Annual Financial Report 2020

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 2 0 A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S

• Created an Outreach Services Manual to use as training tool for staff. • Added Land Acknowledgement signage in our branches to highlight that our work takes place on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people.

• Helped citizens improve digital literacy skills with training in branches and online.

• Added Elgato Video Capture Digital Converters to our collection to allow people to digitize their treasured memories from a VCR, camcorder or other analogue video sources for playback on digital devices or to share with friends and family online. • Created an online card registration process, registering 2,855 new members through this process and welcomed 11,441 new library members overall. • Actively planned for a new library in Clayton Community Centre. • Reopened the Cloverdale branch after major structural and aesthetic renovations.

• Facilitated the Google IT Support Certificate program for 50 learners in Surrey.

• Developed a Newcomer Integration Plan.

• Hosted Indigenous authors and storytellers for children online.

• Provided access to online courses from Gale and Lynda.com and offered access to Cypress Resume. • Ran 79 in-branch STEM programs hosting 865 participants and moved STEM programming online with 13 videos. • Partnered with UBC Geering Up to facilitate Virtual Coding workshops and with North Surrey Secondary Robotics Club to offer coding classes online. • Offered online programs such as: Reading Link Challenge, Teen Challenge Tuesdays and Teen Book Review.

• Presented cross-cultural workshops.

• Added SUMMA to online resources: Canadian educational videos for kids and adults featuring Indigenous voices. • Offered library services and literacy skills to Surrey’s vulnerable and newcomer populations through outreach programs, reduced barrier access cards, online programming and Internet only user passes. • Expanded electronic and online resources for people to access from home during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

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