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March 24, 2006
Today, the chair of Knowledge Ontario, the repositioned Ontario Digital Library, received a call from the Minister of Culture to tell him that the provincial government had given her $8 million over the next three years for the project. After getting off the phone from the Hon. Madeleine Meilleur, an elated Peter Rogers sent messages to the dozens of people who have been key to the project. "This is important recognition," said Rogers, "that will open the doors to other government ministry involvement. This is just phenomenal."

March 23, 2006
Today's budget confirmed that the government has earmarked another $15 million for school library collection development (last year it was $17 million). The money and the process had been conveyed to school boards across Ontario earlier this week in a secret exchange to Directors of Education that was instantly leaked around the school library world, rather than waiting on today's budget announcement. Each school in the province is to receive $3,096. The money is to be spent in the next eight days. Past purchases may be counted but it begs the question of how boards will honour this as new money in the weeks ahead.

March 21, 2006
Lisa Radha Weaver, a teacher and librarian in Library Technical Services at the Toronto District School Board, is Ontario's only entry in the 2006 Library Journal Movers and Shakers list. She organized two mammoth book fairs for TDSB's teacher-librarians and many outside the board to purchase their portion of the government's $17,000,000 grant last year... Other Canadians in the list include Annette DeFavri, national co-ordinator of the Working Together Project, Vancouver Public Library's Sandra Singh, who spearheaded the BCLA project, Beyond Words, and Carrie-Ann Smith from Halifax's Pier 21 National Historic Site.

March 20, 2006
The decision last week by the Toronto District School Board to limit access to Three Wishes by Deborah Ellis spawned a spectacular outburst today from the publishing and author community in protest. PEN International was the lead organization for this event and was the first in a long parade of eloquent and powerful statements defending the rights of children not only to read the book but to need to read the book. The press conference included representatives from the Freedom of Expression Committee of the Book and Periodical Council, the Writers' Union of Canada, People for Education, and Groundwood Press, the book's publisher. Children's author Lawrence Hill spoke and brought his remarkable Grade Four step-daughter, Evie Freedman to talk about the book and her reaction to it. Freelance writer John Lorinc focused on the availability of equally stressing material on the Holocaust, in which many of his own family were lost, a topic that is discussed widely within the Jewish and world community without the restrictions with which this book has been threatened. 2005 Giller Prize nominee Edeet Ravel added her authority to the content of the book and June Callwood read a statement from author Deborah Ellis who was on tour in the United States. Callwood expressed her astonishment that she found herself in this position of defending a book from school censorship, something she thought had ended with The Diviners. The packed event was subject of CBC's National News this evening.

March 17, 2006
A new location for the Archives of Ontario is currently being contested. The collection, valued at over $400 million dollars, is currently held in a downtown Toronto rented space that has become far too small for the massive holdings, some of which date back to the 17th century. Thousands of people visit the archives every year and it is hoped that the new building will allow conditions that can preserve the collection which is deteriorating from mould and other maladies. Meeting rooms for researchers were closed for a time this year for fear of the building becoming unstable; while this alarm has not proved to be an immediate concern after all, the long term problems of the current location are becoming overwhelming. The new building is to be 90,000 square-foot and is expected to cost upwards of $50 million. Proposals are due at the beginning of May, the projected finish date being 2009. According to news sources, competitors include York University, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Union Pearson Group Inc., and Woodcliffe Corporation and Westdale Constructions Co. Ltd.

March 16, 2006
Editor Emeritus Haroon Saddiqui of the Toronto Star has a column today that spins out from the Muslim cartoons to show that there is an increasing level of censorship going on around the world. In the meantime, Winnipeg Public Library is in the eye of the cartoon storm. The Muslim community of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was screening a PBS documentary to convince the mayor and city council to get the Winnipeg Public Library to remove the February 27 issue of the Western Standard in which the Danish cartoons have been printed. While some libraries in Ontario also subscribe to the magazine, there has been no indication of difficulties here.
| The Toronto Star / Haroon Saddiqui

March 15, 2006
Stephen Abram, Vice-President, Innovation, for SirsiDynix, and plenary speaker at this year's Super Conference, has been announced as President-Elect of the Special Libraries Association, the first time that a Canadian will have been president of a provincial association (OLA), of a national association (CLA) and an international association (SLA). He becomes SLA President in January 2008... Rosemary Bonanno, CEO of Vaughan Public Libraries, represented Canada in bilateral exchanges with professional counterparts in China...

March 14, 2006
The Toronto Star phoned the Ontario Library Association today to inform OLA that the Toronto District School Board had pulled Three Wishes by Deborah Ellis from the Silver Birch Award reading program in its schools. "The Board clearly has the right to take this action," said OLA Executive Director Larry Moore. "It is no less sad for all that." Children in Grades 7 and 8 will be allowed to read the book. Groups and individuals across the country have supported OLA in its fight for the right of children to read the book as part of the program in the face of concerted pressure from the Canadian Jewish Congress to stop access to it. Sources have indicated to OLA that the Board was divided over the controversy and passed the decision back to administration rather than have a public debate and vote. Whatever the case, with only six weeks to voting day, children in the Board who have already read the book may be allowed to cast their vote, according to Board officials.
| Toronto Star story

March 13, 2006
Library and Archives Canada has officially signed the Documentary Heritage Research Partnership between the National Archives of Ireland and Library and Archives Canada. This agreement establishes a unique research partnership between both institutions to digitize the 1901 and 1911 Irish census records and create online tools to provide information to researchers and genealogists. This data will enable millions of Irish descendants in Canada and around the world to retrace their families and their heritage. His Excellency Martin Burke, Ambassador of Ireland, Ian. E. Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada and, Catriona Crowe, Senior Archivist from the National Archives of Ireland, signed the document while archivists and members of genealogical societies and Irish associations looked on. The expertise of Library and Archives Canada staff, who have already successfully digitized and partially indexed the Canadian census returns for 1901, 1906 and 1911, when combined with the archival and research material of the National Archives of Ireland, will result in an outstanding research tool. Given that this is the 160th anniversity of the Great Famine, one of the greatest periods of Irish immigration to Canada, Libraries and Archives Canada used the occasion to launch a new virtual exhibition of Irish-Canadian documentary heritage entitled The Shamrock and the Maple Leaf.
| The exhibition

March 10, 2006
The Evergreen Award Committee has completed its deliberations and today announced its 2006 list of nominees:

• Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. Penguin, 2005
• The Greek for Love by James Chatto. Random House Canada, 2005
• An Audience Of Chairs by Joan Clark. Alfred A. Knopf, 2005
• Snowshoes and Spotted Dick: letters from a wilderness dweller by Chris Czajkowski. Harbour Pub., 2003
• Sweetness In The Belly by Camilla Gibb. Doubleday Canada, 2005
• The Girls by Lori Lansens. Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2005
• Race Against Time by Stephen Lewis. Anansi, 2005
• Lady Franklin's Revenge by Ken McGoogan. HarperCollins Canada, 2005
• Paul Moves Out by Michel Rabagliati. Drawn & Quarterly, 2005
• Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer. Tor Books, 2002

Adult readers in public libraries will vote on their favourite title during Ontario Public Library Week this coming October. The winner will be announced at Super Conference 2007. The first Evergreen Award voted by adult public library users was given to Mary Lawson for Crow Lake at this year's Super Conference.