Wood Buffalo Regional Library in the Rural Communities
The Wood Buffalo Regional Library (WBRL) has a history of involvement in our rural and Aboriginal communities, and actively participates and engages with our cultural groups, developing and harvesting respectful relationships, and improving services. We embrace a community-led approach, allowing us to harvest a number of productive relationships.
Traditional library services may not always be a benefit to communities, and we often look for ways to transform traditional services and policies. We incorporate Aboriginal principles and perspectives into our core services and deliverables.
The WBRL visits the hamlet of Anzac twice a month, with visits to Willow Lake Tiny Tots Head Start, Anzac Elementary School and Anzac Community School. At the Anzac Recreational Centre and Anzac Community Hall, special events take place four times per year.
We visit Fort McMurray #468 First Nations, Aboriginal on Reserve Head Start twice per month for regular programming.
Conklin Community School visits for regular programming take place once per month, and Conklin Community Centre hosts special events 4 times per year
The hamlet of Fort McKay is located 58 kilometres north of Fort McMurray on the west bank of the Athabasca River and is situated amongst many oil sands operational sites.
We offer the Fort McKay School and Fort McKay Head Start regular programming twice per month, with special events four times per year.
Situated on the shores of Bohn Lake, the hamlet of Janvier also has two visits per month scheduled with Father Perin, Janvier Head Start with special events taking place four times per year.
Nestled on the northwest shore of Lake Athabasca, Fort Chipewyan is one of the most northern communities in the RMWB. Isolated by nature, Fort Chipewyan can only be accessed by plane or boat in the summer and by a winter road in the winter.
Athabasca Delta Community School visits happen once per month for regular programming, and three special events take place per year. Bookshelves are housed in the Community Centre and are restocked bi-monthly. Book delivery is in place in partnership with RMWB.
The new WOW (Words in Motion) Mobile Library will be in each community twice per month (excluding Fort Chip) during the months of May through October. WOW offers free memberships, books, DVDs, videos and games to book out, access to our online resources and free WiFi when located in the community.
Bookshelves are housed in the Community Centre’s located in Anzac, Fort McMurray #468 First Nations, Conklin, Fort McKay and Janvier. WBRL re-stocks the shelves on a bi-monthly schedule. This is a take a book, return a book concept. A book delivery service is currently being organized and should be in place by the end of 2018. WBRL will deliver requested books to the Centre’s for pick and book drops will be available for returns by the patron.
We would like to acknowledge and thank Suncor Energy Inc. for their sponsorship of the 2018 Rural Programs. We are extremely happy that they came on board this year so that we were able to continue to offer quality programs to the rural communities. Thank you Suncor!
