This might be of interest to some. I just got a response from Elizabeth May to a form letter I sent about the closing of science libraries. Full text copied below: Thank you for writing about the recent closure of many Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientific libraries. If you look on the website of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, you will be told that libraries are not being closed, they are being “consolidated.” This “consolidation” answers the need to “modernize” our system. If this were the case, this would not be bad news. If the goal was really to provide “easier search and access to clients no matter their location” then this project would be a victory for science. But, in the “Deficit Reduction Action Plan,” a “secret” document obtained by PostMedia under the Access to Information Act, the goals are very different. The goal is not digitization and modernization but “culling materials in the closed libraries or shipping them to the two locations; and culling materials in the two locations to make room for collections from the closed locations. Since it is unlikely that the savings of $443,000 in the 2014-15 fiscal year (which this document projects) will solve the government deficit, this move is an unacceptable assault on the documents, research, and articles belonging to the people of Canada. In fact, I believe these actions may be illegal under the Library and Archives of Canada Act. These closures are consistent with the Harper Conservatives’ policy of muzzling scientists, a policy which has now expanded to trashing libraries. The Harper Conservatives seem to be deliberately undermining our ability to make good policy decisions by limiting access to scientific evidence. These changes not only affect our present-day capacity to make decisions based on evidence, but will cripple the scientific community for generations to come and will make it impossible to properly understand the history of science in Canada. All of this “culling” is taking place without consulting either the public or scientists. Further, none of the criteria for this culling have even been made public. We may never know what we have lost. For more information, I invite you to visit my MP website at: elizabethmaymp.ca/news/publications/press-releases/2014/01/27/greens-challenge-legality-of-library-destruction Thank you again for writing and for pressuring the Harper Conservatives to reverse this disastrous move and to end the war on science. Sincerely, Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P. Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands Leader of the Green Party of Canada
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:15:08 +0000
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