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Joan Richoz

Bibliophile-plus Joan Richoz is synonymous with the Whistler Public Library.

Bibliophile-plus

Joan Richoz is synonymous with the Whistler Public Library. A Whistler resident since 1974, she was a member of the arts council when people began talking about the need for a library in 1984, after the former Keg building had become municipal hall and there was empty space available in the basement. A public library association was formed and a board of trustees, including Richoz, was elected. In the spring of 1986 Joan was hired as librarian, in charge of purchasing materials and meeting the growing community?s demands for library services. She?s been doing that ever since. On Sept. 1, at 2 p.m., the Whistler Public Library celebrates its 15 th anniversary.

When did the library open?

We opened in August, 1986 which, when I think about it, is absolutely astonishing that we did it so fast. Because the whole basement of municipal hall where we were had to be finished. And it was the Rotary Club that did all that work. Those people were amazing.

We had sort of our official opening in July because the Socred convention was here. There were all these politicians and some of our trustees thought this would be a good idea, get the politicians involved. So John Reynolds, who was our MLA, and Grace McCarthy came and officially opened it ? and then we had to close the doors for another month because we really weren?t ready to open. And then we opened on Aug. 27, 1986.

Is starting a library from nothing?

Scary. It was very scary, because there?s no list of books that you?re supposed to purchase. The most they had was a recommended list of reference titles that every library shouldn?t be without. But they?re pretty obvious anyway. So the library services branch? every public library association has a consultant, and so our consultant was Jim Looney, who?s now the assistant director of library services. He was a fabulous help. He just sort of said, what you need to do is start purchasing all the latest titles, and you can always purchase, you know, do a retrospective selection for classics and things like that. But the majority of people really want to read what?s just been published, and so that?s what we did.

And at that time the library services branch offered a great service, they subscribed to about 15, 20 selection sources and they then culled from that the reviews that they thought all public libraries should look at. And then if we wanted to order books we just ordered them through them? They ordered them, they received them, they covered all the books, they processed them. We had to catalogue them, and that was a huge job because we weren?t automated. So it meant typing every one of those little cards. And we had volunteers to help, but you?ve got to make sure it?s correct.

And not only did we have to type all those cards, we had to file them all. So I think after a year of doing that we decided we?ve got to find something that?s automated, for the card production. So we got a program that had a database, so that then once we?d automated we wouldn?t lose all the work. So that was a terribly big step forward. And then in 1993 we automated the check-in, check-out.

But yeah, it was pretty scary doing the initial order. I sort of though I had an idea of what areas of non-fiction people would be most interested in ? and it?s interesting because they?re basically about the same today as they were then: travel, parenting, start-your-own-business stuff, learning other languages.

When the library first opened in 1986 it was small and cramped?

Oh it was big and empty when we first started, because we only had 2,500 books, and 1,400 square feet. There was lots of room to begin with, but very quickly we outgrew that.

It was difficult to find though.

We had to do so much work just to let people know that there was a library and how to get there, because you had to really be looking for the library to find it. It?s not like now where people could actually be walking by and go, "Oh, there?s the library." And that was one of the reasons that our trustees have always felt that it was important our location be central and visible. It used to be central, but not really visible. You?d have to go down that great big long walkway, around the back from the emergency. We had to do a lot of work to let people know we were here.

But people came?

Oh they did. I mean we?re still always increasing our number of new borrowers and numbers of items checked out, by a minimum of 10 per cent a year, which is pretty amazing. I mean, for many years it was 20 per cent, 30 per cent. And a lot of libraries now are seeing it sort of level, even drop a little bit, in circulation. I keep thinking there?s got to be a year when it?s going to level out ? but it hasn?t. It?s just a really popular place.

So it?s residents, second homeowners?

Yes, and a lot of visitors. We actually did a survey over six months, and at different times of the day, different days of the week, and we just asked people when they came in where their permanent address was. And so there were people who were here for the winter but who lived in Australia. And of course the permanent homeowners, those that worked in Whistler but lived in Pemberton, and then visitors. And it turned out that 17 per cent of the people who came in were visitors. I knew there were lots of visitors, but I didn?t know it would be that high. Because we do have visitor memberships, so we can track those numbers. But there?s lots of visitors who don?t come in to borrow a book, they just come in to use the Internet or sit down and read a magazine or newspaper. So that was really good to know what that number was.

