I've been checking the Fraser-Hickson Library website every so often since they closed in early 2007. It took some time before the website changed to reflect the closing, I think they posted some press releases about it at the time. I can't remember, it's been so long. But then nothing changed, until I checked on January 30th, 2010. I don't know when it changed exactly, I'd checked at least a few weeks before.

Now (early Feb. 2010) they have a bit up at the website about what's planned. They also ran an ad in The Gazette on February 3 on page A15, viewable here. I've only seen it the once, and while I looked carefully through The Suburban last week, a logical place for such an ad, I didn't see it. I'm not sure how good the ad works to get people interested, it seems too focused on attracting those who at least know about the library, and more likely care about the library. Why should anyone bother to look at a website when the ad can't even convey something to that public in the first place?

The news is that having rented the space at the Trinity Memorial Church for fifteen months (has it been that long?), the Anglican Diocese of Montreal apparently won't extend the lease. Which leaves me wondering how the project was allowed to even start if a long term lease wasn't there from the beginning, or what has happened since the lease began that the library is no longer wanted there?

There's a 4meg pdf here which is a 2010 planning study from the Anglican Diocese of Montreal that suggests merging two other churches with Trinity Memorial, so perhaps the church no longer has space to spare.

The library is looking for comments, and the way it reads it sounds to me like they really want to know whether they should continue with reopening the library at all.

Before continuing, let's get in place the links to old stories about the library, since the library itself isn't posting this information:

But really, it wouldn't cost much to keep people informed, one can't really act on vague bits of information. The library was down to about $400,000 in trust when it closed in 2007, if I'm reading things right. They had once lived off the interest from the trust, but that was no longer sufficient, which is why they used up the trust and had to close. But $400,000 was the amount it took to keep the library going for a year, maybe not even enough. They got an unspecified amount when they sold the old building, Yet they need that money for a new building, leaving operating costs uncovered. The library reduced its stock of books at the time of closing and kept the rest in storage. They've had one librarian on staff since the closing, run a book delivery service for shut-ins and in retrospect paid rent at the Trinity Memorial Church for over a year. Even being closed uses up money.

The problem is, the library has had three years and really haven't kept the public informed, haven't engaged that public. This is like what happened 3.5 years ago. When the library closed the first time, in 2003 for six months, it was reopened when municipal funding became available for three years. Yet not a word was said until those three years were nearly up, and then the campaign began. Maybe the library thought everything was under control, that the funding would be renewed without any fuss. But it really struck me as the way most small groups operate, only going to the membership or public when they need something, rather than keeping the world informed so they will care (and be informed) when help is needed.

The library has now been closed for close to three years, and only visible the 2 or 3 times when they've gotten some press coverage. They haven't used the webpage to keep the public informed, at the very least had they been regularly updating the webpage there would be reason for people to keep checking it for when Important News came along. I've wasted a lot of time since 1996 checking webpages for news, but I suspect many people would stop bothering after the fifth or sixth time of checking without anything different.

If you want to control information, you need to write it and let it loose. Once it's out there, all kinds of people can talk about it and reference the original source, but if it's not out there then there's a vacuum, and a vacuum often leads to either rumor or assumption. Or indifference. Some searches reveals nobody is talking about the library in recent months.

Even last year, I thought they should be out working the crowd, to build a membership for when the library reopened. One of the great ironies is that my interest in the Fraser-Hickson Library is completely based on their used book sales. That's how I first heard about the library, even though I've been around as long as they'd been in NDG. It got me into the library, to see it and make it real. My interest has never been as a library member, though at Vendome I might join up, but as a useful and interesting institution without ties to government, and all of that comes because I went into the library for their used book sale.

I've seen too many Great Plans fall through because their wasn't enough interest among the public, but usually it was because the small groups involved were not engaging that public in the first place. The internet should have changed that, but I don't see it really happening.

