Technology has changed the way society consumes information, but the Flin Flon Public Library is far from turning the page on its most popular service.
Library administrator Courtney Campbell estimates most of the library’s traffic still revolves around lending out physical books. In August alone, about 2,100 books went out the door.
“There’s still people who want the experience of coming to the library and getting a book, so we’re doing tonnes of traffic,” she says. “It’s still a very valid service.”
Campbell need not convince Myrna Guymer of that.
Guymer, a published author and retiree who lives in Denare Beach, is a library patron with a particular passion for the printed page.
“I’m really a big proponent of, for gosh sakes, we can’t do without books,” she says.
Guymer says words stored electronically are subject to power outages, dying batteries and confusing evolutions in electronic devices.
“But dammit, you can pick up a piece of paper and a book and there it is. Just open [it], and [enjoy] the smell and all of it,” she says. “I like to be able to flip through it. I want to be able to mark it up if I feel like it, or I can put post-it notes [on pages].”
Guymer is no stranger to electronic books. She began reading ebooks while travelling to Mexico one year because her Kindle could replace the “milk crates full of books” that would normally accompany her.
She was once worried ebooks would supplant traditional texts but now believes the scales have tipped in favour of real ink on actual pages.
Guymer says her late father’s handwritten journals, dating back seven decades, give her added appreciation of physical books, as do the old onion-skin books she kept from his possessions.
For Campbell, ebooks and the internet are at the root of the print-is-dying misconception. She says people who do not access libraries themselves tend to buy into the notion.
That’s one reason library staff have been working on community outreach efforts to promote the traditional and not-so-traditional benefits of library membership.
Members can borrow books already on the shelves or those shipped in through a interlibrary book-sharing program.
The library also offers print editions of newspapers and magazines, along with DVDs.
While online, members can access audiobooks and ebooks through a service called eLibraries Manitoba, which offers an app.
Campbell notes library membership is free for residents of Flin Flon, Creighton, Denare Beach and Cranberry Portage. Non-residents pay $25 a year.
To help publicize the benefits of library membership, she invited The Reminder to a photo-op of Mayor Cal Huntley signing up for his new library card earlier this month. September marks Library Card Sign-up Month.
The library had 4,075 members as of last week.
