Building Resilience through Cooperation: An Abbreviated History of Public Libraries in British Columbia

Deb Thomas

Working together is one way that public libraries have traditionally improved services, stretched scarce dollars, and shared resources. For over a hundred years, the province of British Columbia has shared a vision with its public librarians – that of providing library service to every resident regardless of place of residence. It has also recognized in report after report that this can only be done through cooperative ventures.

Provincially sponsored cooperation has taken many forms – from a provincial interlibrary loan system to support and encouragement for federations and regional library systems. The primary facilitator of this cooperation since the first Public Libraries Act was proclaimed by parliament in 1919 is the Public Library Commission – now the Public Libraries Branch.

In 1927, The Public Library Commission sponsored a province-wide survey of public libraries. One of the main recommendations was to create a rural library service. The “union library district” was created and resulted in the establishment of three big regional systems (Morrison, 59). From 1930 to 1936, “union library districts” were created in the Fraser Valley, the Okanagan and on Vancouver Island. These cooperative units still exist today as regional libraries.

At its height, the Public Library Commission (now the Public Libraries Branch in the Ministry of Sport, Recreation and Culture) had 5 branches that offered consortium purchasing and cataloguing of books for smaller libraries as well as books by mail for British Columbians not served by a library. The branch also offered audiobooks for the visually impaired, funding for author tours, and secondments of experienced staff to assist with major projects like new building planning and library referenda. They also assisted with Internet training and upgrading libraries to automated systems, among other services.

In 1949 and 1952 respectively, the North Central Co-operative Library and the Peace River Co-operative Library were established in partnership with Public Library Commission branches in Prince George and Dawson Creek. The intent was for the libraries in the association to commit their own funds for the development of a book pool to be used by the whole group. The Commission also committed funds and acquired, processed and distributed the books to the libraries, often on barely passable roads. These “cooperative libraries” are reflected today in the North Central and North East Library Federations.

Similarly, the East and West Kootenay Library Associations depended on the Commission branch in Cranbrook to provide consortium purchasing and cataloguing for member libraries with less than 10,000 population. These associations coordinated professional development, author tours, summer reading clubs, and other consortium purchasing arrangements – all with the three primary goals of increasing service, saving scarce funds and promoting the value of library services.

Two other significant cooperative units were created in the 1970s:

• The Thompson-Nicola Library System was established in 1974 and consisted of three libraries. The Cariboo region joined the system in 1975 to form the Cariboo–Thomson Nicola Library System (Morrison, 68-69). The two regions separated in 1994 to form the Cariboo Regional District Library and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District Library System. These library systems are unique in that they do not have arms-length library boards but report directly to their regional district boards.
• The Greater Vancouver Library Federation (BC’s first public library federation) was established in 1975 with seven member libraries. Richmond Public Library joined in 1978 to bring the membership to eight. (Morrison, 156). The GVLF became Public Library InterLINK in 1994 and now boasts a membership of 18 “autonomous libraries” (History, Public Library InterLINK). One of the significant functions of InterLINK is reciprocal borrowing among all member libraries and federation funded delivery systems to return borrowed materials to their home libraries.

In preparation for a re-write of the library act, a New Approaches Task Force was struck in the late 1980s and undertook extensive consultation throughout the province. The Social Credit government of the time was focused on encouraging local support of public libraries and less interested in establishing more large cooperative arrangements like regional library systems.

The new Library Act was adopted in 1996 and includes provisions for regional library districts and federations but omits the means for establishing more regional district libraries such as the Cariboo and Thompson-Nicola (British Columbia Library Act).

In the mid-1990s, funding for branch programs was drastically cut leaving rural libraries in the position of funding through local support for various activities previously funded by the Public Library Services Branch. Branch offices were also closed in Dawson Creek, Prince George and Cranbrook. For a time, physical branches continued to exist in Vancouver and Victoria. Today, only an email address is listed on the branch website, with no physical branch address or phone number.

While branch support for collections was no longer available, sharing of a provincially owned collection of large print books continued into the new century. The province also, for decades, produced audiobooks on cassettes for the visually impaired. This latter service was taken on by Public Library InterLINK early in the 2000s but was eventually not sustainable given changes in formats and the advent of downloadable audio.

In 2004, the branch undertook another extensive strategic planning exercise called “Libraries Without Walls.”

One of the results of the exercise was the establishment of five rural library federations between 2006 and 2008: the Kootenay Library Federation in 2006; the North Central, North East and Northwest Library Federations in 2007; the IslandLink Federation in 2008. Another significant and continuing initiative was the BC One Card which allowed library card-holders at any public library in BC to borrow materials from any other participating public library, with some local restrictions. Borrowed materials can be returned to any participating One Card library.

The regional library systems and federations now work together to provide many of the former functions of the Commission/PLSB. Both cooperative models receive provincial financial support as well as member library contributions. The advent and wider availability of the Internet, though still not as fast and reliable in the more remote areas of the province, and increased access to digital collections has to some extent levelled the playing field between small rural libraries and larger urban libraries. An efficient interlibrary loan system and reciprocal borrowing agreements also allow more reasonable access to a wide selection of physical materials for residents across the province.

The Future holds many challenges and opportunities for public libraries. The Internet and private information companies, including the expanding field of artificial intelligence, will continue to intrude on the traditional territory of public libraries. Governments will continue to tighten belts and increasingly leave libraries dependent on their communities and each other to keep relevant and vital and financially viable. At the same time, new technologies continue to allow for increased cooperation of a kind that does not require geographical proximity. Public librarians will continue to position their libraries as accessible, community-based institutions that facilitate access to a world of information, promote culture and ideas, and improve levels of literacy.

References: 

1. British Columbia. British Columbia’s Libraries: A New Approach: The Final Report of the New Approaches Ministerial Task Force on Public Libraries. (Coquitlam, B.C: New Approaches Task Force, 1988).
2. British Columbia. Library Act (Victoria, B.C.: Queen’s Printer, 1996).
3. History (Burnaby, B.C.: Public Library InterLINK, 2023).
4. Joint Committee on Library Policy, Programme for Library Development in British Columbia (1945).
5. Morrison, C.K. British Columbia Libraries: Historical Profiles (Vancouver: British Columbia Library Association, 1986).
6. Public Library Services Branch, Libraries Without Walls: The World Within Your Reach: A Vision for Public Libraries in British Columbia (2004).
7. Public Libraries Branch, Provincial funding for public libraries (2023).
8. Vainstein, Rose. Public Libraries in British Columbia: A Survey with Recommendations (Victoria: Public Libraries Research Study, 1966).

Deb Thomas