Management Report
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MANAGEMENT REPORT Date: June 12, 2019 Author: Kay Cahill, Director, Collections & Technology Phone No.: 604.331.4004 VanDocs#: DOC/2019/080270 Meeting Date: June 26, 2019 TO: Library Board FROM: Kay Cahill, Director, Collections & Technology SUBJECT: InterLINK Grant Annual Report for 2018 SUMMARY This report provides the 2017/2018 InterLINK grant report, which is provided annually for the InterLINK Administrators Advisory Group to support the $100,000 grant from InterLINK to VPL. PURPOSE This report is for information. RECOMMENDATIONS That the Board receive this report for information. POLICY There is no applicable VPL policy. BACKGROUND Public Library InterLINK is a co-operative federation of eighteen autonomous public libraries, including Vancouver Public Library, which operates as a Library Federation according to the Library Act of British Columbia (1994) Section 49 and is governed by a library board constituted in accordance with that act. DOC/2019/080270 Page 1 of 2 In 2001, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between Public Library InterLINK and Vancouver Public Library acknowledging its role as a public library resource for the InterLINK service area. The terms of agreement state that Public Library InterLINK will provide an annual grant of $100,000 to Vancouver Public Library. This recognized VPL’s demonstrated capacity and function as the foremost public library resource in the InterLINK service area, the use of the Central Library for information and reference service by non-Vancouver InterLINK residents, and our extensive collection of databases and collections with regional interest. In 2010, the InterLINK Board requested information from the Vancouver Public Library that would demonstrate that the $100,000 annual grant to VPL was still warranted. VPL committed to annually surveying Central Library patrons at the same time as the provincial Typical Week Survey in order to provide an annual report to InterLINK on use by InterLINK residents. That same year, two member Library Boards requested further information regarding the unique collections held by VPL that would justify its position as a regional research hub. This information was reported annually for the InterLINK Board’s information and consideration until 2017. DISCUSSION In 2018, VPL missed submitting the annual report. In 2019, the InterLINK Board requested reconsideration of the grant given the changes that have occurred among the region’s libraries. The attached 2019 report focus on VPL’s collections and resources in more detail, rather than the use of reference services by InterLINK residents. The attached InterLINK Grant report summarizes the unique collections offered by VPL that provide value over and above the collections provided by most InterLINK patrons’ home libraries. These collections are primarily offered at the Central Library, and also include online resources that are available for InterLINK patrons to use both from home and at VPL locations. One of the unique aspects of these collections is the content they contain relating to British Columbia history and culture. The report emphasizes that VPL provides a depth of information about the province which is unmatched by any other public library. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS InterLINK provides an annual grant of $100,000 in recognition of VPL’s role as a regional resource. This grant is part of VPL’s operating budget. DOC/2019/080270 Page 2 of 2 TO: InterLINK Administrators Advisory Group FROM: Christina de Castell, Chief Librarian, Vancouver Public Library DATE: May 6, 2019 SUBJECT: InterLINK VPL Grant EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The InterLINK Reference Grant report summarizes the unique collections offered by Vancouver Public Library (VPL) that provide value over and above the collections provided by InterLINK patrons’ home libraries. These collections are primarily offered at VPL’s Central Library, and also include online resources that are available for InterLINK patrons to use both from home and at VPL locations. One of the most notable aspects of these collections is their focus on content relating to British Columbia history and culture, providing a depth of information about the province which is unmatched by any other public library. VPL’s 2019 collections budget is $4,892,140. In 2018, VPL purchased over 8,000 copies of 1,400 titles published in British Columbia, at a cost of over $180,000, and provided original cataloguing to create over 1,700 records for Canadian content that are freely available to other libraries. The unique collections that InterLINK patrons are able to access through VPL include: Historical records and resources, with extensive primary records relating to British Columbia back to the early 1900s Genealogy and census data for British Columbia and Canada dating back to the 1600s A reference periodical collection with back holdings of over 1,000 unique titles Topographic, hydrographic and bathymetric maps covering BC and other parts of Canada Subscription databases with a combined annual cost of $250,000 which are not available through other InterLINK libraries Deep, specialized subject collections in law, business, career planning, fine arts, and music An expanded Indigenous collection built on a collection profile developed in consultation with local First Nations and urban Indigenous community representatives 300+ musical instruments to borrow Content by local self-published authors from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland BACKGROUND In the spring of 2010, InterLINK requested information from the Vancouver Public Library that would demonstrate that the $100,000 annual grant to VPL was still warranted. VPL committed Page 1 of 8 to providing an annual report for InterLINK, and produced such a report for each year from 2010 through 2014, and 2016. This report updates the 2016 report for 2018 and presents an overview of the unique collections and services that VPL provides to InterLINK member library residents through its role as a regional library hub. British Columbia Purchasing and Cataloging VPL strives to balance the demand for popular and recreational material with the responsibility to build appropriately comprehensive collections to meet the varied information needs of users across BC. VPL’s Collective Development Policy identifies this responsibility: “We actively collect Canadian authors and subjects and build comprehensive collections on British Columbia and Vancouver history and culture. The Central Library maintains collections to meet a wide range of needs, and acts as a support resource for branches across the system, as well as being available as a provincial resource.” Among Canadian public libraries, VPL has one of the highest rates of per capita spending on collections at $7.91 in 2018. VPL places particular emphasis on developing deep collections of material on British Columbia, and titles by British Columbian authors, and on retaining these collections for historical research. In 2018, VPL purchased over 8,000 copies of 1,400 titles published in British Columbia at a cost of over $180,000, and VPL holds many specialized collections of historical content and primary records relating to the province which are described in more detail below. VPL is the only InterLINK library to take this comprehensive approach to collecting and retaining materials in areas relating to provincial history and culture. Additionally, VPL carries out original cataloguing for content from British Columbia and Canada. In 2018, VPL provided over 1,700 new records for Canadian content to OCLC that can be used by other libraries, and are freely available as MARC records on the VPL website for re-use. VPL maintains an internal team of librarians who provide this original cataloguing freely available to every library and library service provider, with a combined annual salary cost to VPL of over $200,000. VPL’s branch libraries maintain current popular collections similar to those at other Interlink libraries. In comparison, VPL’s Central Library collects and preserves materials of local, regional, provincial and Canadian interest. Individual subject collections include basic as well as specialized published and limited archival materials, supporting both recreational and research uses. The unique collections to which InterLINK patrons have access through VPL and the Central Library are described below: Historical Resources and Special Collections The materials contained in VPL’s Special Collections have an appraised value of $10.9 million. VPL’s unique historical resources include: British Columbia Sessional Papers British Columbia Reports 1900-1948, which are excellent sources of social history as well as case law; Page 2 of 8 regional district, hospital district and municipal annual reports and financial statements from throughout the province, many dating back to the 1940s; provincial government departmental annual reports; electoral registers for federal and provincial ridings in BC; the Northwest History Index (card file) and its successor, the British Columbia Index (database) which provide deep indexing to articles from journals, magazines and newspapers, chapters and specific pages in books, and uncatalogued pamphlets and ephemeral materials dealing with local history throughout BC; fire insurance maps; historical maps of the Pacific Coast and British Columbia; the Historical Photographs Collection containing more than 250,000 images from BC and the Yukon; the Northwest History Collection of rare, unique and historically valuable books, periodicals, and pamphlets