After 145 Years, Final Edition Published: “The Canada Year Book is History”, Resource Will Not Continue Online

Just as the U.S. Census ceased publishing the Statistical Abstract of the United States (a similar electronic product, fee-based, is now available from ProQuest), Statistics Canada will no longer publish The Canada Year Book.
From The Globe and Mail:

After 145 years of documenting the country’s history, the Canada Year Book will no longer be published.
Statistics Canada published the last edition of its longest-running publication on Tuesday. It is the last such print publication and will not continue as an online resource.
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The agency, in the midst of deep budget cuts, said ebbing demand was the chief reason for discontinuing the book. It printed just 3,000 copies of this year’s edition – down from 12,000 books 15 years ago (recent years saw some copies of the book left unsold). Readers are increasingly seeking more current online data and publications, said Gabrielle Beaudoin, director general of communications.
Several of the people working on the publication have retired and might not be replaced, she added.
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Others are sorry to see it go. Jerry Fawcett, reference librarian at the Calgary Public Library, says the almanacs are still frequently used to learn about Canadian history – particularly by people who prefer the printed word over computers.
“There is an assumption that is everyone is computer literate or if you got to a library you can just access this electronically. You can – but there are still many people who need a great deal of assistance.”

Read the Complete Article
See Also: The Canada Yearbook Collection (via Statistics Canada)
Digitized yearbooks from 1867-1967.

Filed under: Data Files, Libraries, News, Public Libraries, Publishing