The Shawville-Clarendon library has received more financial support from the two municipalities that fund it than any other library in the Outaouais region, and for this it has received an award.
The token of recognition was given by the Biblio library network that manages the libraries across the Outaouais’ four MRCs.
Shawville and Clarendon municipalities together invested $13,770 in the library last year – more money than any other library that serves a population greater than 1,200 people received in 2023.
The award was given to the library both to recognize the significant financial contributions it has received from its municipalities, but also to honour the work its librarians have done to develop its local collection using this money.
“For us that’s huge because it’s really hard to compete against what big libraries like Wakefield can do,” said head librarian Heather Sly, noting the Shawville library serves a community on the smaller end of that population bracket.
The runner-up in the category was the Val-des-Bois library, which is . . .
shared with the Municipality of Bowman, and received $5,958 in municipal funding last year.
All libraries across the Outaouais Biblio network share a collection of books and other media that rotate between locations every several months. But libraries are also encouraged to develop their own permanent, local collections that never leave the community.
It was the work and resources that went into building Shawville’s local collection that was honoured with this award.
“They put a lot of money into developing their collection,” said Sylvie Thibault, director of Outaouais’ Biblio network.
“The municipalities invests the money, we develop the collection,” Sly said.
She works with assistant librarian Ruth Potter to grow Shawville’s local collection.
“We base some of it on what our people are reading. I check what other libraries are buying, what’s on the top hit list, lots of hours of research,” Sly said.
“We don’t work towards awards, we just work to make the people happy who come in here, but it’s nice to be acknowledged.”
Shawville mayor Bill McCleary said it’s an important investment for the municipality.
“It’s unbelievable the programs that are available here. It should be promoted more. There are so many things here that people have no idea about.”
This is the first award the library has received for its collection. It also placed in the top three libraries for the programming it runs, which Sly said includes storytime, a Lego group, and shows at the elementary school in Shawville.
