Review staff:
In recognition of October being Library Month, many activities were or are being held at the Rimbey Municipal branch, however there is a much-less known library located in the foyer of the Provincial Building that aims at providing information and advice for a variety of social and sociological topics.
“The resource library is a collection of games, audio cassettes, DVDs videos, books, teaching aides, therapeutic games and they explore a variety of issues important to living a healthy life,” said Resource Librarian Audrey Ann Bresnahan. “Anyone with problems such as grief, parenting, discipline, nutrition, etc, can come here and borrow the items in the library free of charge.”
Similar to other libraries, patrons can borrow material for one, two or three weeks depending on demand and is seeing some considerable usage from a wide cross-section of society including teachers.
“The teachers actually use it quite a bit,” Bresnahan said. “There are liaison workers that work within the school systems – maybe with children who have certain issues, and they come and borrow the items quite frequently. It’s a resource that people don’t even realize is even here, so we’d like to get a little more exposure out in the community.”
While the two may be similar in name, the one operated by Family Community Support Services (FCSS) is somewhat different in their subject matter.
“This has a different focus than the downtown library,” Bresnahan said. “This is focused on people’s emotional and therapeutic needs for example, as opposed to reading for enjoyment or simple pleasure that they would get out of the downtown library.”
In addition to reading material, the library also features a number of videos, DVDs and several games, which Bresnahan said are intended to teach children while they have fun.
“They provide an easier way for kids to relate,” she said. “Rather than somebody just saying, ‘This is the way you should act,’ the games provide kids the opportunity to actually play it out and they don’t realize that they’re learning at the same time. In some cases, it’s just an easier way to teach them.”
As for the majority of users, Bresnahan said it really comes down to basically everyone.
“It varies. The teachers – I just had a meeting with the ministers at the churches to inform them, and the public in general,” she said. “We do have a few videos that are of interest to children with an underlying theme that they would watch for fun. Husbands, wives, teenagers, parents coming in to get things for their kids, it’s suited for anybody.”
With more than 300 different sources of information to select from, the library touches on themes such as self esteem, sibling rivalry, discipline, adoption, nutrition, tolerance, illness, feeling, palliative care, parenting, grieving, divorce, marital problems, volunteers, stress, aging and a number of others.
“The public is more than welcome anytime, anybody from any walk of life,” Bresnahan concluded. “If they have any problems that they think the Family Community Support Services (FCSS) here at the Provincial Building could meet, just come in and speak to someone here and I’m sure they can be very helpful in some way.”