2018 Annual Financial Report

CITY OF SURREY OVERVIEWS SURREY PUBLIC LIBRARY

Surrey Public Library (Surrey Libraries) has nine branches, located in the six town centres of City Centre, Guildford, Fleetwood, Newton, Cloverdale and South Surrey, as well as in Strawberry Hill, Ocean Park and Port Kells. The Library collects and loans a wide variety of materials in print, audiovisual, and online formats. Our READ-Ability home delivery service utilizes volunteers to take reading materials to people who cannot visit a library. Surrey Libraries offer a wide variety of programs that support literacy, including story times for children, job finding and career workshops, reading clubs for children and teens, computer literacy and coding classes, services for newcomers, and support for customers with print disabilities. Surrey Libraries is a member of the Public Library InterLINK, a federation of 18 library systems in the Lower Mainland that allows citizens to borrow directly from all partner libraries and to return materials at their home library branch. The BC OneCard program allows Surrey residents to borrow materials directly from other participating BC public libraries when they are travelling. The department has responsibility for the following divisions:

ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES Administrative Services manages the physical spaces, as well as the finance, human resources and information technology functions of the Library system, ensuring day-to-day service requirements are met. This division also manages the Library’s image and raises awareness and funds to support and enhance its community services.

PUBLIC SERVICES Public Services manages the borrowing and information services offered through our nine locations and plans, promotes, and delivers a wide variety of programs. This division also acquires and manages the print and electronic collections that suit the needs of our diverse community.

2 0 1 8 A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S • Offered a Rainbow Storytime for LGBTQ+ families and friends and Sensory Storytimes for children on the Autism Spectrum.

• Ran a Neighbourhood Safety Series of workshops to educate the community on taking action on public safety, the threat of hate crimes on public safety, and changing demographics and common goals for safe neighbourhoods. • Helped citizens improve digital literacy skills with technology training in branches, online courses at Lynda.com, coding classes for children. • Hosted free Grow With Google seminars to help small business owners increase their online profile.

• Promoted the value of learning by hosting the Grand Reading Link Challenge for kids from grades four and five, with 220 teams of kids from 45 Surrey Schools participating, for a total of 2,594 children. • Issued 1,190 new library cards at events in the community through Mobile Circulation and a total 28,016 new library cards issues overall. • Actively planned for a new library in Clayton Community Centre and major renovations for Cloverdale library.

• Added 5,524 new multilingual items to our collections.

• Developed new Indigenous collections labels and allocated increased resources to building Indigenous collections. • Offered library services and literacy skills to Surrey’s vulnerable and newcomer populations: 6,579 adults benefited from Outreach programs, 261 users received reduced barrier Access Cards, 2,040 Internet Only users were registered for Internet privileges.

• Hosted a series of Open Mic Nights for local writers and poets to showcase their work.

• Engaged with residents and stakeholders to create a new Strategic Plan for Surrey Libraries.

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