Libraries ask for Ontario-wide digital system to ensure equal access to materials

Libraries are mostly funded by municipalities, so each library system has to purchase their own material, said Dina Stevens, of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries.

TORONTO — Ontario’s libraries are asking the government to create a provincewide digital public library, to ensure residents in smaller municipalities have the same access to materials as people in large, urban centres.

Libraries are mostly funded by municipalities, so each library system has to purchase their own material, said Dina Stevens, executive director of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries.

“Many Ontario public libraries, particularly in smaller and First Nation communities, struggle to afford and cannot provide those high-quality resources and ebooks that people in their communities need,” she said.

“These e-resources are really expensive, especially when they’re purchased on that patchwork, library-by-library basis. So we think something like the ODPL, the Ontario Digital Public Library would be hugely beneficial for smaller urban centres and our rural and northern municipalities, and, of course, our First Nations public libraries.”

Ebooks cost three times as much as print books, Stevens said.

“E-resources are extremely expensive, per copy of ebook,” she said.

“Since the pandemic we’ve had a huge increase in need from our communities and demand from our communities for e-resources, ebooks.”

Those resources aren’t just the latest bestseller novels, Stevens said, rather they include language-learning resources, audio books for kids, and skills training programs for people working on a mid-career change.