The Cochrane Public Library continues to expand upon its innovative approach to serving the community. 

At the Oct. 28 council meeting, executive director Jeri Maitland provided a capsule of their success stories, innovations, and budget requests.

The library continues to strive towards hitting its short-term target of receiving town funding of $25.00 per capita. 

The funding has climbed slowly in recent years after stagnant and even regressive amounts earlier this decade. Last year, town council increased it to $23.33 per capita, a 60 cents increase from 2018.

That funding is complemented with support from the provincial government and Rocky View County.

Last week's provincial budget left library funding untouched. Maitland believes that speaks volumes to their importance.

"I have to think that this speaks to the fact that they are acknowledging that when times are tough, libraries become even more relevant."

Through it all, library usage has climbed to record levels. Currently, the library receives an average of 350 people through its doors each day. By the end of 2019, they'll have had over 330,000 visits, up 10,000 from 2018. That doesn't include any of their special events, such as the popular Medieval Day.

They have over 19,000 members and continue to offer free programming to over 13,000 people annually.

For many years now, the local library has been far more than the lender of books and DVDs. It has extensive programming and has become the lender of many things, including tools, games and puzzles, garden and power tools and life jackets. They have a 3D printer and makerspace equipment.

Being added to the list shortly is the lending of snowshoes and avalanche kits.

"We'll maybe have two avalanche kits and then we'll probably have 15 to 20 pairs of snowshoes, so we can encourage people to get out and exercise over the winter."

Later this month, they are introducing an Indigenous program, thanks to a grant from the Marigold Library System.

"We do a lot in our small space," she said. "We have an amazing staff that is well educated, work hard and give everything their all, and somehow we manage."

The library wants to establish a satellite location, possibly at the SLS Family Sports Centre. They also working towards acquiring a vehicle for their outreach work in the community.

The forward-thinking approach of the library has caught the attention of other libraries in the region.

"We've done so many amazing years in the last four or five years. Other libraries want to do and emulate what we've done," she told council.

In their budget request, the library wants to expand its staff by one FTE from 12.5 FTE in order to support the satellite location.