New office, web site makes book-borrowing easier

SARA MINOGUE

A librarian in Nunavut was having difficulty managing the line-up of children who came in daily to surf the Internet. She came up with a novel idea: a new rule, that anyone using the computers must first pick up a book for 15 minutes.

“Even if they just flip through the pages and fake it, something’s bound to catch their interest,” said Petra Mauerhoff, Nunavut’s manager of library services in Baker Lake.

Librarians are always trying to get people to read more books. In Nunavut, they’re doing it through the grand opening of a new office building in Baker Lake, and a new web site.

The majority of Nunavut’s books, DVDs, videos, CDs and other library items are now housed in the new Baker Lake distribution centre, where they are circulated to 11 public libraries around the territory.

These are also listed on the library’s new web site: www.publiclibraries.nu.ca. The site is currently only in English, but will soon be translated into Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun and French.

“The web site is big because it now means we can reach anyone with Internet access,” said Mauerhoff.

The library collection is comparable to any library in the South, but with a strong northern focus, including almost everything that is related to Nunavut and the North, including some popular films with an icy theme, such as March of the Penguins.

Library headquarters were moved to Baker Lake in 2004, but that hasn’t hindered books from traveling across the territory, because Canada Post offers a reduced rate for library materials.

A book mailed from Baker Lake to anywhere in Nunavut costs around $1.50 or $2, rather than the $10 to $14 that a regular book would cost through normal rates. And if the book is going to a library patron, it comes with a return stamp that the reader then puts on an envelope to return the book, without paying any more postage.

“This is the most valuable program, especially for a place like Nunavut where we are so widely distributed.”

Nunavut is also part of a national group of libraries that shares books requested by patrons. That means Nunavummiut can get almost any book they want.

The only problem with that system is the high number of people who move in and out of Nunavut, sometimes taking library books with them, or forgetting to return the books.

“I’m always worried we’re getting a bit of a bad reputation,” Mauerhoff said.

If people don’t return their books on time, the library could eventually be penalized by other libraries that loan the books, and be asked to pay about $20 to borrow something from out of the territory — a cost that would have to be passed on to the customer.

Nonetheless, Mauerhoff urges Nunavummiut to take advantage of the public libraries, and the free books and computer access.

“Even if their interest isn’t in reading that big fat novel that’s currently on the bestseller list, even if people just come in to use the computer to check their email or something, that’s something… that’s big.”