Word on the Street: Library services matter

LOCAL'S THE WORD-CUPE 391 members (l-r) Jane Curry, Nancy Singbeil, Inder Pannu, Alexandra Youngberg(president), Peter de Groot and Kathy Juszko shared the message of locally-based, quality public library services at the annual Word on the Street festivalVANCOUVER—CUPE BC had a big presence, and CUPE 391 activists were on hand to greet the public, at the annual Word on the Street festival held on Sunday (Sept. 27) at Vancouver Public Library's Central branch, Library Square.

The union’s tent display featured various printed materials demonstrating CUPE’s public role as a small publisher. Among the materials, a new leaflet highlighted budget cuts in libraries – as well as proposed contracting out of cataloguing and acquisitions services.

The CUPE tent also featured a puppet show by CUPE 391 workers, which was well attended by small and big kids alike.

“It was great to see so many members of the public come by the CUPE tent and tell us how much they value the work our members do,” said CUPE 391 president Alex Youngberg. “They really got a sense of how much the services they rely on are at risk, and they know that we’re there for them.”

Word on the Street is an annual one-day festival celebrating literacy and the written word. The festival is a showcase of local publishers, book sellers, and authors and features book sales, readings and performance art.

As part of its festival contribution, CUPE 391 sponsored author readings by Caroline Adderson, Anne Giardini and Susan Musgrave.

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