Libraries North & South of the Border
By Katharine Dunn, Dean's Editorial Fellow
Stephen Abram is almost always on the road. For the past seven
years, as vice president of innovation for the integrated library
system vendor Sirsidynix, Abram has traveled up to 25 days a
month from his home base in Toronto to libraries, nonprofits,
and businesses around Canada, the United States, and the rest
of the world. He will continue to travel in his new job as vice
president of strategic partnerships and markets for Gale
Cengage Learning, the company best known as a publisher of
directories and databases. Abram’s 30 years of library
experience, which includes stints as president of the Special
Libraries Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the
Ontario Library Association, means he’s seen first hand some of
the differences between Canadian and American libraries and
librarianship. Over hot chocolate and samosas in a small cafe
near his home in Toronto, Abram shared some of his views on
the subject. “I think there’s probably a 70% overlap, where
[Americans and Canadians are] just identical,” he says. “But
there’s also probably a 70% overlap between millennials and
boomers in their Internet behavior. And so you say, gee, there’s
a huge difference too.” Herewith, some of the differences:
Canadian public libraries are largely funded by their provincial government. In the U.S., according to the ALA, more than 80% of American public libraries’ funding comes from local taxes. The real estate market crash, which led to a nationwide recession, has meant that as city coffers dry up libraries have been forced to cut hours or close far more than
their Canadian counterparts. “We didn’t have the subprime mortgages mess and the following foreclosure and property tax crisis” to the extent they existed in the U.S., says Abram. University libraries are also funded differently: In Canada, virtually all universities are public and supported by tuition and
federal and provincial government funds; in the United States, there are many private universities that rely heavily on endowments and investments whose value has in many cases substantially dropped along with the market.
The funding disparities affect other issues, like broadband penetration. In Canada a government-funded program established in 1995 has paid to expand Internet access to remote and rural communities like native reserves or towns in the far north. Today, says Abram, “Canada is the most densely connected country in the world through social networking,” in part because broadband access is prevalent. (He says, however, that Canadian mobile data rates are too high.) The United States has fewer broadband subscribers than in Canada and relies far more on charitable organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which recently announced an additional $3.4 million in grants for Internet access in libraries in five states, including Massachusetts.
Another distinction Abram has observed between libraries in the two countries is “the influence of religious dogma on [American] library strategies,” he says, particularly in the South. Though books are challenged and banned in both countries on counts of racism, too much sex and profanity, and violence, Abram says he’s found that librarians in certain parts of the United States avoid conflict before it occurs by “mitigating their behaviors and strategies in the library.” Whereas in the United States, obscenity and indecency are determined by gauging “community standards,” in Canada “we have freedom of expression. Period,” he says. That said, certain types of expression, such as hate speech, are illegal in Canada but protected in the U.S.
Though wary of generalizing, Abram says that libraries and librarians in Canada are “much more collaborative at a much higher level” than in the United States. For example, public, school, college and university, and special libraries across the province of Alberta have shared services and borrowing privileges since 1997. Nova Scotia launched a similar program in September called “Borrow Anywhere, Return Anywhere,” in which residents of the province can use any of more than 100 public, university, or college libraries with one card. And Canadian universities have collaborated to secure multiyear funding for electronic databases. Abram says that a consortium in American libraries too often means a buying group rather than policy and infrastructure sharing. “There is an element of competition [in the United States],” he says.
On the other hand, he says, American librarians are more likely than Canadians to take risks. “I think they have a culture that rewards individual effort,” he says. For example, Abram cites the 23 Things program started by North Carolina librarian Helene Blowers (now at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Ohio), in which she encouraged library staff to learn 23 new things about the Internet and Web 2.0. Abram says the program has expanded to more than 70 countries since 2006. “In Canada, we do not have as much of an individual contributor model,” he says. “So with us, the first thing we do is say, ‘Let’s get a committee together so I can share the blame or the risk.’ Things take longer in Canada.”
Links mentioned in this story:
Stephen Abram: http://stephenslighthouse.com/
$3.4 million: http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/12/01/gates-foundation-commits-34-million-to-better-broadband-access/
Alberta: http://www.thealbertalibrary.ab.ca/
Borrow Anywhere, Return Anywhere: http://librariesns.ca/content/borrow-anywhere-return-anywhere-bara
23 Things: http://plcmcl2-things.blogspot.com/