I was surprised to find out a few weeks ago that some of the libraries/archives in Regina were organizing tours so that library staff could visit each others facilities and learn more about what collections we have. I thought it was a wonderful idea and signed myself up as soon as I could. Something that definitely needs to be worked on more is communication between different organizations so that we can not only have better service, get to know each other a litter better and in most cases try to avoid duplication of materials. 
The first tour I went on was at the Regina Public Library, specifically the Prairie History Room.
May P. Chan, the Prairie History Librarian, was our tour guide and brought us through a quick tour of the central library before going on to the Prairie History Room. We quickly browsed through the reference, business, law and government documents sections, and learned that although they might not have an extensive collection, it is general enough that patrons can go and start their research at the public library. When members of the public come into our library looking to do research they often mention they had been to the public library first and had been advised to come look at our material.
Next we were brought into the Prairie History Room, which was the focus of our tour. The location is small but contains a lot of information. It is not climate controlled and is also placed directly under public washrooms on the second floor, May said that this was one of her primary concerns. If there was ever a disaster (fire, water, etc.) we would lose a lot of valuable resources.
"The Prairie History Room is a specialized collection of non-circulating community history and genealogical materials focusing on the history and peoples of the Northern Great Plains (Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan) from pre-settlement times to present day. The room is located at the Central branch of the Regina Public Library." RPL website
Their primary focus is to collect as much information as possible about the prairies, mainly Saskatchewan. They have a microfilm/form/fiche collection of various journals and historical documents that the public can view with the help of staff, in fact as we were finishing our tour two people came in to view some of these documents. They have a small, but very interesting, yearbook collection that works by donation. May showed us a picture of Shirley Douglas (daughter of Tommy Douglas, mother of Kiefer Sutherland) from one of the yearbooks in the collection. May had prepared a few other things to show us, including the oldest book in the library, oldest book published in Saskatchewan, the illustrated was news (very cool!) and a book of war hero's clippings.
It was a great tour, and as I had never been inside of the prairie history room it was quite interesting to find out what they had there. May obviously loves her job and was very welcoming to the participants.
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