The CBC Reports: Anyone looking to curl up with the latest bestseller will not find it in library branches in Antigonish and Pictou counties.
The Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library system recently stopped making new book orders, a symptom of what chief librarian Eric Stackhouse calls chronic underfunding.
“Unfortunately, something has to give,” he told CBC News on Friday.
I wonder…
I wonder if their staff has gone on strike recently to get wages comparable with the parking ticket staff in the municipal offices?
Re:I wonder…
Given that this library system is in my home province, I can assure you that no, they haven’t been on strike. (To the best of my knowledge, the regional libraries aren’t unionised and if this one is like mine, there are only a handful of MLS librarians working at the headquarters. The majority would be techs or clerks. So, their wages would be much less than the MLS’s salaries. Trust me.)
Pictou-Antigonish is not MY regional library; however, my regional library HAS had to cut back drastically on it’s bookmobile service–they were running two busses, now it’s down to a bus and a van (and yes, we are a large rural area, so two busses wasn’t extravagant–one covered the eastern end, the other the western), which is why our library now has books by mail (is it really cheaper?).
So, the fact that P-A has had to stop buying new books? It isn’t just their system being affected. I would imagine ALL the reg. library systems in NS have had to make cutbacks of some sort.