Southwestern Regional Library 2018

ANNUAL REPORT

LIBRARY BOARD

Town of Melita Brian Teetaert, Coun- cil Cindy Charles, Citizen Municipality of Two Borders Wayne Serruys, Council Aileen Tucker, Coun- Back: David VanMackelberg , Wayne Serruys, Cindy Charles, Brian Teetaert, cil Shirley Denys Lynda Hammell, Citi- Front: Lynda Hammell, Aileen Tucker, Roberta Brown, Brenda Banks zen Chair—Lynda Hammell Vice-Chair—Brian Teetaert Municipality Brenda Roberta Brown—Secretary Brenda Banks—Bookkeeper Missing : ClaraLea Green who replaced Shirley part of year David VanMackel- berg, Council Shirley Denys, Clara- Lea Green citizen

Banana Days Book Sale during annual Banana Days—9th one!

Melita Pumpkin Decorating—Pumpkins and gourds supplied by Heather Jones and Barry Miller’s pumpkin patch.

Christmas Crafts and Santa Party and Gift of a Book tree Early Learning Centre visits the Library

Gordon Goldsborough author visit wiith new book, More Abandoned Manitoba.

Travel talk on La Belle France with slides, stories and and refreshments.

Pop-Up Carollers at the Library

PIERSON PROGRAMMING

Adults: Early Learning Center visits

Author visit—Oriole Veldhuis, author of School visits For Elise Girls Club with ARRD Holiday Centrepiece Workshop Step Two Program All Ages: Passive Programming Papermaking Workshop Jigsaw puzzles, Scrabble games Zero Waste Presentation Coloring Station Movie Time Toys for Kids and Games Pumpkin Carving

Art shows

Children:

Partnering with Pierson Early Learning Centre, Step 2 Program, Municipality of Two Borders, Antler River Recreation, Blossom Boutique, Morag Schonken, Pierson Drama Queens, Pierson Pathfinders 4- H, Pierson and Area Heritage Committee

Pierson Numbers Open to the public : 144 PIERSON BRANCH LIBRARY days

Added 557 items to in- Highlights and behind the scenes : ventory The library received a sensational$3677.47 in generous donations from organizations and individuals this year. They came from Gordon Southam, Royal Bank of , 373 Active patrons Valleyview Co-op and the Southwest Manitoba Regional Foundation. Subscribed to 23 maga- Delivered books to shut-ins. zines Received a number of in-kind donations of books and dvds. Sent 120 Inter-Library Purchased a public viewing movie license from Criterion for one year. loans Art displays by Arts West Travelling Galley and Jackee Hammell Received 53 Inter-Library Invigilated exams for an adult student Loans Steady increase in popularity of e-books Checked out 6950 items

Held 18 public programs Pierson and Area Heritage Committee set up these displays : with attendance of 313 Southwest Manitoba Layered History walk-through display Celebrating Manitoba’s Indigenous peoples Received 274 items from other libraries Remembrance Day All of the displays contained photos, artifacts, memorabilia and stories/information Sent 802 items to other libraries - submitted by Mary-Anne Minshull

Christmas Centrepiece class

Pierson : Christmas Centerpieces, Girls Club String Art, Paper Making Workshop and Zero Waste Presentation

NAPINKA BRANCH LIBRARY Partnerships : The past year was a busy year for the Napinka Library. In June the library had a number of visi- tors as we had a reunion in conjunction with the Legion Decoration Day that was held at the Na- Municipality of Brenda Waskada pinka Cemetery. Lunch was served at the Napinka Drop In Centre with a tour of the School in- cluding the library and the museum. Bren-Del-Win Centennial Library

Napinka received a Day of Volunteer Grant from RBC to help keep the library up to date and of Napinka Drop In Centre interest to the public. RBC Melita Branch The library is housed in the Napinka Drop In Centre which is located in the old Napinka School. Visitors are always interested in the activities in the community and keep coming back to visit their roots. Many are amazed that there is still an active drop in and library in this small town. The museum is housed in the same building and tours are often given of the complete facility.

Thank you for your patronage over the past year and hope to continue to see everyone next year. Happy Reading! - submitted by Jackie Leforte

MELITA NUMBERS

Open to the Public : 218 days Audio Book Blocks : 43 blocks

Items added to Inventory : 2169 Sight Impaired : 15 blocks

Added patrons: 46 (Large Print Blocks, Pierson and Na- pinka Rotation, Deloraine and Bois- Magazine subscriptions : 20 sevain Inter-library Loans sent: 383

Inter-Library Loans received: 470

Checked out Items: 9782

Items from other libraries : 500

Items sent to branches : 700

LIBRARIESMELITA LIBRARY AND LOCATIONS PIERSON LIBRARY NAPINKA LIBRARY 149 MAIN STREET 58 RAILWAY AVENUE 57 SOURIS STREET

MELITA, MANITOBA PIERSON, MANITOBA NAPINKA, MANITOBA

R0M 1L0 R0M 1S0 R0M 1N0

204-522-3923 204-634-2215 204-665-2282

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

WEB SITE : http://southwestern.mb.libraries.co-op WHERE WE ARE LOCATED

LIBRARY STAFF

Melita : Sandra Sterling Elissa Greenlay Heather Jones, Kylha Lust( casual) Pierson : Mary-Anne Minshull Deb Forsyth Brenda Minshull (casual) Deb Vanbeseleare (casual) Napinka : Jackie LeForte

MELITA HAPPENINGS

Looking back at the last year’s photos always makes us recall some of the things that we had done and already forgotten about. One of our biggest changes in 2017 was the cutting of library hours to four days a week and opening only six hours per day. It was a big adjustment but necessary due to budget constraints. The only thing that didn’t change was the workload and it is a struggle to keep up. We did some programming and special event celebrations, did two book sales, rotations, exam invigilation, job bank, hosted book club, printing and faxing services as well as circulating books, dvds, maga- zines and audio books. The town was upgraded to fiber optics and our Internet and telephone were streamlined to one provider at a lower cost.

Partnerships with : Town of Melita, Municipality of Two Borders , Mu- nicipality of Brenda Waskada, Prairie Skills from Deloraine, Turtle Mountain Adult Education Centre, Donor’s Choice , Province of Manito- ba

Budgeting is difficult but we were fortunate in receiving some donations in 2017 that helped the bottom line. One of our most voracious readers is always a generous donator to the library as well as Donor’s Choice which is a town wide campaign from which we usually receive funds. As well, our Banana Days Book Sale was very successful and we received a sum from the Valleyview C o-op Fuel Good Day for the first time. Annually we run the Give the Gift of a Book fundraiser for the Christmas season. Patrons purchase books for our children’s collection and their name and the recipient’s name is perma- nently placed in the book and also used to decorate our Christ- mas tree. What was surprising this year was that we sold out of books by purchasers near and far—one former resident found us on social media and supported the program from Toronto.

- submitted by Sandra P. Sterling

7 Pierson Pumpkin Carving, Freedom to Read, Paverpol x 2 and Kids Crafting