The Head Librarian for Jake Epp Library in Steinbach says without a funding increase from the city they might need to start cutting staff or services.

Carolyn Graham explains the library has an annual budget of nearly $550,000. The city of Steinbach contributes approximately $320,000, with about $140,000 being paid back to the city for rent. Graham says that funding amount has not changed in five years.

Graham met with city council Tuesday evening. Her request is that the library gets a five-year funding plan from the city. Each year, the funding increase could amount to between 2% and 5%.

On top of the city's funding, the library also receives about $120,000 from the province. However, that amount will increase to $139,000 next year because of new Census data. Graham admits the extra $19,000 doesn't go very far.

According to Graham, two of their basic needs at the library are staffing and technology. She says they haven't replaced any computers in nearly a decade and right now they run the risk of losing data if their server crashes. As for staffing, Graham says they have already cut back from three to two people working regular evening shifts.

"That's the last thing we want to do," says Graham. "We have dropped our evening shifts a little bit, fewer staff, not a great solution."

Meanwhile, Graham says even though their level of funding from the city has not changed, book circulation at the library has only increased. From January 1st to November 30th, 2016, there were 206,000 books removed. During that same period this year, there were 218,000 books removed. Further to that, she says they run a lot of programs. According to Graham, this year alone they have seen more than 1,500 people at their events and classes.