Second homeowners, yeah. Lots and lots of use by them, because most of them are Interlink members, and we have to track the Interlink circulation. What happens is we get reimbursed if we check out more books to Interlink borrowers than Whistler borrowers borrow from Interlink libraries. And we?re among the elite ? Burnaby, Vancouver, Richmond ? who lend out more than their borrowers borrow. So we get reimbursed, I think it?s about 50 cents a net circulation. And last year it was $400.

It just shows that Interlink is extremely popular with Lower Mainland second homeowners. It?s great for them, especially if they have families. They come in, borrow CDs, videos, books for their kids, and they can return them in Vancouver if they haven?t finished with them.

Has the library?s role in Whistler changed over the years?

Yes. Originally it was basically books, for locals. We used to charge a membership fee, and non-members, somebody from Squamish or Pemberton, had to pay $20 per year. Seasonal workers, temporary residents had to pay $20 a year. Eventually we got rid of that temporary clause, because we really felt it was preventing a lot of people from using the library.

And then in 1995 the Library Act was revised and it made user fees illegal. And most libraries, that?s one of their basic philosophies: information is free, and access to information should be free. We don?t want to be charging, even if doesn?t sound like a lot of money, it?s a deterrent for a lot of people.

So it started out it was books and it was local people, and it?s evolved. We?re certainly much more than books, although that?s still, as far as I?m concerned, a major part of the library, its selection of books. But magazines, music CDs ? we?re now starting to order books on CD. All the online data bases and the Internet. The whole access to information on the Internet has really changed. And a lot of people come in to do e-mail. So we get all kinds of people in here who just come in to do that and then they look around and sit down to read a paper or maybe even borrow a book.

And lots of people are surprised the library is the way it is. They think it?s a little small-town library with dusty old paperbacks ? because there are still some libraries like that, unfortunately. But it?s pretty good for a small library. And we do get a lot of comments on that, and often from librarians, which is like the highest praise we can get.

And authors. Actually there was an author in two weeks ago, Sue Harrison, quite a well-known American writer. She noticed that one of her books we had in our collection was overdue for two years, so she sent us a copy of it in the mail, and said: "I noticed this was missing and I just wanted to commend you on a great collection of books." That was just wonderful to get that kind of feedback from an author, and for her to be so kind to send us a book.

And of course we?ve got videos. Our video collection is very, very popular. People really like foreign films and things that are a little bit different. That?s one of the things I did in university, never knowing how it would serve me but I did some film courses, so that helps.

And we always try to keep on top of best sellers, that?s all some people want to read. And there?s always the new books that are, you know they?re going to be really, really good but they?re not going to hit the best seller list. And we order those as well. They don?t go out as much but they?re really good writing, and I think it?s really important to have those.

You don?t have enough room for your whole collection now, do you?

It?s our biggest challenge right now. These books, for example, these are all catalogued. They?re duplicate copies or they?re ones that haven?t gone out too much. So we?ve changed the status on the catalogue to say they?re in the back, because there?s no room. We recently had to add a shelf to the top of all the shelves of books, which we really didn?t want to do. Normally we?d like everything to be sort of eye level and (knee level), so you don?t have to squat and you don?t have to reach. For old people, they can?t get anything that?s on the bottom shelf.

But right now we?re just bursting, and we?re going to be bursting for the next couple of years. We?re going to have to box-up books. We weed all the time, but we?re at the point where there?s not much more to weed, because we?re getting to a core collection that we can?t weed out. You know, the Shakespeare doesn?t go out every week, but you want it and we?ve got duplicates of things so we?ll have to box up some of that stuff and it won?t be accessible, for a couple of years ? because there?s no more room.

We?re just hoping that if we have to move from this location, to build the new library, that we?ll be able to get another trailer.

