The Head Librarian for the Jake Epp Public Library gave an update to city council on Tuesday.

Chrystie Kroeker Boggs highlighted the amazing work that the library does in Steinbach, all of the programming they provide for the community, and her awesome staff.

Councillor Michael Zwaagstra says the last two years have been challenging for the library as they weren't able to have people in the building for extended periods of time, however, things are ramping back up.

"Christie made it clear that they are restarting programming, they are looking at having movie nights starting again in June and many families take advantage of that because it is a chance for them to be able to participate in a free activity. They also have pre-school programming in place and, of course, they continue to buy new books and make those available to the public and so we are really excited at the things that are happening at the library."

Kroeker Boggs notes not only do they sign out tens of thousands of books and e-books every year but over 1,500 hours of computer usage is provided to clients as well. She notes they often help clients send essential emails, find jobs, and connect with loved ones. This is an aspect of the job she never expected.

Near the end of her presentation, Kroeker Boggs asked the city to increase their funding by five per cent. Councillor Michael Zwaagstra says this request was not surprising.

"We know that expenses are rising everywhere and certainly, the library is experiencing those same price increases. Everything from buying books to just covering other incidental costs at the library, those things go up in cost and so the fact that they are asking for an increase is not surprising and I know that council will give it serious consideration when the budget deliberations happen later this year."

In addition, Kroeker Boggs says she also wants to support her staff with cost of living raises as they haven’t been able to do that in quite some time. She notes there has not been an increase in city funding in the last three years and five per cent would add approximately $16,000 to their budget.

Kroeker Boggs adds she is also pursuing additional grant funds for the library.

On the topic of finances, Zwaagstra says council asked about the benefits of regionalization.

"Libraries get considerably more funding from the province when they are regional facilities and that is because provincial funding is based on per-capita populations. So, every municipality that is part of a regional library, all the people within that municipality count toward provincial funding."

Zwaagstra says City Council is very much in favour of regionalization, however, he notes "Ultimately, every other municipality has to make the decision for itself, whether to participate in this but I know that we would be very open to other municipalities if they are interested in joining in that way."

Every municipality has their own elected council, and Zwaagstra says they respect the fact that each council needs to make decisions for what they believe is best for the municipality.