Rallies against the cuts to provincial libraries took place across Saskatchewan Friday afternoon including Humboldt.

Wanda Tesch is an avid Reid-Thompson Public Library user who helped organize the one here at Civic Park.

She says they were at the library discussing the provincial budget and the idea was introduced.

"We got mad, we were getting heated, somebody should say something and make a stand, a protest or something. We were talking a little bit more and then I thought, we can't just talk about it, let's do it. We scheduled a meeting for the next morning, the library gals were there, a week later here we are."

A good crowd showed up including a couple classes from the public school, at 12 o'clock they asked everyone to drop everything and read for 15 minutes.

She uses the Reid-Thompson Public Library quite regularly and wants the funding restored.

"The library provides such a service, if you can't afford to buy a book you can at least borrow it and read. Movies, I do a lot of DVD borrowing, I use the computers, it's a way for me to catch up with my grandchildren, my children."

She stressed the importance of the facility for children, and says their programming goes way beyond books with other entertainment like the Summer Fun Camp that may now be in danger.

"The one sad thing about our petition is that you have to be at least 18 years-old to sign it but yet the majority of the library users are children. You get your families coming in with two, three, four children and they're not even counted, they can't sign the petition but yet they are the ones using the library even more." 

The biggest aspect of the cutting of the provincial borrowing system that linked every library in Saskatchewan, Tesch says that cut the inventory to 500,000 books from three million. Education Minister Don Morgan has shown interest in reviewing that aspect of their programming.

As for the the rest of the funding, Tesch just hopes there is a reversed decision.

"We'd like to see them take it back and bring back the funding."

You can hear more from Tesch below in her interview with Bolt FM's Clark Stork.