We need way more room for people to sit. People sit in the kids? area, on the floor. Last Tuesday when it was that horrible, horrible rain, this place? there must have been 70 or 80 people in it. Every aisle had four or five people, every chair was taken, people were on the floor.

But even if we had another trailer it would have to be just for the collection, because right now we?re at capacity, and we?re going to be here at least two more years, because the building hasn?t started.

What?s your vision of the new building, physically but also what role it would play in the community?

Aside from being a centre for knowledge and information, recreational reading, I think it?s really a centre for the community as well. It?s always served that role. It?s a place where if you?re a new mom in town, you can come to the story time and meet other women or care givers, your child can meet other children, and there?s friendships formed right away.

Or it?s like when you go to the post office or the bank and you?re standing in line, there?s usually somebody you know. I think that?s a really important role, because we have something that?s called a community centre, but it really isn?t that. Maybe at Meadow Park sometimes you?ll bump into people. But we?re really hoping to keep that element to it.

And also to keep the small-town library feel to it, because we?re going to be in a building that?s four times as big. But we want people to still feel that it will have that same sort of personal touch. We get to know what people like to read, and so if a new book comes in and Joe Blow likes that author and he hasn?t put a reserve on it, we?ll give him a call. People really like that. And you can do it. And hopefully that will continue.

So what we want, and this is something we?ve talked about a lot with our trustees, is that when you come in to the library there?s going to be a place where you can talk, and you don?t have to worry so much about noise. We?re sort of envisioning a living room kind of area. Lots of libraries have that now, with a fireplace and big easy chairs, and maybe that will be where the newspapers are, and the periodicals and magazines.

And then as you go through the library you sort of go from noisy to really quiet at the very back. We really hope that we can have a closed in business centre or computer lab, so that?s where people can go to do the Internet and word processing. That tends to be a really noisy part of the library. Hopefully there will be a separate, enclosed, glassed in area for that, which will also have outlets for laptops.

We also really want to have an area in the children?s section that can be closed off for story time, again so we don?t have to worry about the noise. And also what?s really important is a separate meeting/programming room, so that when we do author readings we can do them at any time of the day and not just on a Wednesday when we?re closed. And not have to set everything up and take it down afterwards. That?s what we have to do with the summer reading club. We do three sessions on Wednesday. My staff is amazing ? it?s so much work. But that?s the only time we can do it, when the library?s closed.

The idea too is that it will be a library and museum and you?ll enter through some kind of civic space that can be used for temporary exhibits, maybe art exhibits, you could have a lecture in there, a reception of some sort. But that can also be a community space as well. You see somebody you know you can have a bit of a visit there.

I guess the main thing is that it still be a community place ? and welcoming too. But I think that?s a really important role that we play.

Will it help define Whistler, and what Whistler is, too?

I think it?s important that it do that because we?re in the village and we?re really the only community amenity, besides the museum ? which is more for tourists, although everybody in Whistler should have been there at least once, to see what the history was. But really there?s no other community facility in the village. So at least people know that there is a community when they come here, because there?s a library and this is where they?ll see lots of local people. I think that?s very important for the life of the village, that it not just be all the stores.

What do you like to read?

I like mysteries? I?ve gone through phases. When I finished university I thought, "Oh, now I can just read for pleasure." I read all of Thomas Hardy ? loved Thomas Hardy. I read all of Dostoyevsky. I?d sort of find an author and then just read everything.

And then I read a whole bunch of sci-fi about 10 or 15 years ago. And now I?d say if it?s a genre, I read mysteries. I read mostly fiction. Non-fiction tends to be more professional reading, although one book I read last year, The Professor and The Madman, it is so good. It?s a history of how the Oxford English Dictionary got started and it is so fascinating.

John Irving is one of my favourite writers. Mordecai Richler, a lot of Canadian authors like Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence, Robertson Davies. I feel really strongly about Canadian content in what we purchase, particularly in the children?s collection. I think it?s really important that our children have books that reflect Canada. Obviously American publishers publish way more books than Canadians do, but I think it?s really important ? they have to meet our criteria as well ? but I think it?s really important that we have those books. And books that reflect aboriginal culture, First Nations culture as well.