Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Toronto City Mayor wants to close the Toronto Public Library

Toronto elected a right-wing mayor last year. We should have known that he lied.
He swore that there would be NO SERVICE cuts. That is a major reason why he was elected.
Toronto has a rather large deficit right now, and instead of raising taxes, the mayor wants to cut services.

He wants to cut daycare subsidies (city hall pays for daycare spaces for those parents whose jobs are minimum wage and cant afford to pay $50 per day). He wants to cut down on the number of times the grass gets cut in city parks during summer. He wants to cut down on the number of times the roads get plowed (snow removal) during the winter. He wants to cut down on Police numbers.

But the biggest shock of all is that he wants to Privatise the public libraries!!


Interior of the Toronto Reference Library - the main central branch at Yonge and Bloor

So Canada's champion for books - internationally known author Margaret Atwood - has joined the battle to keep our libraries open.

Margaret Atwood takes to Twitter to battle Toronto Mayor over Library Closures

She is asking people to sign the petition to KEEP OUR LIBRARIES OPEN

Many City Councillors see Toronto's public libraries as a financial burden rather than an important community service. As some American cities already have done, Toronto City Hall is actively considering turning over some or all of the operation of our free public library system to the private sector.

BUT WHO WILL PAY IN A FOR-PROFIT LIBRARY?

Library users, that's who, through higher user fees, fewer books, less access and fewer branches.

Would YOU as a library user want to pay to borrow books?
I would not and cant afford to do that. If this happens, I would just stop using the library.

I have heard that Toronto Public Library is one of the best library systems on the entire North American continent. Possibly also one of the biggest - there are 99 branches. Even Montreal's public library only has 50 branches. We have to all work together to KEEP it that way.

SAVE OUR LIBRARY

SIGN THE PETITION

Thank you.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Borders Books going out of Business

If you haven't already heard, the American book store chain Borders is shutting down, going out of business and forcing over 10,000 employees out of their jobs. This is not good news for helping the economy to recover. This news was reported on July 19, 2011 - 3 days ago.

I mention this because I am sure I would have heard or read anything about this in Canada if it had been mentioned. And to me, this is BIG news. I only found this out today, when I was checking out my favourite Canadian book magazine - Quill and Quire

Borders has been struggling for several years to maintain its market shore against the strong Barnes and Noble chain and Amazon. Borders closed down a number of bricks and mortar shops back in 2007, but that did not help.

The bookchain declared bankruptcy in February 2011 and closed some 200 stores at that time. Borders has been in liquidation and looking for a buyer ever since, This week it conceded defeat saying it was unable to find a buyer.

One major reason Borders has been forced out of business is Amazon. Most book buyers have discovered the comfort and convenience of purchasing their books online from their own homes. I too have been guilty of this as I like to purchase my books from an online book warehouse. When I have money that is. 

On the first page of the Borders website is a large red notice
 ALL BORDERS STORES GOING OUT OF BUSINESS

I don't know much about Borders other than it has always ran second to Barnes and Noble (the top Book store chain in the USA). Borders has also tried to expand overseas without success. I know there was at least one Borders shop in New Zealand - which did not last long. 

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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Heatwave...

Cant (gasp) read (gasp, gasp). There's a (gasp) heatwave (gasp) across Ontario (gasp) right now

The last few days have been extremely hot - with temperatures breaking July records all over the place. Today here in Toronto, the temperature has climbed to 37 degrees Celcius (98.6 degrees F).

Inside my apartment, despite the doors and windows being open and the fans blowing, the temperature is currently at 32 degrees Celcius (89 degrees F). The building does NOT have central A/C and we can't afford to buy a unit right now.

The humidex for Toronto is currently 47 degrees Celsius. That means it FEELS like 47 degrees outside, (116 degrees F) and yes that means it feels like an OVEN.

I know this is not book related, but it's just too hot to read!!!

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