A used book sale is a way of being out in the public eye before the library reopens, it's a way of saying "remember us?", and luring in new people who might learn about the project. If you have no news to tell (though on a website one can offer up a lot lower detail that isn't worth trying to get old media coverage for), then creating an event gets you back into the public eye, even for those people who don't come to the sale they may learn about the library or be reminded of it. Publicity/outreach/advertising/whatever should not just be about filling seats, it's about informing the public.

For a long time, the Fraser-Hickson Library became a neighborhood library, which did let us see the idea of what happens if a library was central to a community (at least partially). But they want to change that, the move to the Trinity Memorial Church near the Vendome metro was to make it more accessible from everywhere on the island, moving back to its roots as a library for all rather than one neighborhood. But after three years of being closed, and a new location, surely they can no longer count on the old membership, they need to be more visible to all to get funding and to become the new members if/when the library reopens.

I don't think we grasped the potential of a non-municipal library, perhaps in part because they were operating more as a neighborhood library for so many years. But that potential becomes the selling point now, what can we do with a library that is accessible to all for a hopefully still nominal membership fee, that isn't burdened by government restrictions or by geographical area?

Since there was a nominal one time membership fee (though perhaps that won't hold with the reopening), it should have been a resource for all of us. All kinds of small groups keep libraries of material pertinent to their own interests, and then have to keep track of that material. With a place like the Fraser-Hickson, open to all (rather than to those who live in an area), and virtually free membership, all those groups could make that material open to all that had an interest, and taking out their own burden of tracking the material. There is lots that can be done with a library that isn't tied to some larger institute, maybe better able to try new things, though of course the disadvantage is the lack of funding.

The Westmount Library recently implemented a system where members could add their reviews to the "card catalog", which struck me as derivative, since Amazon has a much wider customer base than a small municipal library. Far better to allow members to add pointers to relevant websites or comments, so if someone looks for a book about Amateur Radio, they'd find a listing of local amateur radio clubs, or even temporary pointers to upcoming events of a related nature. A book is still a good place to go for an introduction to a topic, and usually if you are interested in something you want such local information. This places the library in a central core of "community". Local reviews doesn't make community, local references do. Or one could extend the book with the card catalog, like that book that had webpages as references, putting the links in the card catalog would mean nobody else had to type them in. Or the time I was reading a biography out of the library and the subject died while I was reading the book, so I slipped a note to that effect into the book before returning it; might as well have linked an obituary to the card catalog entry.

The reverse is true too, if you search for local information about groups or resources, you may be interested in books on the topic, and such a unified "card catalog" takes care of both. An independent library means one can just get the book without fussing over geographic boundaries.

There are lots of books that aren't worth the money to buy early or buy at all, yet I'd still read them if I could get them cheap or free. Libraries often lack middle ground, you can suggest a book and if it fits criteria it will be added, yet the cost of that book comes out of money allocated to buying books. A "card catalog" that included potential new books (and clearly published policy on how books can be added) would change this. If someone wanted such and such a book and added an entry to the catalog, maybe there's someone who's read the book and then with no more interest, would donate it. Or, I'm not willing to spend $30 to get that latest bestseller now, but I might pay five or ten if it meant that 3 or 6 other people interested enough to put the same amount in and the book was purchased. Then the limitation becomes shelf space, not how much money is available to purchase books. Likewise, I might pay five or ten dollars to add extra copies of that bestseller so I could read it sooner, and when the rush is over the library could sell off the extra copies. Or if there is demand, the hills are alive with used book sales and bestsellers are easy to find, might as well stock up from there to fill a temporary high demand.

Who knows what else we could do with a library not under the control of bureaucracy? Maybe that's the direction to go, get the library some status as a teaching library, use it as a practical outlet for library students, for hands on learning but as a laboratory to try new things in the world of libraries. That might be a useful source of funding, it works for other things.

Or maybe it's time to question if one needs a lot of independent libraries on the island? What happens if the Atwater Library is seen as good enough, why not fuse it with the money the Fraser-Hickson Library has in trust? Get the repairs done, lower membership fees, open it up? Or maybe there is good reason to have more independent libraries, but that's a discussion that's needed. Libraries are often "neighborhood based" because they are tied to a municipal government, independent libraries change all that.

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