Ontario’s government has made a 50-percent cut to two public library services.
The Southern Ontario Library Service and Ontario Library Service-North are the ones seeing the cut. “North Hastings Library is suffering from a trickle-down effect,” the libraries’ CEO Kim McMunn tells My Bancroft Now.
The cuts mean the inter-library loan delivery service is in a tough spot. It has been cancelled by SOLS, effective Friday. The program allowed books to be shared between libraries across Ontario. “People borrow from our collection all over Ontario,” McMunn says. “And we borrow from them.” That program at North Hastings Public Library is suspended for the time being. “We’re hoping that we will be able to reinstate it, but it will depend on the cost to us,” McMunn says. She says the service allowed them to borrow material from across Ontario. “It kept us competitive,” she says.
“There has to be a more efficient and effective way to do it,” Hastings-Lennox and Addington M.P.P. Daryl Kramp tells My Bancroft Now. “Just a few books here and a few books there and running a van from library to library is not efficient.” Kramp says doing that is a waste of fuel and not very environmentally friendly.
“The overall picture is that we will not have access to the materials we had before,” McMunn says. Kramp says the PCs will work to shift physical transportation of books to digital transferring.
She points to e-books and how when they became popular in the mid-2000s, many thought this would mean the end of libraries. She says they adapted. “What we need to do is be pro-active about this,” McMunn says. “You can’t un-ring a bell.”
She says the library will continue to work with the Town, the community, libraries, and others to move forward to make the changes that need to be made for the library to continue in a positive direction.
“I’m always open for discussion because I do understand the importance of rural libraries,” Kramp says.