Toronto library board leaves room for more staff cuts

Earlier this week, the Toronto Public Library Board made clear its opposition to reducing hours and closing branches, but left itself open to additional staff, collection, and programming cuts.

At a meeting that stretched over five hours and saw more than 100 community members in overflow seating, the library board discussed its options for attaining a 4.3 per cent cut to its 2012 operating budget in order to reach the 10 per cent total reduction demanded by Mayor Rob Ford. The board had previously approved eliminating 100 full-time staff positions and implementing new technologies, amounting to a savings of $9.7 million, or 5.7 per cent of the budget. On Monday, chief librarian Jane Pyper proposed trimming hours at 59 of the system’s 98 branches and shaving from collections to bridge the remaining gap.

According to the Toronto Star, board members rejected any changes to service hours, claiming it would go against public interest. Pyper assured that cuts would otherwise come from adult literacy, home library, and homework programs. “If the board’s top priority is to preserve branch open hours [...] we have to look at programs we have tried to protect which generally speak to children and those who are less able to access our services,” Pyper says in The Globe and Mail.

The board did pass a motion to increase room rental fees for library auditoriums, theatres, and meeting rooms, and told Pyper to hit on more money-generating options, such as raising overdue fines, introducing new charges for failing to collect items on hold, paid parking spots, and sponsorship. (Pyper has already dismissed many of these as ineffective.)

TPL Workers Union president Maureen O’Reilly, who presented a deputation at the meeting, says the night took a surprising turn when a board member tabled a motion requesting Pyper to look into dropping 60 additional full-time jobs. O’Reilly says chair Paul Ainslie improperly permitted the motion to proceed considering another motion had already been put to the floor calling for no further cuts to the library budget (a recommendation that was unanimously approved by the board’s own budget committee on Nov. 1). O’Reilly says the chair’s action flouted procedure and compounded the sense of disconnect between the board’s decision-makers and the community.

The board will meet next on Dec. 12. In the meantime, it will continue its public survey and wrap up a month-long series of public consultations Friday evening at the Bloor/Gladstone branch. City councillors Mike Layton and Ana Bailao will be in attendance from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

CLA kicks off Canadian Library Month

The Canadian Library Association kicked off Canadian Library Month on Tuesday. Throughout the month of October, libraries across the country will host events to raise awareness about the importance of libraries in the nation’s communities.

According to a press release from the CLA, the theme for 2011, Your Library: A Place Unbound, strengthens this message by pointing to libraries as hubs of information and personal connection in the midst of a quickly evolving world. “From coast to coast to coast, libraries are without boundaries, places of endless opportunity where Canadians have an equal right to access resources,” says CLA president Karen Adams in the media release.

Within the span of a few months, Canadian libraries have faced threats from municipal funding cuts, union strikes, devastating fires, and natural disasters — to name but a few challenges. It’s nice, then, to have some positive library-related news to report.

And in case a month of library celebrations isn’t uplifting enough, here’s a quick round up of other library-friendly news:

• The Nova Scotia Library Association names Tracey Jones-Grant winner of the 2011 Norman Horrocks Award for Library Leadership, and Rachel Crosby winner of the 2011 Emile Theriault Library and Information Technology Award for support staff
• Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries celebrates 75 years on Oct. 28
• Toronto Public Library’s Arthur Conan Doyle Room is getting a face lift
• Vancouver Public Library may have closed its Riley Park Branch last month, but Vancouver City Council has approved an increase in VPL funding for the brand new Terry Salman Branch

Happy Canadian Libraries Month!

TPL union names winners of lunch with Atwood contest

The Toronto Public Library Workers Union has announced the winners of its “Why My Library Matters to Me” personal essay contest. Each of the 44 winners will have lunch and tour a local literary landmark with a participating author — Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Linwood Barclay, Joy Fielding, Judy Fong-Bates, Sylvia Fraser, Vincent Lam, Robert Rotenberg, Susan Swan, Anna Porter, or Jeremy Tankard.

The contest is part of the union’s Project Rescue campaign to prevent library funding cuts as proposed by the municipal government. (Q&Q has previously reported on the contest and Project Rescue.)

In an e-mail to Project Rescue supporters, TPLWU/CUPE Local 4948 president Maureen O’Reilly says more than 500 submissions were received in a span of two weeks. The winning entries are now posted at the contest website, including this homage to Charlie Chaplin.

Writers’ Union of Canada sponsors book drive for Slave Lake Library

The Writers’ Union of Canada is sponsoring a drive to replace books for the Slave Lake Library, which was destroyed during the devastating northern Alberta forest fires. The library still needs new titles, published within the last two years.

Books can be shipped prepaid to:
Peace Library System
8301 – 110 Street
Grande Prairie, AB T8W 6T2

ATTN: Books for Slave Lake Library

Cash donations can be sent through the library’s website, or write a cheque payable to the Slave Lake Regional Library Board and send it via the Peace Library System to the address above.

This morning, Q&Q sent off 13 boxes of books. Thanks to all the publishers and to Canpar for providing the shipping, with help from Anne McClelland, executive director of the Book and Periodical Council.

Publishing at the polls: Copyright reform

As Canadians head to the polls on May 2, Q&Q looks at key federal policies affecting the publishing industry. Stay tuned for upcoming features on federal funding, mass digitization, and foreign-ownership regulations.

After nearly a year of parliamentary hearings and heavy industry lobbying, Bill C-32, the Copyright Modernization Act, succumbed to a sudden death on March 26, when the latest Canadian federal election was called.

