‘They are absolutely an essential service that needs to be properly funded,’ says Rachel Reid
From CBC NEWS
The Nova Scotia author says she feels rural libraries are an essential service and she wanted to do her best to help the struggling Annapolis Valley Regional Library.
Nova Scotia author Rachel Reid has donated $300,000 to the Annapolis Valley Regional Library after hearing five branches were set to permanently shutter.
“I had to do it because I don’t know what the point is of being a successful author in Nova Scotia if you’re not going to use it for good,” Reid told CBC News in an interview Monday.
Last month, the Annapolis Valley Regional Library decided to use half of its reserve funds — $80,000 — to keep those five branches open until Sept. 30.
The library board had asked municipalities for $351,000 in top-up funding earlier this year to keep the libraries in Hantsport, Kentville, Lawrencetown, Port Williams and Middleton open until the end of the 2026-27 fiscal year. About a third of that money was committed, but it still left more than $200,000 to cover.
In an interview with Radio-Canada on Tuesday, library chief executive officer Julia Merritt said Reid’s gift means the five branches will be able to continue operating through to the end of the 2026-27 fiscal year.
“It’s very, very helpful and so welcome, enormously so and yet we know that the next fiscal year is coming and that the challenges are going to remain so it’s still very much a sense of urgency that we need to address this issue,” Merritt said.
‘An incredibly generous gift’
She said the funding is going to be used almost exclusively for the staffing costs for the branches.
In a news release Monday, the library said Reid’s donation represented one of the most significant private gifts in its history.
“This is an incredibly generous gift, and we are profoundly grateful to Rachel for choosing to invest in libraries, the Annapolis Valley, and the people our libraries serve,” Merritt said in the release.
Making a difference
“Her support will make a meaningful difference and help us continue creating opportunities for people across the region to read, learn and connect.”
Reid, author of the wildly popular Heated Rivalry series, said libraries are “absolutely an essential service that needs to be properly funded.” She said libraries helped her become a successful author.
“When I was a kid, I grew up in Bedford, N.S., and I was at that Bedford library all the time taking out as many books as they’d let me at a time and burning through them,” Reid said.
“A lot of those books are what initially inspired me to be an author. Even into adulthood, that’s where I started reading romance novels.”
Reid said she leaned on the library as a meeting place, a place where she took her kids and met other parents.
‘I don’t think I’d be an author without my local library’
“They had so many great programs. It was great for my kids when they were younger. I just think they are such an important service to communities that goes way beyond free books and access to different magazines and things like that. I don’t think I’d be an author without my local library,” she said.
The library said Reid’s donation doesn’t replace “the critical need for an increase in the stable annual public funding and strong municipal and provincial partnerships needed to sustain library services over the long term.”
Reid said she’s hoping the donation will bring more awareness to funding concerns for public libraries.
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“I want to continue to live in Nova Scotia and I do feel that lately there have been a lot of government decisions made that make it less appealing to live in Nova Scotia and this is one of them,” Reid said.
“I want to do what I can to help, but I also think private donations can’t replace government policy which is where this funding should be coming from but I also feel like if you are able to help, you should, so that’s why I’m doing it.”
Merritt told Radio-Canada libraries are funded in a joint partnership. In rural Nova Scotia, she said, 71 per cent of that funding comes from the province, 26 per cent from municipal funding partners and the library board is responsible for generating three per cent of its revenue.
Province responds
She said the funding formula needs to change to ensure Nova Scotia’s public libraries and Annapolis Valley Regional Library is sustainable going into the future.
The library said it is still committed to working with the government to ensure “communities across the region continue to have access to strong, vibrant public libraries.”
Nova Scotia’s Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage told Radio-Canada that Reid’s donation “will give us the time we need to work with AVRL and our municipal partners on a sustainable operating model that reflects the province’s financial realities.”
“We’re grateful to every Nova Scotian who supports their local libraries — including author Rachel Reid, whose gift to the Annapolis Valley Regional Library is especially generous. Library boards fundraise a portion of their budget under our shared funding formula, and gifts like this support that work,” the department said in a statement.
Reid will participate in a special ticketed public event next month celebrating libraries, reading and community. Merritt said more information on that will be announced later this week.