Library Conference Opened New Ways of Looking at Literacy

Northern Lights Library System held their annual conference September 17th & 18th, 2015. Cold Lake City Councillor, Vicky Lefebvre attended the conference as part of her role for the City and Board member of the library system.

Lefebvre says part of the conference for her was spent working on budget, “we have to have that ready for our next meeting in November.” However, there is some exciting news coming in the number crunching department, “the Government of Alberta is finally letting us use the numbers from the 2014 census.” This is a big news story, explains Lefebvre, “our growth from 2010 to 2014 is a lot. That in turn helps us get a lot more money.”

“There’s a few other places in the Northern Lights Library System that have grown, so overall it gives us an increase on the income coming in,” Lefebvre says this will benefit everyone. “It means we can provide more.” Finding exciting and interactive programming that engages the public is a goal of the library system, as well as, something Lefebvre is genuinely passionate about.

The conference doubles as professional development for a lot of the staff, says Lefebvre, “we have over 50 libraries in the Northern Lights, this is small school-house libraries to large city ones, like in Cold Lake. We bring in motivational speakers, and they help our staff discover different ways of learning.”

Like any great story, Lefebvre gives a perfect example using sports, “I never thought of it, but learning stats and being able to memorize them and put them to use. Do you know how much learning is required to be able to do that. And taking those stats and determining what players fit a team and should play which positions, there’s so much learning in there, that most people don’t think of.”

“It’s all literacy, it’s just done in several different ways,” states Lefebvre.

The Northern Lights Library System received a $3,500 donation from Cenovus Energy to help the Winter Reading Program. The board is still looking to fill some key positions, including an executive director. For more information visit Northern Lights Library System online.