Libraries are suffering, let’s take care of them! | The Press

No one is fighting on the buses about the fate of Quebec’s public libraries… but the role they play in making reading and culture accessible to everyone is nevertheless fundamental.

This is why the recent publication of a health check of these libraries is excellent news.

Some performance indicators were already public. We already knew the attendance rate for each of the establishments, for example. We also knew which are the ones where we borrow more books.

But the true state of health of libraries, which is linked to the importance that municipalities give them and to the investments made in them, has remained a great mystery for too long.

The Association of Quebec Public Libraries (ABPQ) has just enlightened us. His first National portrait of Quebec public libraries made it possible to evaluate the resources available to each of the establishments (or almost, we were able to examine those that cover 89% of the territory of Quebec). And, consequently, to quantify the services offered to the population by each library.

The libraries were rated according to five indicators: expenditure to acquire new documents, opening hours, surface area of ​​the establishments, number of seats and the state of human resources.

Several useful conclusions can be drawn from this.

The first is linked to the overall result obtained by all public libraries: 66%.

Since we live in a province where books are generally not valued enough, it’s not surprising. It is explained, but it is not justified. It is insufficient.

A second conclusion is that the quality of services offered in Quebec is variable.

Of all the regions, Montreal is doing best. And by far, with an overall score of 91%.

Other regions should be embarrassed because they are below the passing grade. Like Outaouais (55%), Centre-du-Québec (57%), the Capitale-Nationale region (57%), Mauricie (58%) and Chaudière-Appalaches (59%).

Note: Laval does not do much better, with 60%.

That’s what makes this portrait so useful. It is possible to compare and learn from others. Municipalities bear the main responsibility for the fate of their libraries. And each was informed of the results of the study.

Dunces would do well to draw inspiration from the 25 municipalities that received an “overall result of excellence” as part of this national portrait of libraries. From Saint-Eustache to Notre-Dame-des-Prairies via Mont-Royal (we obtained the list, which we reproduce below, you can see if your municipality is there).

To better care for the suffering libraries, a diagnosis was necessary.

It is clear that some elected officials would do well to become aware of the importance of libraries for their communities. They should also remember the extent to which encouraging reading brings appreciable gains to our society.

Another of the obvious conclusions is that libraries that are very healthy are generally the most popular, explained the general manager of the ABPQ, Eve Lagacé.

“When we give the right resources to a library, we see that there are positive spin-offs in its performance indicators such as attendance, the number of subscribers and the number of borrowings. »

The importance of public libraries no longer needs to be demonstrated. The network as a whole is an invaluable asset.

The most recent statistics prove it. In 2019, there were 2,771,686 subscribers in the province (about 273,000 more than 10 years ago) and more than 54 million documents were checked out (compared to 49 million 10 years earlier). Overall, there were more than 29 million admissions that year.

Note in closing that books (and reading) seem to have an ally in Quebec.

In 2019, the CAQ increased the budget for primary and secondary school libraries by $5 million per year.

However, during the recent election campaign, François Legault promised an additional sum of $300 per year so that each preschool and elementary school teacher could buy books by Quebec authors for his students. He also wants to inject 10 million into a reading awareness campaign “for the next year”.

His government could certainly go further by considering measures that would strengthen the network of public libraries and remedy the problems of flagrant inequalities. Perhaps by imposing minimum standards across the province?

“At the CAQ, we are convinced that reading should be encouraged among all Quebecers. When you fall in love with books, you usually keep reading for the rest of your life,” said the Prime Minister.

Allow us to go one better by quoting the British author Neil Gaiman, who gave a lecture on reading and libraries a decade ago. “If you don’t value libraries, then you don’t value information, culture, or wisdom. You silence the voices of the past and harm the future. »