A Policy Statenent

INTRODUCTION

This is a statement of basic policy for the Fraser Valley
Regional Library. It is Presented to the Board of Management
in the hope that unanimity may be reached not only by the members
of the Board but by each municipality, school district and regional
district asked to ratify tne statement.

It is believed that agreement on basic policy will strengthen

the regional library and give it unity of purpose at a time. of
indecision on what course of action to take.

The options appear to be as follows: {A) to continue
operation of the Fraser Valley Regional Library in much the
same way as it has been operating during its 40-year history;
(B) to adopt the plan for integrated public library systems
as put forth by the Library Developncnt Commission in its
province-wide Programme for Library Development; and (C) to
adopt some other pian.

Option A wevld seem to be reasonably satisfactory except
that there are good reasons for revision. The Valley is not
the same as it was forty or twenty or ten years ago. Increasing
population, particularly in the western municipalities, has
created demands for service that the regional library finds
difficult to provide. its bookstock, for instance, is barely
half of what provincial minimum standards say it should be.
Rising costs of books have further devalued the library's
book budget and despite greatly increased municipal spending,
in recent years to meet mounting regional library costs, there
appears to be little net progress in the library's efforts
towards improvement.

Option B with its promise of financial aid from the Pro-
vincial Government sounds attractive until the Lpc proposal
is analysed. With its requirement that the regional library
reorganize on a regional district rather than a municipal
basis, the LDC plan would deprive 17 municipalities and five
school districts in the Fraser Valley of direct personal
representation on the library's Board of Management. Since
about 90% of the library's revenue is raised by municipal |
taxation, this lack of representation is considered to be
unacceptable.

Further, the LDC plan would dilute the authority of the
Boardof Management (as set out in Section 50 of the Public
Libraries Act) by requiring library budgets to gain approval
of no less than three regional district boards (Dewdney Alouette,
Central Fraser Valley and Fraser Cheam). as well as the Library
Development Commission itself, : :

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‘These four bodies, as well as the regional library board,
would be involved in any annual budget that was prepared. To
replace the budget action of one board with that of five would»
seem to be too unwieldy and complex to he regarded as an improve-
ment. In essence, the Board of Management is unwilling to
relinquish its right to requisition funds from member municipal-
ities as set forth in Section 56 (3) of the Public Libraries
Act. .

A more serious objection to the LDC plan, however, is .
that it conceives “System V - Fraser Valley" as excluding five
municipalities (Surrey, Richmond, Delta, White Rock and Port
Coquitlam) that are part of the Fraser Valley Regional Library
district. Exclusion is based on the fact that these municipal~
ities are in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. But since
the municipalities are unable to join the Greater Vancouver
Library Federaticn (because the GVLF igs not at the stage of
Organization to welcome additional members) or prefer to stay
with the FVRL, reorganization on the LDC model is not feasible
at this time, Further, the Board of Management does not wish
to abandon its five western municipalities in order to comply
with the LDC Programme. The Board is of the opinion that
determination of their library future is solely an option cf
the municipalities involved and that if the concensus is to
stay with the FVRL, that preference should be respected.

Option C ~ to adopt some other plan - would seem to be
the only course open to the Board of Management. Such a Plan
is presented here in as mach detail as seems practical at
the present time,