About PLS

Peace Library System, the host of the conference, is a regional library system located in Grande Prairie with a service area that covers over 88,000 square miles of northwestern Alberta. The current population of over 149,000 people in 38 member municipalities are served by 46 member public libraries and 50 school libraries.

In 1986, 21 municipalities formed a partnership that created Peace Library System. They believed access to library services should be equal and universal. They wanted to ensure the patrons in small, rural libraries had the same high-quality library service enjoyed in larger, urban centres.

Funding for Peace Library System is provided by municipalities, member library boards, the province, and by contracts-for-service with a number of school authorities.

Peace Library System is working to ensure that its member libraries remain the essential information centers of their communities. To learn more about Peace Library System, please visit www.peacelibrarysystem.ab.ca.

Our Mission

Connecting libraries, people and resources through teamwork, technology and training.
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Our Vision

All residents of northwestern Alberta will have equal access to excellent library service.
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Our Beliefs
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We believe that: access to library services should be equal and universal. This is accomplished through sharing and cooperation.

We believe that: sharing resources provides efficient use of community resources. As a library system, we can provide more effectively a pool of knowledge and expertise and organize the sharing of those resources among members.

We believe that: a library system is only as effective as its members. The members are joined together in a federated system, rather than the system existing as a single entity outside the membership. By using the energy, input and support from the local level, each member has a say in running the system.