Monday, 15 August 2011 14:04

Many of us have grown up using libraries. But when was the last time you visited one?

A war of words has broken out between revered Canadian author Margaret Atwood and a Toronto city councillor over the proposed cuts to be made to public city libraries, including the complete termination of certain public library establishments.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is staring down a $774-million funding gap in next year’s finances. As a result and as a responsible course of action, Ford has been exploring what should be cut from the city’s funding system by weighing a list of options. It seems, however, that Mayor Ford has not really considered what he can afford to cut. And I don’t just mean what options will save him the most economically: everything comes with a consequence and a price, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be monetary.

 

As reported by the Globe and Mail, Ford has a list of top ten most eligible areas for funding cuts that include the price raise or termination completely of some night buses, lowered funding towards public city gardens, policing, long term care facilities, zoos and libraries, just to name a few that plague his list of considered possibilities. Every item on that list deserves an understandable rebut as to why it is not a viable area to cut funding. However, no one has challenged any area of this list as publicly and enthusiastically as legendary Canadian author Margaret Atwood when she took to the online stage of Twitter in an open Twitter debate over the notion of library closures with City councillor, and brother to the Mayor, Doug Ford.

Atwood has launched an online campaign against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford addressing the possible closure of library branches. In a tweet, she asked her 227,000-plus twitter followers to sign an online petition against the closure of library branches in the GTA area. The Toronto Star reported that within hours of Atwood’s tweet, the server hosting the petition crashed. It has since been restored and has more than 24,000 signatures, with numbers rising at a steady rate, and the twitter campaign continues.

In effort to justify the idea of closing public libraries, Councillor Doug Ford tweeted that “We have more libraries per person than any other city in the world. I’ve got more libraries in my area than I have Tim Hortons.” The reference to a Canadian coffee establishment was very patriotic. Good move on the part of Doug Ford; nothing says ‘I am Canadian’ more than uttering the words ‘Tim Hortons’. Atwood fired back: “"Twin Ford mayor seems to think those who eat Timbits (like me) don't read, can't count, & are stupid eh?"

Doug Ford’s Canadian pride and knowledge of his country and people seemed to fail him when it mattered most, when Doug Ford gave reporters a provocative retort to Atwood’s tweet with the statement, “"Well good luck to Margaret Atwood. I don't even know her. If she walked by me, I wouldn't have a clue who she is”.

It’s nice to know we have a Mayor who reads. Though it sheds a little more light into why, perhaps, he is so adamant about the closures of libraries. He doesn’t use them. So why keep them around?

When was the last time you visited a library? I can still remember a time when the internet had made its debut, but teachers in schools still would not accept any research done on papers or projects that had not been referenced from a book. The internet was still so new – though most of the negative feelings towards it stemmed from a lack of understanding of how it worked, it was probably safe to say that the information on the internet was still at that time not completely reliable. Who was posting the information? Who is to say it is true? There wasn’t nearly as much security surrounding the authenticity of what could be posted on the internet as we have today, where it is now common knowledge that Wikipedia is not 100% honest. The internet is less of a foreign abyss, and is now well on its way to becoming the primary source for valid and authentic news and information.

This opens up an entirely new debate surrounding paper books and the possibility of their potential to become obsolete. By association, libraries would also become obsolete. Kindles and E-readers replace the bulk of a book, and are becoming more and more common, based on convenience. The novelty of owning a novel is becoming less of a proud announcement of social status. But if a young person like me can remember a time when books where still our only option, then certainly Ford can recall his visits to the library.

Ford is considering closing two of three libraries in his area of living. He figures that there are five or six library branches within a two-mile area near his ward – which is too many. Asked if he would vote to close that branch he said, “Absolutely I would. In a heartbeat.”

It should be mentioned that though Rob Ford sees his excess of Libraries as a problem, the very opposite problem is going on all over the city. The closest public library to Liberty Village is located in Parkdale; although this is not a terribly far travel to get to from anywhere in Liberty Village, there are locations in the city that don’t have a local library and anyone requesting to use a library could have much further to travel than the two mile radius that Ford deems is plagued by a library overload. It also all depends on the level and efficiency of public transit in that area. Sometimes, one could be waiting for a bus for twenty minutes or longer. And what if one needed to take a night bus home from the library, where they have been studying for hours with public resources because they balance a daytime job and night school, and free use of books is always appealing? Ford has ideas to cancel night buses as well. As if things weren’t already hard enough.

The online debate over the validity of books and libraries between a highly esteemed author and a Mayor who reaches his audience via social media provides a bit of an ironic situation. A debate over books and the buildings that house them is being made online. But it does not lessen that cause.

Whether libraries should continue to exist really has nothing to do with what format the information comes in, be it E-Reader, Kindle, hardcover or soft. It has everything to do with free public access to clean, well-organised, unbiased information; everything to do with libraries as part of our local community; everything to do with libraries as a source of entertainment. Not everyone’s lives are a rat race to the acquisition of wealth and possessions. Library cards are usually free. Librarians aren't out to sell you anything. Rob Ford might be.

--Emily Karpazis