Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

CAMBRIDGE BAY (Aug 02/99) - They've got the building, they've got the books -- all that's needed now is the cash.

The race to get a temporary library up and running in Cambridge Bay in time for the start of the new school year is coming down to the wire.

Students and residents have been without a library since a fire claimed both the school and the library last summer.

Since the fire, the community has been attempting to establish a temporary library to serve students and residents until the new school and library are completed in 2001.

"The Department of Education and the hamlet had a proposal that's gone forward to the department," said Cambridge Bay MLA Kelvin Ng.

A request for funding from the department in the amount of about $250,000 is being prepared for cabinet's consideration, said a Nunavut government official. Cabinet could give more, less or none at all.

Cabinet is scheduled to meet in Iqaluit this week, said Ng. The MLA said he did not know, adding that he wouldn't say even if he did, whether the funding request was on the agenda for the meeting.

The temporary library will be located in a building formerly used by the Department of Transportation.

"It looks like it won't be ready, optimistically, until the beginning of October," said Kim Crockatt, chair of the community's library advisory committee.

While the wait continues, so does the work. Pockets and cards have been attached to about 1,000 of the 7,000 books donated to the community since the fire. The old library contained about 17,000 books, said Crockatt.

The cataloguing can not be completed until the software required by the standardized bar code system arrives.

From Cambridge with love

The rebuilding effort has received a big boost from students and alumni of England's renown Cambridge University.

Howarth Penny, a Canadian student there who was in Cambridge Bay at the time of the fire, has been leading a fund-raising charge for both the library and the Kitikmeot Heritage Society. The group sent over a cheque for $4,570 dollars last week.

With other donations the group has made, plus $1,000 from the Cambridge Bay Volleyball Club, the contribution brings the total money contributed to just over $10,000.

Crockatt said there's more money coming from Cambridge. Because of British laws governing charitable contributions, only a certain amount of money can be sent over at a time. Once a receipt for the donations is received another chunk can be sent.

Last week's cash infusion was the result of a fund-raising drive at the school. The Cambridge students and alumni are now turning their attention to corporate donors.

The money received as a result of the Cambridge University effort is to be used to replace the extensive Northern collection that was destroyed by the fire. It is also to be used to assist in documenting and promoting the oral history of the area.