Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library

Petition
The Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library needs our support now!
The Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library has suffered from significant under-funding for the past five years, and is now at a crisis point. Library users and supporters need to tell Town Council that this must change. Please sign the attached petition to bring about a change and to support our Public Library! We, residents of Whitchurch-Stouffville, petition Town Council to develop and approve a plan to increase per person library funding to the provincial average by 2015, and to begin immediately to develop plans for a library expansion. Background and Statistics Our town is growing at an incredible rate, and our library has not been given the resources to keep pace. Since 2006, the town has added an astonishing 238 new residents every month (from 24,290 to 38,650). Impressively, 55.5% of residents are library card holder; that means we have added 133 new library patrons every month for the past five years. This will continue; the town plans to grow to 55,800 by 2021. A library is much more than just another leisure facility. A community requires experts to find and interpret information; to provide professional assistance with research; to collect documents relevant to the community; to help people access information relevant to a job search or for starting a business, and for much more. A community needs books, digital archives, and electronic databases accessible to all. Public libraries in Canada play a crucial for an educated and literate population, which in turn strengthens and stabilizes the community.
Compared to similar sized towns, the Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library has the lowest per resident funding in the province. In 2009, the province-wide average Operating cost for library services per person for communities with a pop. of 20,000-50,000 was $44; Stratford was highest of these eleven communities at $66. Whitchurch-Stouffville was solidly in last position at $25 per person (BMA Municipal Study, 2010, p. 124; next lowest was Georgina with $35/person). In 2010, our town's per capita contribution dropped even further to $23.44 per person, placing us even further from the provincial average.
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| Email: WSLibraryPetition@gmail.com | Web: http://WSLibraryPetition.blogspot.com

The 2009 Public Library Statistics published by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture show that we have fallen well below the provincial average for staffing, materials and space requirements. Whereas the W-S Public Library had 9.91 staff (full-time equivalent), the provincial average for communities our size was 21. The ability to buy and house materials is a serious issue: while our library had a collection of 87,558 books in 2009, the provincial average for comparable municipalities was 143,500. (Note: only the 2008 statistics are available online currently). Between 2007 and 2011, the town budget increased 80%, and municipal office staffing increased by 58.14%. However during this same period, only one extra library staff person was added. The library portion of the Town's operating expenses
has dropped annually: from 5.1% in 2004 to 3% in 2007. This year the library's portion of the town's budget has fallen to an historic low of 2% (2011).

These serious problems are compounded by higher than average use and program attendance. Performance compared to other Ont. municipalities with 30,001-50,000 pop. Library uses Provincial Avg. W-S Library 794,472 884,496 Program attendance/ card holder .60 1.04 Electronic visits 5.08 9.67 % Municipal pop. holding library cards 48.5% 55.5%

(Based on W-S's 2009 population of 34,775) Thus, while our town's per capita funding for the library has been decreasing annually and is far below the provincial average, the percentage of residents that are library card holders and users is much higher than the provincial average! Unfortunately, each objective municipal and provincial performance indicator available shows unambiguously that the Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library is severely underfunded. This should be a concern for all people who care about our community.

Please sign the attached petition to bring about a change and to support our library!
For more information you can email WSLibraryPetition@gmail.com or visit

http://WSLibraryPetition.blogspot.com

| Email: WSLibraryPetition@gmail.com | Web: http://WSLibraryPetition.blogspot.com