Greater Sudbury Public Library takes on cost of interlibrary loans
Acting manager says it will cost about $2,400 a year to bring in books from other Ontario libraries
The Greater Sudbury Public Library says it is going to start covering the cost of getting books sent in from other libraries in Ontario that are requested locally.
That's because the provincial government has halved funding to the system that provides interlibrary loans, which won't be able to cover postage any longer.
The acting manager of libraries and heritage services in Sudbury, Mette Kruger, says Ontario Library Services North (OLS North) and Southern Ontario Library Services (SOLS) are still figuring out how to manage the funding cut.
Kruger says their first move was to suspend interlibrary loans.
Those loans will resume June 1st, but Kruger says OLS North will no longer offer a rebate to cover the cost of postage to send the books to Sudbury.
Kruger says the cost amounted to about $2,400 in 2018 to the Greater Sudbury Public Library.
She says while locally they will start covering the expense, other libraries may find they can't absorb postage and opt out of the interlibrary loan system.
That, she says, could limit the availability of resources to borrowers everywhere.
"What I'm hearing from other libraries especially smaller libraries, or First Nation public libraries in Ontario, is they may not be able to take on that cost of postage, so that may mean the number of libraries participating in what we call the resource sharing program, or the interlibrary loan system, may be reduced," she says.
"Again, we don't know that at this time, but perhaps it may impact the selection that we're able to tap into to be able to meet someone's need for information."
Kruger emphasizes that the impact of the cuts aren't known yet because OLS North and SOLS are still considering how to manage their reduced budgets.
However, she says there is a potential to lose some other services that are in demand locally.
Kruger says SOLS in particular offers much-discounted online services for geneology and language.
As well, she says it also offers valuable staff training and resources.
The public library system in Sudbury is mainly funded by the municipal tax levy to a total of $5.8 million with a public library operating grant of $403,000 from the province.
Kruger says so far, they have not heard anything from the province about reducing that grant.