Canadians love their libraries but report urges new chapter

More on the ongoing decline of Library and Archives Canada and the cumulative effect of budget cutbacks in the Royal Society of Canada report on libraries:

The society panel spoke with dozens of librarians, archivists, students, seniors, new Canadians, and library users young and older, said Demers during a conference call Wednesday.

But the decline of LAC, which has suffered widespread budget cuts and staff reductions, was a major concern for Canadians across the board, she said.

“LAC is our national institution mandated by act of 2004 to acquire and preserve our documentary heritage and make it known to and available to Canadians,” she said. “There has been a decade-long decline in all the services at LAC.”

The panel heard from “disappointed professional” LAC users, including Governor General’s Literary Award winning author Jane Urquhart who gave it a collection of papers but has since been told she can’t have access to them.

… (Between 2009-12, the federal government cut 445 of its library jobs, mostly at LAC and the National Research Council’s science library).

Canadians love their libraries but report urges new chapter | Ottawa Citizen.

Ironic, that a Government that promoted Canadian history in its citizenship guide, Discover Canada, appears to be enabling Canadians to forget it.

For a thoughtful discussion on the importance of reading and books, CBC’s The Current did an excellent interview with Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran (great book from both a literary criticism point of view as well as the context of post-Revolution Iran):

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/current_20141112_30305.mp3