needs of the community and puts into paper where and how the library is planning to grow to fit those needs.
"This coming year is our assessment year so we will be engaging the community in various avenues including through surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one communication. We will also be hiring a consultant to help us through the assessment process," Amendt said.
Consultation for the strategic plan will be starting in the new year.
"We want to hear from community members over the next year what they want from their library, what the community needs are, and how the library can help support them," Amendt said.
For more information on what is happening at the Sylvan Lake Library, individuals can check out the library's Facebook page and website, prl.ab.ca/SylvanLake.
