Susan Thompson readies foreign language books for distribution during the 50th anniversary open house at the Parkland Regional Library’s Lacombe offices this week. The province’s oldest and largest regional library system administers the Alberta Multilingual Book Consortium, which provides adult and juvenile books in 38 languages to all Alberta libraries. Founded in 1959 to bring cost-effective service to libraries across rural Central Alberta, Parkland now serves 50 public and 48 school libraries by sharing materials, resources and expertise that benefits 192,000 Central Albertans in more than 60 municipalities.