More than half of N.L. libraries closing in wake of budget cuts

The library board in Newfoundland and Labrador announced sweeping changes to its services Wednesday, adopting a regional library model which will see 54 branches close in the next two years.

The board met Tuesday to discuss how best to deal with a $1-million loss in its annual budget, a cut announced in the provincial budget.

"It's tough on everybody," saidchair Calvin Taylor.

He saidthe board is just doing its part to help reduce the province's deficit.

"And also in the long run, to improve the library services in Newfoundland by going with a regional library-type [of]system."

Promising improved services

Taylor said41 libraries will remain open, and be better serviced with the $650,000 left to run the library system.

"Where money was very scarce before, we now have a little money to do something with," he said.

Taylor promisedenhancements to programs at remaining libraries, e-books and books-by-mail services.

He said85 per cent of residents in the province should be within a 30-minute drive of a remaining branchwhich will be open a minimum of 30 hours a weekand available to people in a service area where theygo for groceries or to do their banking.

The locations of the affected libraries havenot yet been released,as the board is still notifying employees.

Taylor saidit'sgoing to have a "major impact" on the64 people losing their jobs.

'Something had to change'

Education Minister Dale Kirby said few people were using the libraries that are being closed.

"The ones that are going to be closing are open on average only 18 hours a week," he said."And they have low levels of usage,well, because they're not open very often. So clearly something had to change."

When reminded of comments he made in 2013 as a New Democrat, before joining the Liberal Party, calling library cuts "an attack on literacy,"Kirby said he now has a new perspective.

"It's pretty easy to sit in the opposition benches and criticize the activities of government without having all the information," Kirby told reporters at the House of Assembly on Wednesday.

"It was certainly unknown to me at the time that the public libraries board themselves were advocating for government to either increase investment or to close some of these libraries that had very limited hours of service."

Both Kirby and the library board have said thatcommunitieswhich house their libraries inmunicipal buildings will be giventhe opportunity to take themover, if they can afford to.

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Budget 2016 has also been criticized for bringing in a10 per cent book tax, which makes Newfoundland and Labrador the onlyprovince in Canada to tax books.

Publishers and writers have called that a blow in a province with some of the lowest literacy scores in the country.

Taylor saidthat tax does not apply to books the library purchases.

He said literacy rates were low 25 years ago when the province had more than 100 libraries.

He's hoping that fewer libraries, with longer hours and better resources, "will actually be able to make a contribution towards reducing illiteracy."