The Portage la Prairie Regional Library has joined forces with schools in the city to develop a new program to help students' education.

Jen Kendall, the Director of the Portage Library, explains the partnership.

"We've been working together with the Portal Prairie School District to make sure that students that attend school at any of their schools can get a free of resident library membership, which it really has increased access to a lot of kids who either couldn't have gotten to the library previously or weren't eligible. So, now we've done about 350 cards so far, and we've been getting a lot of great feedback from people."

Kendall notes how significant of a resource the library is to students.

"It's very important that kids and parents have access to as wide an array of educational resources as possible. So with this partnership, not only do they get access to the materials in the library and can borrow them and take them home, they get access to other services like our CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) membership for children who might have perceptual disabilities," she carries on. "Or other resources we have for borrowing, like our kits, we have different computer options like the Turing Tumbles that members can borrow so they all have access to that, and we can really instill that love of learning and knowledge early on."

The program began at the start of the school year, and the library is still in the process of getting everyone who applied for their free cards.

Kendall says that there have been some delays in getting students their cards.

"It's kind of a big undertaking because it's the first year, so we are doing our best to get to everybody as quickly as we can. It takes time to process the memberships and to make sure that everything is, you know, accurate."

These free library cards will end up helping parents' pockets, notes Kendall, as typically, a nonresident membership would cost $20 per year.

Students should have received a form for a free card with all the paperwork handed out at the start of September. But if that isn't the case for one reason or another, the Director of the Portage Library urges those interested to contact the library for another.