Equitable access to library services for everyone in Ontario was dealt a major blow by the province’s rash and ill-informed decision to slash the funding of the Southern Ontario Library Service, an agency that provides training and technical support for libraries.

“I’ve always approached librarianship as something we do collectively. We’ve operated as one big library and the system has worked well to ensure that we share what we’ve got. Now it will be more challenging,” says Julia Reinhart, the chief librarian of the Gravenhurst Public Library.

The most visible impact of the unexpected cut was the abrupt suspension this spring of the interlibrary loan service.

The public outcry was immediate. Use of the service is concentrated in Ontario’s small cities and towns and rural areas and thousands of library users signed petitions and wrote to MPPs opposing the cuts.

The loan service allowed library users virtually unrestricted access to the collections of all public libraries in the province.

For decades, the Southern Ontario Library Service (SOLS) operated this service at no direct cost to individual libraries. Last year it facilitated the delivery and return of about 710,00 packages, some of which contained several items.

The announcement earlier this month that interlibrary loans would be “restored” was misleading. The immediate costs of resuming the service have been downloaded to individual libraries, which are facing tough decisions about whether and how to continue the service.

Interlibrary service in southern Ontario has been fundamentally changed.

Before the cuts, the SOLS operated a system of vans that crisscrossed southern Ontario moving books and other items among 153 of the 190 public library systems.. At an annual cost of about $1.1 million, the van service was the agency’s single largest cost.

Faced on April 12 with a surprise 50 per cent cut to its 2019-2020 provincial operating grant, which in 2018-2019 was $3.3 million, hard decisions had to be made. The van service was terminated along with the jobs of 24 drivers.

Libraries must now package individual books and mail them through Canada Post at a special library rate (subsidized by Canada Post) that varies depending on the distance the package travels.

Libraries must also find the money to pay Canada Post out of their existing budgets, with the expectation of an uncertain amount of reimbursement next year. Many are placing new restrictions on the service, such as such as overall or per patron caps on the number of interlibrary loans.

The SOLS has set aside $340,000 out of its remaining 2019-2020 budget to be divided up among libraries based on a tally of the costs they have incurred to loan out library items.

“Our guess is that the number of interlibrary loans will be considerably lower this year because libraries will have to adapt to the Canada Post model, which involves more processing,” said SOLS chief executive officer Barbara Franchetto. The van delivery system, she added, “was pretty straightforward.”

Last year, the Gravenhurst library loaned out almost 3,600 items, about 1,500 more items than it borrowed. The lending library pays Canada Post for both the delivery and return costs, which range from $1.19 to over $2. Chief librarian Reinhart says her board has asked her to look at reducing its lending to match its borrowing.

In Perth, the Perth & District Union Public Library is a net borrower and last year users borrowed 2,732 items and loaned 1,634, according to a report by chief librarian Erika Heesen.

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She estimates that the library will face new costs (for packaging materials and mailing charges) of more than $2,300 a year, even after having received a rebate from SOLS next year. (She estimates the rebate will be 81 cents on the average cost of $1.81 a package.)

The 50 per cent cuts to provincial funding for both SOLS and Ontario Library Service North necessitated other changes. The two organizations, which do not duplicate services, had to eliminate jobs for staff who provided training and management services for librarians and new library board members, as well as jobs for information technology specialists who support library software used by 144 of the smaller libraries in the province.

Ann Silversides is a freelance writer based in Perth, Ont.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/06/26/libraries-forced-to-ration-access-to-books-after-reckless-ontario-funding-cuts.html
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