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COROLLARY

1.

: It will be observed that the FVRL Plan follows closely
the LDC's Standards for Integrated Library Systems. The
Plan also allows the regional library to expand to £111

the areas of the three regional districts. On these main
points it is in accord with the Programme for Library

Deveiopment.

The other point ~ retention of direct municipal repre~
sentation on the Board of Management ~ indicates divergence
from the Programme. ‘The divergence is based on the following
premises:

(a) The municipalities, since they collect and remit
library tax assessments to the Board of Management,
should be represented directly on the Board.

The interests of library service in any municipality
or area are best served by direct representation of
that municipality or area on the Board of Management.
This concept is inherent in the government of every
public library in North America.

The by-passing of municipalities on the Board in
favour of regional district administration will not,
in itself, improve the quality of library service

to the people but will, in effect, remove administra-
tive control of library affairs one step further from
the people being served.

The reduction of Board size from 22 representatives

to about half that number (as would follow from loss
of direct municipal representation) is not considered
to be an improvement. Discussion of policy that
affects a large heavily-populated library area is

more meaningful with a larger board of representatives.

If municipal representation is abandoned in favour

of a chairman or designate from each regional district
plus two interested citizens appointed by each regional
district board there will be great disparity in
representation in the Fraser Valley. If Surrey,
Richmond, Delta, White Rock and Port Coquitlam elect
to stay with the FVRL, they would (despite having

63% of the Valley population) have only three GVRD
representatives as opposed to three each for the

other three regional districts. ThiS would be a
Gisproportionate imbalance.

Since regional district boards are comprised’ of
representatives from each municipality and electoral
area, it follows that:a regional library board
requires no less than the same direct representation,

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Recognizing that there are regional differences in
the parts of the province designated under the Programme for
Library Development to be organized as Library Systems and
recognizing that these differences require latitude in the

_dimplementation of the Programme, the Board of Management

respectfully requests the Library Development Commission to
allow it some measure of self-determinatior in the organiz-~
ation of a new integrated library system for the Fraser
Valley.

The Board of Management believes that a “grandfather
clause" in the Programme should be available for existing
regional libraries to allow them to modify their structures
without undue upheaval and change. It is one thing to
apply the Programme to areas that have not hitherto been
organized for co-operative library service but quite
another to apply it rigidly to regional libraries that have
been operating well for three or four decades. Regional
libraries have proven their worth over the years and are
entitled, the Board feels, to flexibility in the determin-
ation of their futures.

The Board of Management is confident that the .
Library Development Commission's Programme is big encugh in
its concept and wide enough in its coverage to allow this
to happen. .