OLDS – The Olds Municipal Library is a good deal, saving about $3.5 million for the community, returning about $6.10 for every dollar invested, library manager Lesley Moody says.
But she told the Town of Olds' council the library is reaching capacity and as the town grows, solutions will have to be found to enable the library to serve that larger population.
Moody made those comments and more as she presented a report on the library to council during its May 5 committee of the whole meeting.
Moody explained the thinking behind the library’s stats further in an email to the Albertan.
“Each year, I use our annual statistics to calculate the library’s Return on Investment (ROI),” she wrote.
“The premise is simple: every book borrowed, every eBook or eAudiobook downloaded, and every free program attended represents a cost that a community member didn’t have to pay out of pocket.
“I research average retail prices, inflation, and other economic indicators each year to ensure our valuation is accurate.’
She gave a breakdown of how she arrived at the $3.5 million figure.
• Total savings from materials borrowed: $2,553,850
• Additional savings from programs, meeting room use, public computer access, etc.: $930,258
• Total community savings in 2024: $3,484,108
“In terms of ROI: the community invested $571,228 into the library in 2024.
“This figure includes funding from the town, county, province, fundraising, fees, and other revenue sources.
“Based on our calculations, this means for every dollar invested, the community received $6.10 in value — a 510 per cent return on investment,” Moody wrote.
“Of course, in times of economic crisis and I guess, uncertainty, there's a lot of people that are looking for services that they don't necessarily have to pay for,” Moody told council.
“We also get a lot of comments that it is nice to have a place in town that people can go where there's no expectation of paying anything, just to be in that space. So thank you for supporting that in our community. “
Moody told council that last year more than 42,000 people came into the library, “which is always lovely to see.”
“We are, though, definitely at times, feeling like we're very much at capacity for our space,” she said.
Moody said the library has reached the point where it can’t grow its collection anymore “the shelves are full.”
“The only way we can add new items is to delete old items, which is a part of our process as well,” she said.
“We do try to make sure that our stuff is up to date, but eventually, you know, you're supposed to have a certain number of books per capita. So as the population grows, we will need to grow our collections as well.”
Coun. Darren Wilson noted that the goal is to grow the town’s population in the future. He asked Moody what impact that growth could have on the library.
“More people in town definitely means more people hoping to use our programs,” Moody said.
“So if we're at capacity, then we'll have to try and figure out a way to either do more outreach, use other community spaces to do library programs. We're not opposed to that. I think that's a great idea as well.
“But you know, having more space to serve those people will definitely be something we need to think about, especially if we're adding 75 or units or houses and things like that. I'm very excited about growth and more housing.”
Deputy Mayor Wanda Blatz chaired the meeting.
She said in the future many town facilities will be at or close to capacity as the town grows, so they will likely have to be enlarged and renovated.
“We should build a new arena that goes all the way to the library and make it all the one multiplex,” Moody said jokingly.
“With many, many dollars, we could certainly do that,” Blatz replied.
Wilson wondered what the library is doing to fundraise.
Moody said it has pursued several grants this year that it didn't go after in previous years, “and have been trying to kind of increase that portion of our fundraising and community giving.”
For example, she said a ladies night is planned for this fall to help raise money.
“We won't exclude you guys if you want to come,” she said.
Moody said use of library materials has risen every year since she started at the library in 2002.
“Nice to see that,” she said.
The only area where activity went down was in website visits.
Moody pegged that problem to a website created for area libraries by Parkland Regional Library.
“It was a little bit cumbersome and hard to use for our patrons,” she said.
So Olds Municipal Library staff created their own website.
“We're getting a lot of good feedback from people on being able to access our services a lot easier and things like that, so we hope that that will go back up that our website use next year,” Moody said.
“We took advantage of some deals that we got through some grants and things like that, so it basically didn't cost us anything in the end to update this new website.”
Moody said the library is focused on attracting young readers as well as stimulating and satisfying curiosity.
To that end, the library offers many different clubs and services, including elearnng and digital literacy to support lifelong learning.
This past year, staff began doing some outreach programs at several seniors’ facilities in town.
“We go and we send our tech there to do digital literacy classes once a week, so each of them sees us once a month, and then we have free a free session here or at the at our library for digital literacy for seniors as well.
“That's called Silver Surfers. You don't have to be a senior to access it, but that's usually our clientele,” she said.
Moody said another goal of the library is to be a comfortable space for people, so things like Lego stations and puzzles are set out on a regular basis.
“We have activities for the kids to do after school (such as) a hunt around the library. And then we have little prizes that we can give them,” she said.
Moody pointed out that the library has rooms it can make available to people for everything from study or work to legal mediation.
Its library of things where people can rent out everything from games to tools is also very popular.
She noted that the library is also running an online survey
“Let us know how you see Olds progressing,” she said.
“And then we take that information and say, ‘well, what of those community needs can the library help with?
“We will, of course, share that information with all of your organizations and or all of your departments, so that you can use that information as well.”
“You're certainly a very active hub of the community, aren't you,” Blatz said.
“We try to be.” Moody said.
