Public Libraries Section

Country Report: Canada

February, 2000

Broadband Task Force: On January 11, federal Minister of Industry of Industry Brian Tobin announced the appointment of members to the National Broadband Task Force which will advise government on how to make high-speed broadband Internet services available to all Canadian communities by 2004. Wendy Newman CEO and Chief Librarian of the Brantford Public Library, and a member of the Public Library Section's UNET project will head the Social Issues/Digital Divide/Culture and Education subgroup of the task force.

Computer Training in Public Libraries: Many public libraries in Canada are opening new computer labs available to library staff and non-profit groups for skills training. These libraries have received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as the Community Access Program (CAP) of Industry Canada. A range of software including Word, Publisher and Excel is available.

Fundraising Prairie Style: The Winnipeg (Manitoba) Library Foundation (WLF), in collaboration with an American website, has launched its own online shopping mall to support its fundraising campaign for the proposed Millennium Library expansion. Library supporters can chose to buy from over 120 merchants, including Amazon.com, Disney, Lands End. With every purchase a commission of three to 14 per cent goes to the Library Foundation. For more information: http://www.millenniumlibrary.com/ To visit the mall: http://npsmall.com/winnipeg.com

Canadian Library Awards: The Windsor Public Library won one of the Ontario Public Library Service Awards for Innovation for its new e-book service. It is the first in Canada to offer books by e-mail. During the week, members of the library's Online Book Club receive a short excerpt of a popular book by e-mail. For the rest of the text, they may come to the library to borrow the book. For more information: http://www.city.windsor.on.ca/wpl/services/chapteraday

The North Bay Public Library won the Ontario Public Library Service Award for Innovation for its Virtual City Hall Project which offers full-text of the 106 years of municipal by-laws as well as municipal forms and a customer service center. It is the most comprehensive municipal website in the province of Ontario. For more information: http://www.city.north-bay.on.ca/library/nbplinfo.htm.

Barbara Clubb was awarded the Ontario Library Trustees Association W.J. Robertson Medallion as the Librarian of the Year for the province of Ontario.

Municipal Amalgamations: Dozens of municipalities in the province of Ontario are being forced to amalgamate by provincial legislation. One of the results is that formerly separate library systems are also required to amalgamate. One example of this is the Ottawa Public Library, formerly serving 330,000 population is now serving 766,000 people with 33 branches, 2.2 million volumes and a circulation of almost 7 million items per year. Barbara Clubb has been appointed the City Librarian. More than 20 tonnes of material are being transported among library branches each week, 100% more than anticipated. The library is entering into contract discussions with epixtech for new integrated library system.

The Toronto Public Library, which amalgamated seven library systems in 1998 resulting in a system 98 branches is now faced with the major financial pressure of wage harmonization. A recent newspaper report stated that if the library got only a 5% increase in 2001 it would have to close up to 32 of its branches. However these are early days in the budget battles in the City of Toronto and no final decisions have been taken. The IFLA Coordinating Board meets in Toronto March 9 and 10, 2001.

Library Leadership Development: Canada's Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute is held every 18 months to assist professional librarians in developing, strengthening and exercising their leadership skills so that they may be better equipped to formulate, articulate and achieve the future changes required by libraries into the 21st century. Known and acknowledged leaders in the profession act as mentors and facilitators. The fifth session was held in the fall of 2000 in Emerald Lake British Columbia with 26 librarians from across Canada. The challenge for participants this year was writing a vision statement for the profession for the next 10 years.

Internet Use in Public Libraries. The Burnaby Public Library in Burnaby, B.C. has released a major analysis of how the public uses the library's Internet workstations. "What are people Viewing on the Internet? An Analysis of Burnaby Transaction Logs" was prepared by Dr. Ann Curry, associate professor at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia, with funding from the Office of Learning Technologies, Human Resources Development Canada.

"Members of the public are accessing websites on taxes and tattoos, divorce and computer hard drives," said Curry. "They're reading newspapers in Albanian, sending e-mail messages in Korean, and locating recipes in Chinese." At the time of the survey there were seven workstations available to the public at the Burnaby Public Library. All terminals within the system are unfiltered and all are fitted with privacy screens.

It was found that customers using email or sexually oriented sites generate three to five times more URLs per minute than customers accessing all other types of sites. Each of the websites in the sample was visited by the research team and was classified by overall format and by subject, where appropriate. The results of the study demonstrate that the public workstations act as an important communications tool (41.3% of use was for email). This was followed by visits mounted by for-profit corporations (15.9%) and visits to sites that were being used to access points for other sites-search engines, subject directories and portals (11.4%). Sexually related sites constituted only 1.29 % of the total number of sites analyzed. No material that might be considered obscene under the Criminal Code of Canada was accessed.

The study revealed that people are really looking at on Internet terminal, which is not was has been reported through customer surveys and interviews done elsewhere. The Burnaby Public Library circulates 3.6 million items per year-the highest circulation per capita among large urban public libraries in Canada. By the fall of 2001 there will be 61 workstations for public use. The library intends to repeat the log analysis in late 2001. Chief Librarian, Paul Whitney is a member of IFLA's CLM Task Force. For more information: http://www.bpl.burnaby.bc.ca

Internet Abandonment: Millions of US Internet users are logging off. A recent study by Cyber Dialogue found that the growth of the Internet in the US has slowed significantly, based on an analysis of online growth since 1995. The drop in use is due to three major constraints, according to Cyber Dialogue. The most important of these is the digital divide - simply being unable to afford a PC or Internet access. However, one third of American adults believe that they have no need for the Internet and have no intention of getting online. As well, a significant number of US adults have tried the Internet and found they have no use for it. These former users number 27.7 million, up from 9.4 million in 1997. The report claims that one third of these defectors are young people under the age of 25, the largest single demographic group to log off. "Often their primary source of access was through universities or schools and they can't afford it in the real world" said the researcher. Interestingly, the research also suggests that self-taught Internet enthusiasts are more likely to turn off than those who have had some formal training in how to use the web. For more information: http://cyberdialogue.com/news/releases/1999/11-29-ic-slowdown.html

Digitization Policy Paper for Public Libraries: "Going digital: Issues in digitization for public libraries", is the latest in a series of issue papers published by the UK government's Networked Services Policy Task Group. It explores policy issues that public libraries need to consider when developing digitization projects or services, as well as providing references to more detailed sources of advice and guidance for mangers. Among other topics the paper covers: initial planning and implementation phases for a digitization project; the key stages of the digitization process; data management strategies; delivery services and sustainability. The Networked Services Policy Task Force has also established an online archive of materials and briefing papers on key issues affecting the successful development and delivery of networked services in public libraries, including Acceptable Use Policies, filtering and copyright.

For the full text of the issue papers: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/public/earl/issuepapers/internet.html

Barbara Clubb
Chair, IFLA Section of Public Libraries
February 11, 2001