South Central Regional Library (SCRL) serves the second largest rural population in Manitoba with 44,000. However, they're in need of more space in a number of their branches.

Director of Library Services for SCRL, Cathy Ching says based on the square footage of SCRL's five combined branches, they are one of the smallest, per capita libraries.

"We have lovely libraries in all of our branches, Winkler being our newest and our biggest," says Ching. "Everyone is tight for room, and we're constantly weeding in some of our small branches. So it just tells us that we have squished a lot of books into little libraries, and they're doing a fabulous job with that, but it makes a difference if you have space."

Ching says, down the road, they will be looking at replacing at least one library. "Probably not in my time, but buildings get old and need to be replaced."

During the past year, Ching says SCRL circulated about 20,000 more items than the year before. She says those items mostly included books, DVDs and audiobooks.

Of the 375,000 items circulated last year, 200,000 were children's books.

"We always pride ourselves in being five busy libraries, and when we did our report to Public Library Services, it did prove that we are busy." In 2018, Ching says they circulated almost 375,000 items in their five branches. "It just shows that we're earning our keep."

Ching says their circulation numbers have never dropped down, however, some months stay steady while other months are busier, creating a slow increase in numbers. She says a lot of it has to do with the weather. "When it's really cold, we find we aren't higher, but then the next month people get sick of being housebound and they come and make up for lost time."

For SCRL, children's books are their biggest circulating item. Of the 375,000 items circulated last year, 200,000 were children's books. "That's picture books, junior fiction, non-fiction books for children, and board books. Our kids like to read, so that's excellent."

As to why SCRL has been so successful, Ching says a lot of it has to do with their customer service and providing materials that people are wanting.

However, Ching says they've also identified two areas they hope to grow and improve on. She says they would like to turn some of their focus on reaching more of the senior and teenage populations. When it comes to the senior population, she says they hope to offer some programming on how to work various devices. "How to get an email, and how to load up that tablet so you can listen to audio books or read e-books."

Ching says teens are a group that loves the library when they're young, but then they disappear and don't see them until they return with their own kids. "We're working on possibly doing some teen ambassadorship where they come and help us... they will be the face of us in the teen community."