Ontario Public Libraries Week (October 16-20) highlights the important role public libraries and library workers play in our communities.
Our theme this year is “Libraries connect you to life.” This celebrates not only the spaces and books that make libraries a haven for the reader and a heaven for the imaginative. It celebrates the workers who maintain computers that link newcomers and temporary foreign workers to their lives in other countries. It celebrates the library staff who teach us how to use technology like 3D printers that inspire a new generation of engineers, architects and artists. It celebrates the workers who connect us with the information and resources we need to not only survive, but thrive.
While libraries are ever becoming more wonderful, the challenges faced by library workers have never been greater.
This Ontario Public Libraries Week, please take time to consider some of the following issues and talk to your local councillors about them:
Staffing – While many municipalities are justifiably proud of their libraries, most have been reducing staff, holding wages below the rate of inflation and relying more and more on part-time or casual staff with fewer or no benefits. It is becoming more and more difficult to attract and retain great library workers and to provide the high quality and creative programs and services that make libraries so exciting.
Health & Safety – For many of us, libraries are a safe haven. For many people, they are also rare public spaces that is open. As governments of all levels abdicate their responsibilities around affordable and supportive housing, mental health supports and addiction crises, library workers become the front-line workers facing the often traumatic effects of the crises. Library workers need additional safety measures and staffing levels to support them until the governments tackle these serious social issues.
Please also visit CUPE’s website for Canadian Libraries Month – https://cupe.ca/event/canadian-library-month
