I have been thinking about the use of the word ‘budget’ in the public library world. That is, not the use of the word budget as it refers to the document used to track expected revenues and expenses each year, but the use of the word budget in relation to the financial support of the […]
Public libraries in Ontario have followed the same provincial legislation since 1984, with a few minor changes. Our role at the Ontario Library Service is to help library board members and staff members sort out the framework for library service within this legislation. Section 3 (3) of the Public Libraries Act states that “A public […]
On September 18th, the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries released the form for “One Week Survey of Public Library Use”; a survey better known as the “Typical Week Survey”. This information is collected during a week without a statutory holiday in October, November or the first part of December. The information collected […]
The Ontario Public Library Guidelines Monitoring and Accreditation Council recently released the 7th edition of the Ontario Public Library Guidelines (OPLG). First introduced in 1997, the OPLG have been updated and improved with each edition, the latest changes having to do with responding to emerging trends and issues, such as the findings of the Truth […]
Bill 148, also known as the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs 2017, has brought changes to the Ontario’s Employment Standards Act (ESA), Labour Relations Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act. While the most obvious change was the January 1st increase in the general minimum wage to $14 per hour (from $11.60), there are other […]
The Annual Survey of Public Libraries has been open in the GO-Secure platform since the end of April. To date, staff at 52 libraries in southern Ontario have taken the time to complete the survey… so at this point, we are looking for about 130 more surveys from libraries as well as a number from […]