The Lloydminster Public Library (LPL) has officially marked its first year as a municipal entity, even as upcoming provincial legislative changes create a sense of uncertainty.
Cheryl Sikora, the library’s director, presented to City of Lloydminster council April 20.
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She says the change to a municipal library also brought changes to their systems.
“There have been a lot of changes, particularly in the area of IT,” she said.
Sikora says they’ve learned a lot over the last year.
“We can confidently say this was the best choice for Lloydminster Public Library and our patrons,” she said.
To celebrate their independence, they hosted an event called We Axolotl Questions.
“We had two live axolotls in the library and they were very popular,” said Sikora.
The event was a large success, bringing more than 1,400 people to the library. She explained 2025 was a big year for them with more than 106,000 people visiting the library. They averaged about 120 new library card registrations every month.
While a library card is required to borrow materials, it is not necessary for attending programs, using computers, or printing.
The book bike will also be hitting the streets again soon.
“We’ll soon have it tuned up for the year and ready to go out to promote our summer programs at soccer and baseball games in June,” said Sikora.
Of the material circulated by the library, 66 per cent is physical and the rest is digital.
“That’s right in line with what most other libraries in Saskatchewan are seeing,” she said.
Total numbers for circulation indicate a small decrease in circulated print resources and an increase in circulated electronic resources.
The library’s collection currently boasts over 65,000 physical resources, a number bolstered by the addition of 10,000 new items in 2025 alongside its active ‘living library’ program.
With all the good news from the previous year, some provincial items are causing concern.
“We are anxiously awaiting the regulations that will accompany Bill 28,” said Sikora. “We share the concern of many Alberta public libraries regarding the impact that Bill 28 will have on our patrons and our collection.”
If passed, the bill requires public libraries to place materials with “visual depictions of sexually explicit, graphic, and pornographic content” behind counters, preventing access to children under 16 without parental consent.
LPL saw plenty of service usage with 2,600 room bookings, 200 exams proctored, 12,000 technology questions answered, 23,000 public comptuer sessions and 12,000 WiFi sessions.
Programming attracted a ton of use last year.
“In 2025, we had almost 600 programs, with an average of 24 people per program,” Sikora said, noting there were almost 14,000 participants.
Programs such as the Toddler Run, LPL in the Wild, Launch at the Library, and Ageless Adventures were major successes last year. Looking ahead to 2026, the focus shifts to 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, the Artist in Residence program, and the Summer Reading Club.
The library has also continued its outreach, visiting Pioneer Lodge and Pioneer House and Dr. Hemstock and Hearthstone place. Border City Connects delivers the libraries bins.
The summer was busy, which included an indoor excavation site, crafternoons and drop in all-day-every-day activities.
“We had a very busy and exciting summer at LPL with almost 9,000 people through our doors in July and another 9,000 people through our doors in August,” said Sikora.
Drumheller’s Royal Tyrrell Museum also had a milestone year in 2025.
“The 40th anniversary of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, they sent us a 75-million-year-old giant ammonite fossil,” she said.
Sikora had the opportunity to attend the Ontario Library Association Super conference in 2025. This year, the focus is on negotiating the collective bargaining agreement, expanded school visit programming and board recruitment.
She said her big dreams were to have larger program rooms, more shelf space, more seating and a kitchen.
Reflecting on LPL’s first year as a municipal library, she said it’s been a big benefit to the library.
“There’s a few things, we can put our money where our mouth is now, in terms of being able to focus on the priorities of our community,” said Sikora.
“Also importantly, we have a provincial voice now where I sit on a few different boards and committees that allows us to take the specific thoughts and needs to a provincial level.”
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