Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Harper Government ENDS Inter-library Loans!!

And yet again the Harper government continues to neglect it's citizens history!!


This past spring, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) announced plans to cancel their interlibrary loan (ILL) program due to budget cuts.

The ILL service will be coming to an end in December 2012. Note the following key dates:

- November 16, 2012: End of renewals on materials currently out. All items loaned after this date will be non-renewable.

- December 11, 2012: End of loan requests, location searches, and ILL-related photocopying services.

Since this will affect primarily Prairie History Room patrons [genealogists], requesting any materials, mainly other provincial newspapers, from LAC, library patrons will need to get their requests in before December 11. Materials they currently have out, will not be renewed after Nov. 16.


The above has been confirmed by me this morning. I cannot tell you how distressing this will be for those of us who have used this highly successful program over the years. LAC is one of the few institutions who can actively collect newspapers from other provinces. Shame on you Prime Minister Harper!! Shame on you public libraries for not fighting this ridiculous decision! I often wonder if our library board members ever use the library?

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