Our card design contest from June 1^st to 30^th, and received nearly 100 entries from across the region! Each age category had a grand prize for the winner. These prizes were generously donated by Mayfair Print Shoppe and Office Supplies, TD Bank, and Pallister Financial. We are incredibly appreciative to them and to our wonderful community who made this such an enjoyable event. Thank you all!

The winners are:

Their cards, along with three other designs, should arrive just in time for Library Card Sign-Up month in September. At that time, we will begin the process of updating members to the new cards.

We’re also pleased to debut our new logo at this time. Our artist in residence/long-time staff member, Suzy Laevens, spent a lot of time reflecting on how to represent the communities we serve and was inspired by the landscape, the river, and of course, books. The Board chose between several options and colour palettes at the June meeting. Over the next few months, we’ll be updating our brochures, signage and website to reflect this, as well as making things easier to navigate and more accessible.

Why new cards?

The previous barcodes only had 13 digits, not the industry standard of 14. This worked well when we had our own system, but now we are active participants in resource sharing agreements such as: MB e-libraries, inter-library loan and CELA/NNELS for patrons who need assistance with traditional print. Our systems have increasingly been relying on work arounds that were creating a burden on the staff and making our processes take much longer than they should. Additionally, the wand scanners that were modified to allow us to use these barcodes are well past their projected life span, so it was a bit of a race against time.

The easiest way we could see to address this was to do a card contest. This allowed us to engage the community and get people excited about the idea, while also letting us update our look a little. We know that a lot of people love their current cards, so you will be able to take them home with you if you like after updating your membership.

What else has changed?

Loan restrictions

We’ve expanded loan limits, so you can now rent 5 CDAs, 5 DVDs, or 5 Kits at a time! We also removed the 18 item limit on books. They still count towards the overall 30 item limit, but aren’t restricted individually.

DVDs that we’ve had for longer than a year now have a loan period of 2 weeks.

Memberships

We’ve also made it easier to get a library card, and only require one piece of ID to sign up for a membership. Additionally, the fee for our Non-resident Block Loans (designed for organizations, schools, and government certified home-school teachers) has been reduced to $30.

Accessible collections

We’re committing to staff training on Libby, NNELS, and CELA, as well as working on increasing the amount of accessible materials available to you. These platforms provide much needed services to those who can’t always get to the library, or have difficulty with traditional print materials. If you have any questions about how these services can benefit you, please feel free to ask us.

Computers

We’ve doubled the amount of patron computers available for use, and extended the booking slots to 45 minutes. If you need a longer time for school or work, just let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.