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Exclusive: Inside the Harper Government's Trashing of A Research Library
Exclusive: Inside the Harper Government's Trashing of A Research Library
By Charles Mandel in News| September 29th 2015
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At first, the closing of the library at the Lethbridge Agricultural Centre looked methodical. Staff were informed of the closure in July. Then in early August they were told they could help themselves to items from the collection.
And then it all went south from there: in mid-August summer students began filling an extra-large dumpster with journals and reports. Reportedly, one scientist jumped into the dumpster to rescue a set of journals. Distressed staff began to select more and more books from the collection in order to rescue them.
The dumped books turned into news, bringing more embarrassment upon the federal government. The Conservatives have attracted international negative attention for closing down research stations, and muzzling scientists.
Harper has shut down 16 research libraries during his time in government. While the closures have attracted some media attention and news stories, there have been few detailed reports.
Now an anonymous source familiar with the Lethbridge closure has stepped forward and provided National Observer with an inside perspective on exactly what happens when the government shuts down a science library.
National Observer very rarely uses anonymous sources, but fear of reprisal appears to have silenced federal researchers and employees, in this and many other stories.
Even with an unprecedented inside look at how the Lethbridge library closure was handled, more questions than answers remain. What has happened to the collection? What was kept and what was discarded? What, if anything, is being digitized and how will scientists access those documents?
By way of example, the library held a number of historical journals and diaries, some dating back to the early 1900s. It’s believed these documents are still on site, but no one appears to know for certain.
Consolidating the collection
In July, library staff received an email informing them of a “collection consolidation.”
The email told staff that since July 2012 the department has concentrated on the provision of core services and electronic information resources at the desktop through the Knowledge Services Library (the former Canadian Agriculture Library).
According to the email, the government is consolidating all physical collections, with several more in process. The consolidation procedures were supposed to include evaluation of all unique and relevant materials with subsequent relocation to the library headquarters in Ottawa; any items no longer considered relevant or as duplicates would be offered to staff to be kept as “office copies.”
As well, in collaboration with local management in Lethbridge, the library would investigate offering selected remaining materials to outside organizations; and local management would continue to manage any remaining materials.
The email concludes: “It should be noted that services are not disappearing, but that we will provide services in a different fashion.”
The consolidation notice email came as a shock to staff.
“Though this collection consolidation has happened to other research centres over the last couple of years, we weren’t aware it was going to happen to Lethbridge,” the source said.
“In fact, when it happened to Swift Current, they were told it wouldn’t matter, because they would have access to Lethbridge resources.”
The Lethbridge library was part of a networked association of Agriculture Canada libraries. Linked through a central database, the libraries could order books from each other. Locally, Lethbridge provided service to Agriculture Canada staff, Alberta provincial staff and the public. College and university students used the facility as did local historians.
While the library was able to maintain its holdings, over the last several years it lost space. More recently, building renovations pushed the library down to the basement of the building, while the library itself was taken over as office space. The basement library took up about 1350 square feet.
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