A reminder that the Early Bird deadline for the RPL Lottery is June 10th.
This year’s lottery offers cash prizes, free trips to Canadian and international locations, and valuable electronics.
Check it out at http://www.reginalibrarylottery.ca/
Proceeds from the Regina Public Library Lottery will be used for significant renovations or to replace Branch buildings.
The RPL Board has just completed its survey about Central Library services and upgrade of the building.
We have been told by the library that a total of 815 interviews were conducted. 601 were completed by telephone, 210 online. The telephone respondents were generated by calling active numbers drawn from a list purchased commercially from a company that aggregates numbers from published sources. The online responses were generated by e-mailing addresses Praxis maintains. The e-mail addresses come from individuals interviewed in earlier telephone surveys, or who have been recruited periodically and who indicate they are willing to receive surveys.
A survey for patrons to fill out should be available soon – so keep your eyes open at the Library Branches and at the Library website.
The City of Regina will be holding a public meeting abut its Cultural Plan on April 23,6:30 to 8:00 pm at the Conexus Arts Centre.
This will be a good opportunity to strengthen Regina’s cultural activities – including the libraries. Please attend and share your views.
The plan includes both cultural activities and built heritage (buildings, parks, etc.) The objectives of the plan can be seen in advance ot the meeting at http://www.designregina.ca/cultural-plan/ This is a word document of the webpage contents, City of Regina Cultural Plan – notes from City website but there are many related reports on the website – a lot of work has been done.
If you cannot attend in person, presumably comments can also be sent to culturalplan@regina.ca
From: City of Regina, CulturalPlan, : Monday, April 15, 2013 4:00 PM
Tuesday, April 23 from 6:30-8:00 p.m., Conexus Arts Centre, 200 Lakeshore Drive, Regina.
Information developed for the Cultural Plan and Heritage Management Strategy will also be used for portions of Regina’s new Official Community Plan.
More details about the Cultural Plan can be found at this website: www.designregina.ca
NEWS RELEASE: Monday March 25, 2013
REGINA, SK — The Friends of the Regina Public Library (FRPL) are calling for a design for Central Library that is based on renovations and additions, rather than demolishing the current building.
After many months of requesting that material be made public, the Friends’ efforts were successful when the RPL Board gradually released documents related to the Central Library between October 25, 2012 and February 14, 2013. “Some of this material is more than two years old, and we don’t understand why it couldn’t have been released earlier,” said Joanne Havelock of FRPL. “However, we are glad to have it available to the public now.”
“We appreciate that considerable effort has been put into the planning documents and although the original design that came out in 2011 will not be implemented, many of the concepts will be carried forward into the next design,” said Havelock. “There are both interesting and controversial ideas in the Development Plan and the public needs time to review and understand these options.”
FRPL is asking that print copies be made available at each of the library branches.
On Sunday February 24, 2013 FRPL held a public meeting to draw attention to those reports and encourage people to examine their contents. Some key questions came forward at this meeting.
The Library Board had said that it would be holding consultations in March, 2013, but this has not occurred. FRPL would like to know when the consultations will occur and what kind of consultation process will be used. In addition to proposed phone and on-line surveys, will there be a single public meeting or a series of meetings? How will participants be able to share their views?
Participants were surprised that the Development Plan did not include an option for renovation and/or expansion of the current Central Library Building. A survey conducted by FRPL found that Regina residents were quite concerned that the building could be demolished. FRPL is asking the RPL Board to request that the architects prepare a design for renovation and expansion of the current Central Library building. From the Building Assessment report this is not only possible, but more cost-effective and would preserve the heritage of the current modern
FRPL would also like to RPL Board to clarify whether it will be submitting a new proposal to the P3 Canada Fund and whether this would be done for the June 30, 2013 deadline. The FRPL survey found that residents felt that the library building should remain publicly-owned.
FRPL will be making a presentation to the Library Board at 4:30 pm on Tuesday March 26, 2013 at the RPL Boardroom, second floor of Central Library.
Presentation to RPL Board, March 26, 2013 FRPL to RPL Board re March 26, 2013 mtg – final
NEWS RELEASE: Monday March 18, 2013 “Residents Want Library Building to Stay”
REGINA, SK — The Friends of the Regina Public Library (FRPL) are releasing the results of a survey taken to gain opinions about potential upgrading of Central Library. The survey found that:
The RPL Budget will be discussed at City Council on Tuesday February 19 at 5:30 PM. At that time Council will decide to approve or not approve the Library’s request for a 2.9% mill rate increase. FRPL will be making a presentation about various aspects of the RPL budget. Your attendance will show your support for funding for library services.
It’s very important to take a close look at what is being said about the Central Library building! The RPL is planning consultations about new designs in March and people should be well-informed and prepared for these consultations. The RPL Board continues to say that the building is old and needs to be replaced. Please forward thoughts or comments you have to FRPL.
The Building Assessment about the condition of Central Library building
that FRPL has been requesting for a while has finally been made available on the RPL website http://www.reginalibrary.ca/cld/?q=node/22 and is also available here. Building%20Assessment%20Summary%20-%20201206
This document has some critical statements about the condition of the building and the potential for adaptive re-use.
“This report was originally prepared in 2009 and has been updated to
reflect the master Program prepared by Resource Planning Group. The
report consists of a facility analysis by P3A as Architects, JC Kenyon
Engineering- Structural, MacPherson Engineering- Mechanical, Ritenburg
and Associates- Electrical, Resource Planning Group- Library Programming
and Functionality. The report reflects the requirements of the Regina
Public Library from a technical and functional perspective and reviews
issues related to building re-use.”
The Strategic Plan is an important part of setting the budget and determining future use of the Central Library Building, as well as goals for operations and services. It is very worthwhile to see what the RPL is aiming to accomplish and how it is described.
“RPL – A New Direction – Setting the Course Looking Ahead: 2011 and Beyond”
This is available here stratplan2011 or on the About Us page of the RPL website http://www.reginalibrary.ca/about/index.html
At the RPL’s AGM on Tuesday January 8, 2013 the RPL Chair noted that work on Central Library would be the main focus of the upcoming year.
Gerry Kleisinger asked that the Library Board would appreciate receiving a presentation from the Library Director about “What will the 21st century library look like?”
The Library Director anticipates that the two remaining documents about Central Library redevelopment will be put on the RPL website later this week. These would be a document about the state of the Central Library building and the space needs for the library. The RPL is also planning to do a survey on its website. They are planning to do a public consultation once they have developed new plans for Central Library. This may occur in March.
At the RPL AGM on January 8, 2013 the RPL Board indicated that it would be asking for a 2.9% increase in its mill rate. The Library Director indicated that the main areas where the increase will be going are: technology spending including self service machines; collections especially e-books and audio books; security at the branches; programming such as “Read to Me” distributing books at hospital to parents of newborns, Aboriginal programming; increased hours at branches.
The RPL will be forwarding its budget to City Council this week and it will be available on Friday the 18th to be tabled at the January 21 meeting of Council. The RPL will not be making a presentation at that time, but will be present at a meeting of the Executive Committee to be held in January/February. The RPL budget will be discussed at City Council in February. At that time Council will decide whether to approve or not approve the RPL’s request for a 2.9% increase in its mill rate.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 2013, Budget, City Council, City of Regina, Friends of the Regina Public Library, FRPL, library, Mayor, Regina Public Library
Friends of the Regina Public Library 