Students and researchers at Carleton will lose access to research experts and loaning services at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) due to budget cuts announced in April 2012.
On Dec. 13, LAC stopped doing loans as a part of the interlibrary loans program, a system which allows patrons to have material shipped from one library to another.
The program officially ends in February when all materials need to be returned to the LAC, said Christine Taylor, Carleton’s interlibrary loans technician.
Although Carleton students can still access materials on site at LAC, which is located in Ottawa, the changes pose an inconvenience to researchers outside the city wishing to access material unique to LAC.
“Researchers outside of Ottawa are either going to have to hire researchers in Ottawa to go to LAC and do their research for them, or they’re going to have to make a trip to Ottawa,” Taylor said.
The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) at Carleton has joined an online protest called ‘Save Library and Archives Canada’ to make the government aware of the negative impact these change will have on research in Canada.
“Although we are located in Ottawa, some of the other cuts do include reducing staff and expert staff, which grad students often rely on to make connections and find the information they’re looking for,” GSA president Kelly Black said.
But LAC spokesman Marc Comeau said by email that the demand for interlibrary loans services has declined 75 per cent since the mid-1990s.
Over the next three years, LAC plans to digitize 60 million pages of its most frequently requested material, in addition to the 25 million pages that already exist, he said.
Taylor said this digitized process is not as efficient as the interlibrary loans program.
While students can still request material from other libraries, Taylor said, LAC holds items unique to their collection which cannot be borrowed elsewhere, and offered a loaning period of two months more than local libraries.
At a cost of 40 cents per page, students can request that LAC material be digitized for their use, but can expect a standard turnaround of 30 days for the process to be completed, Taylor said.
The interlibrary loans program had a standard turnaround of one to three days for requested materials to be shipped.
“A lot of people need their material right away,” Taylor said. “It’s an option, but its just not the same as [interlibrary loans] in terms of turnaround time and cost.”
Starting in September 2013, LAC will offer a “lender of last resort” service, Comeau said, which would allow patrons to borrow material if they can prove that LAC is the only holder.
Black said the GSA hopes to see changes to the LAC cuts in the next budget bill.
“Hopefully the government will realize that some of these decisions weren’t the right ones to make,” Black said.
