The Sylvan Lake Municipal Library is now offering free library cards to residents of Sylvan Lake, Red Deer Country and summer villages.
Director Haley Amendt says this is something that's been in the works for a while.
"Just to make sure that library service is barrier-free so that everyone, regardless of their economic standing can borrow and use library services without feeling any financial constraints," she explained.
Amendt noted that the change created some budget concerns for the board as well as the municipality, adding they wanted to make sure that they were being responsible to taxpayers while balancing the needs of the community.
"Since COVID, we've been budgeting about $12,000 in revenue for memberships," she said. "Since then, we've actually seen that increase to pre-pandemic or even greater than pre-pandemic levels. While we are losing that revenue from memberships, we actually are anticipating that we won't have an overall loss in revenue because we've seen an increase in things like printing and donations."
Sylvan Lake Municipal Library was previously charging $20 per household per year to check out library resources, with a discounted fee of $12.50 for senior citizens. Fees have been waived since Jan. 1, 2025.
Amendt says the library had 2,233 cardholders at the end of 2024 and was sitting at 2.293 at the end of January. She's expecting that number to increase further once people become aware of the fee change.
Alberta is one of the only jurisdictions in North America that allows for libraries to charge membership fees for a physical card. Amendt says the trend in recent years in Alberta has been to scrap the annual fee. She estimates that close to 70 per cent of libraries in the Parkland region are now free.
Many services at the library were already free prior to the start of the year including computers and Wi-Fi access.
In January, Sylvan Lake Municipal Library circulated 7,247 books which was one of their higher months on record. On average, the library circulates between 5,000 and 8,000 books per month.
Amendt says they've been noticing a lot of young people getting back into reading with apps like TikTok and Instagram promoting the activity.
A physical library card at the Sylvan Lake Library allows users to borrow books, movies, video games, board games, and kits for up to 21 days. These items can be returned to any library in Alberta. Users do not require a membership to access services such as the internet or the in-house PS5.
Registration in library programs is also free.
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