Closed on Sundays: users balk at library cuts

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/03/2020 (2182 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon at Millennium Public Library, storyteller Matthew Haven is the focus of attention, crafting a tale of the origins of the dragon myth to a few dozen kids and parents gathered on the library’s first floor.

He’s there as part of Storytelling in the Round — a weekly series running in six-week seasons during the fall and winter months, where families can spend an hour of their Sunday listening to writers such as Haven spin yarns and perform tall tales with a goal of “information education,” as Haven calls it.

With the release of the city’s preliminary budget documents, Storytelling in the Round, as well as other programs, could be in jeopardy, as the city considers axing library hours as part of sweeping expenditure cuts.

“This program has been going on at least six, seven years on Sundays…and we get a lot of people, families coming out,” Haven said during a break between stories on Sunday.

“Sunday is family time, this is a family storytelling event at the library downtown — it’s a perfect Sunday afternoon event, especially in the colder months where families want to do something inside.”

The proposed cuts would see all 20 of the city’s library branches closed by 8 p.m. daily, and would eliminate Sunday hours for the six libraries that currently open on Sundays. Those branches; Millennium, Henderson, Pembina Trail, St. Boniface, Sir William Stephenson and Westwood, already run reduced hours on Sundays, opening at 1 p.m. and closing by 5 p.m.

“Sunday is family time, this is a family storytelling event at the library downtown– it’s a perfect Sunday afternoon event, especially in the colder months where families want to do something inside.” — Matthew Haven

For weekend library-goers like Elaine McAra and her niece Genevieve, the cuts would mean the loss of a space to gather, talk and take in the cultural events Winnipeg has to offer.

“This is a perfect setting for you to have one-on-one time, to be able to catch up for the week, and learn… and have a little bit of entertainment,” McAra said as storytellers set up for the Sunday afternoon event. “I don’t think it’s right being closed on Sunday at all.”

McAra said she and her niece head to the library regularly on the weekends. Both their schedules are packed during the week, she said, so they schedule weekly events — like Sunday library visits — to spend some time enjoying the city as a family.

“It would piss me right off,” McAra said in a stage-whisper about the possibility of losing those Sunday library hours. “I don’t understand the logic of it… it makes more logic to have functioning family events on the weekends.”

It’s not just families that find themselves relying on the library’s weekend hours. Jasmeet Kaur and Harman Preet Kaur are post-graduate students at the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology (MITT) who travel an hour each way to the Millennium library every Sunday to take advantage of the quiet space to work.

“Sundays are the only days we have because we have college on other days and then we have work,” Jasmeet Kaur said.

She and Harman arrive at the library by the time it opens at 1 p.m. on Sundays, and often stay until close to work on assignments and projects for school. Their college’s department doesn’t have a library for them to use, and they share an apartment with roommates who can make the home a distracting place to get things done.

“It’s the primary source we have,” said Kaur.

Both students lamented the already reduced weekend hours, and said they wished the library space could extend hours on Sundays, making cuts on weekdays if that cuts were needed.

“If they really want to cut expenses, there are many things rather than just cutting from the library,” Kaur said about the city’s justification for the cuts. “If we had a library open at 9 we would be coming here at 9… we could be more productive if we had more time here.”

During early budget consultations, the city originally proposed shuttering the Westwood, Fort Garry and West Kildonan libraries on top of hour reductions for other branches, but the preliminary budget suggests those three branches will be spared from the chopping block.

“I spend so much time here at the library myself and I see the function of libraries, downtown it’s definitely a gathering place, it’s a place for social services essentially, all manner of folks come here: families, individuals, students, elders,” storyteller Haven said on the importance of libraries in the city.

“Libraries are a cornerstone of our civilization so to look at cutting them, it just seems like we’re cutting exactly that: one of the cornerstones of education and civilization where we go and learn.”

There is no timeline yet for the Sunday closures; the multi-year budget, which includes nearly $118 million in expenditure reductions between 2020 and 2023, is still subject to change. Before the budget it finalized, it will need to be approved by city council in a vote taking place on March 25.

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers