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Canadian Health Scientists Resort To Sneaker Net After Funding Slashed
sandbagger writes "Health Canada scientists are so concerned about losing access to their research library that they're finding workarounds, with one squirreling away journals and books in his basement for colleagues to consult, says a report obtained by CBC News. The report said the number of in-house librarians went from 40 in 2007 to just six in April 2013. 'I look at it as an insidious plan to discourage people from using libraries' said Dr. Rudi Mueller, who left the department in 2012. 'If you want to justify closing a library, you make access difficult and then you say it is hardly used.' This is hardly new for Stephen Harper's Conservative government. Over the Christmas holidays, several scientific libraries were closed and their contents taken to the dump."
...are we batshit crazy. What the FUCK ever happened to science? We are descending back into the dark ages...
'If you want to justify closing a library, you make access difficult and then you say it is hardly used.'
So we have "starve the beast" in Canada now.
Spiffy. Not.
--
BMO
In fairness, the libraries aren't being closed. They're being re-purposed as public relations offices responsible for such things as communicating the need to move forward with new forms of multimodal multimedia information dissemination, on a go forward basis.
Also, the books are not being dumped, they're being converted into bio-fuel (burned in very efficient co-generation waste incinerators).
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Once again the data is (allegedly) retained, but moved and is now less convenient to access.
Before the main library closed, the inter-library loan functions were outsourced to a private company called Infotrieve, the consultant wrote in a report ordered by the department. The library's physical collection was moved to the National Science Library on the Ottawa campus of the National Research Council last year.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Wasn't there some Austrian dude who like burned a bunch of books and restricted what would be taught in schools to only support his totally bogus regime?
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Used to be, we wanted to know everything about everything. Now it seems there are powers out there that want a select few to keep their knowledge, and everyone else should know nothing.
This. The whole "knowledge is power" thing isn't just a platitude. The rich and powerful have realized that the lower classes are beginning to figure out a little too much for their liking. I think the Internet upset the balance a bit and gave 'em a scare until they realized that Facebook was the great pacifier.
Mobile tech, internet addiction, social media, health care costs, mortgages, unpaid internships and student loan debt... control the population by enforcing a giant wealth/knowlege/skills/health/opportunity gap. Let the plebs smash themselves to bits trying to get ahead.
Can't fix the system by playing a part in it.
You get the best government you deserve
Stop it. Just stop with this. Does an average person have any control over a government? No. They can write letters or vote for whatever paid-off politician they wish.
That does not mean they are getting what they deserve. They are merely getting what people with power and influence want. Nothing more.
We have 3 parties the Tories won a majority from just over 37% of the vote. Most of which came from Alberta (North Texas). There's not much the other 63% of us can do, it's how the system works. That being said 2015 is an election year, hopefully the damage Harper's done to the public service by then will be remembered.
I worked for Natural Resources Canada's library system in 2011. My friend worked at Transportation Canada.
They closed Transportation Canada's library system. It no longer exists. Who knows what happened to the information there, if it even exists any more. My friend told me they housed some of the world's foremost research on transportation science, and were called upon by international colleagues to provide them with information.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
They did a similar thing to the library at the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
Environment Canada
http://o.canada.com/news/last-...
This government has a war on science and knowledge and actively prohibits scientists from speaking to the media without government approval.
http://scienceblogs.com/confes...
The Conservative government does not care about facts. They have policies they want to implement, and they will do WHATEVER it takes to ensure those policies are enacted. Even if it means destroying our scientific heritage.
Alternate Headline: "Public Agency Finds Less Expensive Way to Do The Same Job; Saves Taxpayer Dollars".
This is what people voted for. It's a democracy. If people want the more expensive solution which does the same thing, then they'll vote for that instead.
I was a student at curtin for a while. Whilst I was there they binned some old chemistry reference books than no one had used in a while.
They were a near complete set of chemistry journals from the 1750ish through 1910 ish. These were one of maybe 3 sets in the world, we sent to the tip. Gone forever.
This is why I am keen in the digitization of works copyrighted or otherwise.
Actually 5 years ago personal HDs were made against the rule. They were collected then outright band from the network. Employees were mandated to use server storage, but in the last two years, with the creation of Shared Services Canada, there's been confusion about who's supposed to provide that service. A budy of mine who works for DFO is always complaining about fights with IM&TS and SSC. Both suppose to provide a service neither one doing it. Data is the casualty.
