by Jessie Bach

The Summer Reading Club is over, the fall semester is in full swing, the Halloween parties are all cleaned up, and I’ve finally found the time to profile another of Alberta’s wonderful public libraries. This month takes us to Grande Prairie, where I chatted with Director Deb Cryderman about the innovative programs and services they have on offer, the library’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and the challenges of managing a team during changing times.

Grande Prairie is the largest city north of Edmonton and a hub to areas in northeastern British Columbia, northwestern Alberta, and the southern Northwest Territories. The population is about 65,000 people, with the largest proportion of people between the ages of thirty and thirty-four. The Grande Prairie Public Library (GPPL) serves the City of Grande Prairie and parts of the MD of Greenview and the County of Grande Prairie. It’s located in the beautiful Montrose Cultural Centre in downtown Grande Prairie, directly across the street from City Hall.

Deb Cryderman has been the Director of GPPL since November 2018 and has been working in libraries since her first Summer Reading Programmer job in 1986. When I asked Deb what she loves most about working in a library, she said: “The people, of course. Whether it’s my colleagues whose careers I have the privilege of helping nurture or creating space and experiences for the public, people are what libraries are about and why I find working in libraries to be such a fulfilling career.”

Jessie Bach: There are so many great programs going on at GPPL—tell me about your approach to programming.

Deb Cryderman: Aren’t there? That’s the joy of working with this innovative and creative group of humans! We have a team of programmers who conduct continual community consultations to ensure that what they are doing serves the community in the manner the community wants. They also develop partnerships with outside organizations to provide programs in our space without using our staffing resources, which means we can do so much more!

Our Coffee Club program for people with disabilities is overwhelmingly popular and is a perfect example of a partnership GPPL has with an outside agency (in this case, Center Point Facilitation). The Death Café provides a safe space for people to discuss death. We have paint nights, several book clubs, writing groups, career coaching, an English conversation club, a variety of early and STEM literacy programs, and a teen volunteer group (called Library Initiative for Teens or LIT) that attracts an average of forty students at a time to volunteer for an entire semester.

We have many terrific services that make Grande Prairie a more caring community, including:

• Project: Full Stop – provides free period products in our washrooms.
• Little Free Pantry – draws attention to and addresses food insecurity in our community.
• Warming Wall – runs from December to March and provides warm clothing for those in need.
• Library of Things – promotes the sharing economy and allows people to try things that they may not be able to afford, borrow items they may use only occasionally, or simply try before they buy.
• TikTok – our account is the second most popular library TikTok in Canada and draws attention to our philosophy of service, community building, and removal of barriers in a fun and playful way.
• Exam proctoring – includes being a location to invigilate the GED exams.

One of my favourite things we do is use our staircase as a way of communicating important things. We’ve decorated it for Pride, to draw attention to the situation in Ukraine, to celebrate Earth Day, and to acknowledge Truth and Reconciliation.

I recently learned about the Community Medicine Wheel at GPPL. How did that come to be, and how is it being used? Have you heard any feedback about it from your patrons?

The Community Medicine Wheel came to be because GPPL has staff members on the Health & Wellness team of Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF). Recently, CBYF did a community needs assessment and identified that they needed better access to the Medicine Wheel teachings. Youth reported that they were feeling disconnected, particularly during COVID closures, and since GPPL was one of the only places that was open to the public, we felt we were the perfect space to host this.

We worked closely with our local Friendship Centre, and an Elder came to bless the space at our opening ceremony. The Medicine Wheel is being used to help people feel more balanced in every aspect of their lives. Each section represents a different stage of life, and a different aspect of life, and includes activities and books related to each section. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we have to restock the activities often.

What other ways is your library prioritizing and promoting DEI to ensure everyone in the community feels safe and welcomed?

We partner with a local agency called R. Work Group which places under-employed young people in the library to gain work experience, and we do our best to attract people from diverse backgrounds to work with us by advertising in a variety of places beyond the typical library-focused ones. I’d also like to do some work with our Board to attract more diverse Board members to better reflect our community.

Finally, we have a variety of visual cues around the library that tell people they are welcome including Pride Flags and our use of the stairs as a means of sending inclusive messages. Our Warming Wall, Little Free Pantry, and Project: Full Stop all send the signal that everyone is welcome, too.

I believe being aware is half the battle. That means continual public consultation and entrenching the philosophy in our policies and procedures.

What is the biggest challenge you face at your library?

The story is probably the same at every library—finding enough money to do all the things we think are important to do for our community. We have just completed an efficiency audit and the biggest challenge for the next couple of years will be implementing the resulting recommendations while managing change and ensuring that the staff feel empowered to do their jobs. This time will be both exciting and stressful, but I know that in the long run, we’ll be a stronger organization and better able to effectively serve the community.

How are you tackling that challenge? Are there any roadblocks in your way?

Managing staff through the changes is absolutely the biggest challenge. As someone who likes to move quickly, being patient and allowing the puzzle to come together is sometimes difficult, but also a great lesson for me to learn.

I don’t like to refer to challenges as roadblocks, but rather as opportunities to think about things in new ways. Optimism is my default setting, so with a bit of positivity and some open-mindedness from our staff, I think we’ll be able to overcome anything.

Anything else you’d like to share about GPPL or your experience as the Director?

We’ve recently gotten ourselves a roommate! A CBC bureau has opened in Grande Prairie, and they are housed right here in our library. It is a positive collaboration that I believe will drive traffic to the library and work as an advocacy tool in the community.

Change is constant and responsive and makes GPPL the perfect place to work if you enjoy serving dynamic community needs. What a treat it is to be able to spend my working life being creative, collaborative, and trying to stay ahead of trends.

Also, have you seen this building? It is definitely one of the most beautiful libraries in Alberta!

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions about GPPL.