Hopefully Saskatchewan’s public libraries will never have to go through what we just went through over the past month ever again. But I thought I’d try to document some of the various events and happenings during the multi-pronged resistance to the massive library cuts in the 2017 Saskatchewan budget (which ultimately led to the cuts being reversed […]
So, almost unbelievably, after a month of incredible pushback from all levels – grassroots activists and elected MLAs, rural and urban citizens, library staff and supporters, and numerous others across the province and beyond – the Sask Party announced that they were restoring *all* funding to Saskatchewan public libraries that was cut in the March […]
Former Reform MP and first leader of the Sask Party, Elwin Hermanson, came out of the woodwork (there’s a Hermanson/hermit pun in there somewhere) recently to weigh in on the backlash to the Sask Party’s cuts to public libraries… It’s hard to know where to start with such a clueless and misinformed post. But I’ll try… […]
Good news for library supporters across Saskatchewan today as Premier Brad Wall has asked Education Minister Don Morgan to review the cuts to libraries that were announced in the budget a month ago! Nothing is guaranteed from this review of course and libraries could end up with anything from a full restoration of funding, partial […]
As usual, Tammy Robert has done some excellent journalism in writing about the history of libraries in the province, the parallels to arguments to earlier times when libraries were falsely attacked for being outdated or bad investments, and how the current government has long voiced support for libraries which makes their recent cuts especially nonsensical. […]
There’s a hierarchy in rural Saskatchewan… First, you lose the hospital. The grain elevators close and are replaced by an inland terminal in a bigger town down the line. You used to have a handful of churches and soon you’re down to two or one or maybe even none. The local school closes and the kids […]
I recently came across this picture I took at one of my branch libraries soon after I started working as Branch Supervisor for Southeast Regional Library in 2007. Like the communities where they’re located, many rural libraries are often relatively “conservative” in the dictionary (as opposed to the more loaded political) sense of the word […]
Sometimes I wonder why I keep this blog up, basically every day, for over ten years. Looking through some old blog posts recently, I realised that librarians are natural archivists and that’s part of the reason. For example, looking for something else, I realised that I’d posted the responses I got prior to the 2007 Saskatchewan […]
(As a general rule, I don’t do disclaimers on my blog. But given the fine line that exists between my place of employment and my interest in this issue as a taxpaying citizen – not to mention the fact that I’m someone who grew up in rural Saskatchewan and previously worked for a regional library […]
