Posts with the Ontario Library Service-North tag

Barris Beat

The art and science of getting it

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park. tvo.org

It took Opposition pressure at Queen’s Park, it took outspoken professional staff at libraries across the province, and it took members of a book club staging a read-in at the constituency office of MPP Sam Oosterhoff (Niagara West), but it appears as if some saner thinking has prevailed inside Doug Ford’s PC caucus. A clearly re-educated minister of tourism, culture and sport, has backed down on his planned 50 per cent cuts to Ontario Library Service-North.

“OLS-N will be reinstating their interlibrary loan program as of June 1, 2019,” Michael Tibollo said late last week. (more…)

Barris Beat

An inconvenient truth

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Uxbridge Mechanic’s Institute (Library)

It served working people. It informed the middle class. It was founded on the notion that acquiring knowledge should not have a price tag, that books and periodicals and public lectures ought to be universal. And its sister facilities functioned successfully all across Canada. But then, came an administration that did not think so highly of this public service.

“The public library has less relevance,” its then administrator seemed to be saying. “It’s an inconvenience.” (more…)