When asked what he reads, Richard Bee, head librarian of North Battleford Public Library, answered “standard nerd stuff.”
In his teen years, Bee was fascinated by Tom Clancy and Louis L’Amour. Later in life Bee said his interests turned to nonfiction, science fiction and fantasy, and a series he said he finished recently was The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson. He also said he’s a recent convert to Dungeons and Dragons.
Bee was born and raised on a farm 15 minutes south of Neepawa, Man. He attended elementary school in the town of Brookdale (which had about 100 people) and attended high school in Neepawa (with a population of close to 5,000).
Bee then attended Brandon University, and stayed in Brandon after graduating. While going to university, Bee worked in a campus library as a student assistant, then took on a library assistant role for six years.
After that, Bee pursued a Masters of Library and Information Sciences degree at the University of Alberta. He began working in North Battleford in August of this year.
Bee said working as a head librarian has been an “eye-opening experience.”
“It’s been very interesting,” Bee said. “It’s an adjustment going from the bottom of the hierarchy at a small university setting to then being top of the proverbial food chain of a small public library.”
Bee’s role includes supervising staff who are responsible for subsections within the library, acting as a day-to-day operations manager, collections management, and occasionally, dealing with tech problems. He also said the head librarian role involves much more event organizing than he anticipated.
“There aren’t too many dull moments,” Bee said.
North Battleford Public Library is in the Lakeland Library Region, a puzzle-piece-shaped area that also includes Meadow Lake, Lloydminster, Primate and Borden. There are 32 libraries in the region.
The North Battleford branch has the highest lending statistics out of the libraries in the region. Bee said there are a number of reasons for this, including usage from Battleford and from people who drive from Cochin and Glaslyn who travel to North Battleford to, for example, buy groceries.
The library also lends books to libraries in towns, and Bee said the truck travels about 400 kms each day.
The North Battleford branch carries a diversity of media, including books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs, and video games.
“We cater to a lot of tastes,” Bee said. “Some people are keen to get their westerns fix, other people might want large print romance, or maybe someone has an action movie interest so they’ll take out a lot of action movie DVDs.”
Bee said no two libraries are the same, and libraries vary according to the distinctive features of the communities they happen to be in, along with the staff who work at the library.
A popular feature at the North Battleford Public Library, Bee said, is genealogical searches. A library staff member with experienced in genealogical searches can help patrons who want to begin searching their family history. The library also houses a large collection of local archives.
Given the presence of First Nations people in and around the city, Bee said one of his goals as head librarian is to expand the First Nations materials in the library’s collection, particularly pertaining to teaching languages. Some of the library’s books include picture books for children learning Cree.
The library isn’t just for silent reading either, as it periodically hosts events which are free to the public. A book club that Bee says is enthusiastic meets once a month, while the library also hosts speakers. A recent speaker detailed, in front of an audience, his experience following last year’s solar eclipse. Bee is also planning for an author to present a book launch to take place later this year.
The effect of the March 2017 budget on libraries made headlines earlier this year, as the provincial government had originally planned to decrease library funding. Although the decreases were fully restored after strong public reaction against the decreases, Bee said the library’s funding wasn’t affected. He also credits this to the fact that the city has a close relation with the library and that there is strong community support for the library in North Battleford. Bee, along with other local leaders in various positions, is nonetheless going to be paying close attention to the 2018 provincial budget.
Bee’s master’s degree doesn’t simply prepare one to be a librarian, but offers students the opportunity to explore the broad concept of librarianship, which sees libraries as fundamental locations in communities, and its staff as leaders who have the ability to improve circumstances and enact change.
“We do have some interesting individuals who come in and, they may be the more problematic sort,” Bee said, “but that’s kind of the nature of being in North Battleford. There is a whole lot of issues that the city itself is working at and, because we are open to the public, a lot of those problems are reflected in what the staff deals with.”
While libraries can attract homeless individuals, which some see as enabling homelessness, helping those who find themselves homeless is one of the library’s purposes, Bee said, such as offering computers and printers to prepare resumes. Bee also said recent immigrants use the library as a resource to help them learn English and acclimatize to prairie culture.
One of the major requirements for being a head librarian, Bee said, is “trying to stay open-minded about the people coming through the doors.”
Upcoming at the library, on Feb. 1, is a storytelling event hosted in conjunction with Library Services for Saskatchewan Aboriginal Peoples. February is Aboriginal storytelling month.
