Shut Out by Jennifer Hambleton notesandqueries.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from notesandqueries.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
How Canadian university libraries used the Covid crisis to further limit public access
Illustration: Kat Tzingounakis
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced Canadian universities to go into lockdown last year, their libraries remained accessible to current students, faculty, and administrative staff but not to the public. While ostensibly only a temporary measure, the move to cut the general public’s use of publicly funded collective resources should be viewed warily. Public access to university library collections has been tolerated by universities in the past, but it is not a certainty that it will continue. Although they rely on public funding, universities are private spaces, so access to university libraries has sometimes been provided as a courtesy, but it is not a right.