You might want to read up on the election fraud that occurred here. Google: "2011 Canadian federal election voter suppression scandal", aka the Robocall Scandal.
The Cons worked hard at getting that swept under the rug. For any act like this that politicians get caught in, you can bet there's probably a dozen more they pulled off without the public knowing.
What complete and utter crap.
The scientists who monitored these things kept libraries, containing their research journals, results, and papers and the supporting documentation.
And you, like a fucking moron, jump to the conclusion that "a small elite" have been secretly hoarding all of this information.
You're a fucking idiot. Some of this stuff is decades old, and predates when you could digitize it.
The government has claimed they're going to digitize it, but the evidence so far indicates they've barely tried to do that, and are moving straight onto destroying records.
The people complaining are the people who were trying to preserve the data and keep it accessible.
The secretive douchebags here are the politicians who don't like it when facts get in the way of policy -- because this government makes policy on what they want to be true, and seldom give a damn about what is actually true.
Oddly, we see the exact same pattern in the US with your neocons, who like to believe when they say reality is X, the rest of the world jumps and says "yes sir, reality is now X".
This is a political game, and if you can remove the stuff that proves your government is either lying or failing to make decisions based on actual evidence -- then you can pretend you have all of the answers.
Sorry, but your screed is directed at the wrong group here, and you are full of shit. The scientists wanted this stuff digitized, and had been told that it would be digitized -- they aren't the ones trying to keep the information secret and only available to them.
Your entire post tells us you are a moron, who believes scientists are secretly conspiring to make sure they have all the information and the rest of us have none.
Go crawl back under your rock.
Looks like "... was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual..." is going to be a new meme. First George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four, now Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451.
Down the memory hole!
lot of financial issues in Canada and it isn't anything new
[Citation Needed]
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/intera...
Canadians had no financial issues until Harper took power. We were on track to pay off the national debt.
Libraries are hardly used to begin
[Citation Needed]
cost a significant amount to create and maintain
[Citation Needed]
They are expensive, and a huge tax burden
[Citation Needed]
Everything in those libraries are turned into ebooks
[Citation definitely Needed]
Last post!
You probably should have worn more than a trench coat, and perhaps your first question shouldn't have been "is porn blocked on the library computers?"
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Not to defend the Conservatives I dislike, however a few points worth noting. I have had some experience with this.
A) Many of these specialized libraries are not used regularly. There may be a need for the information, and sometimes that need might be more than usual, however for the most part I would bet that most of the staff are not all that busy. Hence the reduction of staff. Though as argued this may have led to a decline in service when they are actually needed, making them even less used, etc...
B) Digitizing is expensive. Storing the information is expensive. Organizing the information is expensive. Hosting the information is expensive. Now multiply all those things by a factor of 5 because you have to use government services or contractors to built it, and infrastructure to host it. There are a whole lot of reasons for this which I won't get into, but the fact is it is reality.
C) You may or may not agree with it, but if you lower taxes, you need to cut services, and if you cut services you have to decide which ones. Too many people out there somehow think that they don't have to pay taxes and somehow get all the services they want for free. Some have pointed out that the taxes cut are corporate taxes, and I am sure the Conservatives would argue that this makes Canada more competitive and creates jobs. Personally I think that is BS, but the fact is, less taxes means less services.
Anyway many are painting this as some sort of dastardly master plan by the Conservatives to destroy science and push their agenda. I think you are giving them way to much credit. That may be the round about way result, that has some small affect on the some specific long term research, but likely its immediate impact and gains (which is what most political parties are looking for, I highly doubt the Conservatives are playing the long game here) are negligible. This is more a simple consequence of the Conservatives following their ideological plan they got elected for. They cut corporate taxes using the assumption that it would make Canada more competitive and thus more attractive to corporate job creation, this costs money so to make up for it, rather than raise income taxes (which they also said they wouldn't do) the cut services to things which they don't see as A) important, and likely B) will have little impact on the short term while they are in office so as to have little effect on the next election cycle.
So none of this is really all that surprising, nor unexpected. If you want to blame anything it is our electoral process that gives a majority government to party that doesn't even have a majority of the popular vote simply because the left is split, and that because these parties have a election cycle of 4 years, unless you have a strong leader with some legacy fetish, odds are no party will think much longer than those terms.