The residents of Weyburn and area have one of the best library facilities for a city of this size in the province, and yet those services are being eroded by a steady decline in circulation numbers over the past few years.

Starting this fall, the Weyburn Public Library will start feeling some of the crunch caused by reduced library usage. The library's hours will be reduced, plus the most junior position in the library was eliminated, to make up a three-per-cent budget deficit.

And what has been behind this reduction in the budget? Consider the usage of library materials, or circulation numbers, has declined by nearly 40 per cent just since the year 2000. That is a huge drop for a library that not only serves the city of Weyburn, but residents from surrounding farms, villages and towns (such as in the RM) would be coming to Weyburn to use the library.

Consider the range of services and materials available in this library, and consider how many years the board for this library fought to get an expansion to a size that could accommodate the needs of this library, and this huge drop in usage does not really make sense.

The library has kept up with the times, with the addition of several public-use Internet computer terminals that have access to high-speed Internet, not to mention several other programs that make the computers useful on their own for residents, students, business people and those of all walks of life.

There has even been the addition of new reading machines that can read stored old newspapers and other archival material, and the headquarters of the Weyburn Genealogical Society is at the library to make use of the research materials available there. There are full selections of fiction and non-fiction for every age level and books for those with poor eyesight; there is a CD collection of music, and movies to borrow for both children and adults.

There are children's programs through the year and the summer reading program during the holidays, plus regular visits by authors and community speakers on business topics and other general interest topics, to engage members of the community in learning new things and to expand their knowledge.

The library also houses the Allie Griffin Art Gallery to further assist in providing outlets for the arts and culture to city and area residents.

Like any community facility or service, there are always improvements that can be made or added - but like anything else in this society, these improvements cost money, and money is at a premium for the library when they have to reduce hours.

The bottom line is, if we love our library, and want the library to remain and serve the community, we need to use it and support it; otherwise, we could well lose it, or see its services eroded further, and that would benefit no one. - Greg Nikkel