University of Ottawa Professors Hold Rally to Protest Library Budget Cuts

From The Ottawa Citizen:

According to internal documents obtained by the Citizen, the university has asked all faculties and services to describe how they would achieve a four-to-eight-per-cent reduction to their base budget for 2017-18.
Professors at the university organized a rally this week to stop the administration from eliminating around $2 million from its library budget, but cutting thousands of academic print and online journals is just one of many scenarios under consideration.
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The proposed budget cuts for the next academic year come on top of existing two-per-cent cuts for 2016-17.
“An eight per cent cut to the library’s collections budget would decimate its holdings and severely damage its reputation,” said a source who spoke to the Citizen on condition of anonymity.
Jennifer Dekker, a librarian and the president of the Association of Professors at the University of Ottawa, has been an outspoken critic of the proposed cuts.
In an interview, Dekker said while she was not aware that regular positions could be subject to cuts, some faculties have heard talk that replacement professors may not see their contracts renewed.

Read the Complete Article (approx. 1100 words)
Background
Roundup: “University of Ottawa Puts Thousands of Journals On The Chopping Block”, Book Budget Also Reduced (October 22, 2016)

Filed under: Interviews, Libraries, News, Profiles, Roundup