After Fraud, Rural CDN PL Revives

The 46-branch Wheatland Regional Library (WRL), which serves approximately 90,000 people living in 141 communities in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, is steadily recovering from an embarrassing episode in which the library's former director pleaded guilty to embezzling $500,000 CDN over at least 14 years, via a fake book distribution company. Library officials think he took more.

Bruce Cameron, who was fired in 2004, was sentenced in late August to two years in jail for fraud. Current WRL executive director Rena Bartsch told LJ that the fraud investigation began after WRL received an anonymous phone tip advising it check into “Desert Rose Books,” which turned out to be Cameron's fraudulent enterprise. A 2005 civil suit recovered about $497,000 from him. While no board member or staff member was sanctioned for not blowing the whistle, two front office employees who worked on financial matters were let go.

Now, Bartsch said, procedures are significantly different. Cameron was in charge of receiving all books ordered; acquisitions and cataloging staff never saw original orders and thus wouldn't notice that they didn't match what was received. Though a few paperback best sellers were purchased, many of the books Cameron bought were remainders sold by the crate.

Cameron was known for refusing to hire professional librarians. “In retrospect, it is likely he did so to avoid discovery,” Bartsch said. Now operations are computerized, and WRL has multiple professionals checking on items ordered. Staffers are encouraged to be proactive, user requests for books are fulfilled, and circulation has risen 17 percent in two years.