2001 APLNB RECOGNITION AWARD

In 2001, the original Steering Committee of the Boiestown (NB) Community School Library project received the very first Recognition Award of the Association of Professional Librarians of New Brunswick. Below is a history of the effort to build the community library and how the Steering Committee went about it.

In Mid-1989, it was realized that the Boiestown area was in great need of a library. There was no library close enough people to reach conveniently. The local school library was poorly equipped, it almost didn’t exist. Boiestown is a very small, rural community with a number of seasonal workers and has experienced some mill closures in recent years. People have limited access to any other public educational facilities and many have limited money to purchase their own reading materials.

A Steering Committee was formed, the community’s needs were discussed and assessed, and preliminary plans were drawn up for using an existing facility. By the middle of 1990, the plans were finalized, but no funding was available because Boiestown is not incorporated. The Local Service District, when approached, did not provide any annual operating funding, as some cities, towns and villages can do for their libraries. The Steering Committee was essentially left without any source of funding to operate a library that many in the community dearly wanted. The LSD did provide a one-time contribution of $1000 to the effort.

In October, 1990, the official opening of the library facility occurred, located in the Upper Miramichi Regional High School. However, there were still no operating, program or supply funds available. Through the efforts of local MLA, Morris Green, who was then New Brunswick Minister of Natural Resources, the Steering Committee raised funds to operate the library by taking wood in the form of stumpage, from local Crown Lands. A local contractor was hired, the stumpage was pulled and sold, and the revenues were put into the library’s operating account with the stipulation that the interest could be spent on the library’s operating and programming needs. This has subsequently happened, so that now these funds cover the costs of children’s and adults’ programs such as Pre-School Story Time, Books on Wheels (for seniors and shut-ins), the Summer Reading Program, the literacy tutoring program, and visits from the elementary, middle and high school students to find leisure time reading and to get help with their research needs and term papers.

In February, 1992, the library’s board began discussing a need for expansion of the library. Ongoing discussion with the local school board continued for several years with no positive results, but finally in May of 1998, approval was granted for expansion. In early 2000, some of the money which had been invested from the library’s account was used to cover the costs of expansion of the present facility, and in October of 2000 the expanded library was officially opened. This provided a juvenile room where staff can hold programs for elementary school children and the community children. By May 2001, the board was able to replace a part of the funds that had gone toward the expansion.

This effort showed true, unselfish dedication to a goal that is now able to be shared by everyone in the community. The Steering Committee had to take an idea and then find the local resources at hand, namely the New Brunswick forest resources, to operate something that are a source of pride today. The plan of keeping this nest egg in an investment account so that the library could draw on it for operating funds and for expansion was a thoughtful decision that the Steering Committee made early on for the future.

Even though this project may seem to be small by comparison to some other ideas, it shows what dedicated people who really want something for their small rural community, can do if they work together and use the resources at hand. This is what community action is all about in New Brunswick.

Members of original Steering Committee were:

Morris Green
Flora Green
Don O’Donnell (deceased)
Vernon Dunphy
Myrna Green
Manley Price
Scott Clowater
Josee Clowater
Roy Clowater (deceased)
Margaret Morris (deceased)
George O’Donnell, Superintendent of School District #9 at the time
Katherine LeButt, Librarian of York Region at the time