For nearly a decade, publishers, authors, and other content creators have lived without a copyright act that takes into account the realities of a digital economy. Bill C-32 was the federal government’s third attempt to update the legislation. To get a sense of how outdated Canada’s current laws are, the last copyright reform, passed in 1997, instituted a levy on cassette tapes. It will now be up to the new government to table yet another copyright bill — and successfully get it passed for there to be meaningful reform.

As Canadians head to the polls once again on May 2, Q&Q spoke to several publishing copyright advocates about the lessons learned from Bill C-32.
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Writers’ groups outline objections to Bill C-32

A coalition of seven English-language national writers’ organizations has formally outlined its objections to the copyright modernization act now before Parliament. In a formal brief addressed to the industry and heritage ministers, the group calls on the government to throw out several proposed amendments, including a provision to expand the definition of “fair dealing” to include education as well as provisions pertaining to non-commercial user-generated content and inter-library loans of digital files. The brief also underlines the importance of collective licences in supporting publishers and writers.

The signatories to the document are the Canadian Authors Association, the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers, the League of Canadian Poets, the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada, the Playwrights Guild of Canada, the Professional Writers Association of Canada, and The Writers’ Union of Canada. From the brief:

It is essential that Canada’s copyright law reflects the new technological developments that are transforming the way that writing and other forms of cultural expression are created and distributed. However, Canadian writers have deep concerns about the impact of the long list of new exemptions in Bill C-32

For background on Bill C-32, which underwent second reading in the House of Commons last week, read Q&Q‘s coverage of the issue. Or you can read the entire brief, which has been posted online by the Professional Writers Association of Canada.

This Ain’t the Rosedale Library to re-emerge

Despite the stifling heat and humidity, Book Madam Julie Wilson and Invisible Publishing’s Nic Boshart hosted an al fresco reading outside the troubled This Ain’t the Rosedale Library bookstore last night. Originally slated as a stop on Jeff Miller’s summer tour for Ghost Pine: All Stories True (Invisible Publishing), the reading became a celebration of the bookstore instead.

Besides Miller, who hails from Montreal, the readers included Joey Comeau and Liz Worth, both of Toronto, and Dave Roche of Kansas City. Listeners crowded around the concrete patio, sitting on benches and cross-legged on the ground. After the readings, each reader recounted how indie bookstores have affected their writing, and Charlie Huisken gave a This-Ain’t state-of-the-union: It’s “business as unusual.” Once he and his son and partner Jesse have extricated themselves from their current situation, he said, they can work on getting This Ain’t up and running again. He gave no details, but said the business will probably look quite different than it used to.

No “oral sex” in California school dictionaries

The Guardian is reporting that the 10th edition of The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary has been yanked from classrooms in the Menifee Union district of California after a parent complained about a “sexually graphic” definition for the term “oral sex.” The dictionaries were purchased four years ago for use in fourth and fifth grade classrooms; the offending entry was deemed not “age appropriate.”

While some parents have praised the move – “[it's] a prestigious dictionary that’s used in the Riverside County spelling bee, but I also imagine there are words in there of concern,” said Randy Freeman – others have raised concerns. “It is not such a bad thing for a kid to have the wherewithal to go and look up a word he may have even heard on the playground,” father Jason Rogers told local press. “You have to draw the line somewhere. What are they going to do next, pull encyclopaedias because they list parts of the human anatomy like the penis and vagina?”

There is a panel in place to assess whether the ban will be made permanent, but in the meantime, district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the Menifee Press-Enterprise that she will remain vigilant:

“It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” Cadmus said.

Vancouver librarians told to cover up non-Olympic logos

According to CTV, librarians in Vancouver have been warned by city officials to use only approved Olympic sponsors in any Games-themed events they host next month, and to conceal the logos of any non-Olympic companies that may pass in front of patrons’ eyeballs.

The memo, written by marketing and communications manager Jean Kavanagh, tells staff to avoid such companies as Pepsi or Dairy Queen – neither of which is an official sponsor, unlike, say Coca-Cola or McDonald’s. And she suggests taking unusual steps to avoid displaying the logos of non-sponsors, writing: “If you have a speaker/guest who happens to work for Telus, ensure he/she is not wearing their Telus jacket, as Bell is the official sponsor.”

She also writes that any rented sound equipment have its brand name covered by cloth or tape – if it’s not a machine from sponsor Panasonic.

Though Kavanagh goes on to say that her list of Olympic dos and don’ts doesn’t constitute censorship, Alex Youngberg, president of the local library union, disagrees:

“There’s something in my library to offend everybody,” [Youngberg] said. “And that’s our job. Our job as library staff is to not ever censor any information.”

Toronto Public Library Workers Union given legal strike deadline

After nearly two weeks of silence surrounding negotiations between the Toronto Public Library and the Toronto Public Library Workers Union (TPLWU), it was announced today that the Ontario Ministry of Labour has granted the TPLWU a legal strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Monday, Nov. 9.

As reported by Q&Q Omni last March, the city’s 2,400 library workers split from the Toronto Civic Employees Union (TCEU) Local 416 to create their own union. However, the new TPLWU soon found itself facing the same concession demands confronted by the TCEU in a summer that saw an extended strike by city workers. 

Eighty-six per cent of TPLWU voted in favour of a strike as of Oct. 10, but negotiations are ongoing.

The union is asking the TPL for more full-time jobs and “fairer treatment of part-time workers.”

According to a TPL inter-office memo, should a legal strike/lock-out occur, the following disruptions are to be expected:

• All library branches and facilities, including Bookmobile and Home Library Services, would be closed
• All computer services, including Web-based and dial-in service, would be suspended, including renewals
• All telephone-based service would be suspended, including renewals
• All scheduled meetings and events would be cancelled. Room rental charges would be refunded, as appropriate
• All book drops would be closed. Borrowers would be asked to keep library materials and not return them until a strike/lock-out is over