Peace Library System

Peace Library System (PLS) is a partnership between northwestern Alberta libraries and has its headquarters in Grande Prairie. They work under the mission, “Connecting libraries, people, and resources through teamwork, technology, and training.” Their vision is for all residents of northwestern Alberta to have equal access to excellent library service.

Peace Library System was founded in 1986, when twenty-one municipalities formed a partnership in order to ensure the patrons in small, rural libraries had the same high-quality library service enjoyed in larger, urban centres. The service area covers over 92,000 square miles (twenty-four million hectares) with a current member population of over 175,000 in thirty-eight municipalities and one Métis settlement. Peace Library System is working to ensure that its member libraries remain the essential information centers of their communities.

They believe that access to library services should be equal and universal, and that this is accomplished through sharing and cooperation; that sharing resources provides efficient use of community resources, and as a library system, they can provide a pool of knowledge and expertise and organize the sharing of those resources among members; and that a library system is only as effective as its members. By using the energy, input and support from the local level, each member has a say in running the system.

This system is part of TRAC (The Regional Automation Consortium), which is a partnership of Marigold Library System, Northern Lights Library System, Peace Library System, Yellowhead Regional Library, and their member libraries. Using TRACpac, library members can search a combined catalogue of over 170 libraries with holdings of nearly three million books, DVDs and other material.