This week, we received a notice that the Annapolis Valley libraries are closing five branches, citing “static [flat] provincial funding”. This comes on the heels of a notice from the NSCC that they are laying off library staff.
Perhaps the assumption is that the population can access information via the Internet. Or that there is in-depth coverage in the local newspaper. Have you recently read the Chronicle Herald? Or better, the weekly Bridgetown Reader? Or are we outsourcing information sources to big tech AI that may know no geography?
Do we need to examine the role of community centres in rural Nova Scotia?
In the short term, it will lead to a ‘Rally to Save our Libraries’, Friday June 5 at 10 am, at David Bowlby, MLA’s office at 10 Bridge Street, Middleton (see the online petitition Save Public Libraries in Nova Scotia)
There are a number of larger questions that need to be discussed, many of them geographic in nature.
- What is the impact of technology on access to information?
- What are the changes in rural Nova Scotia? Population, activities on the land use: balance between resource management and conservation.
- Are the changes in the demographics in line with access to the necessary resources.g. education, health, employment?
- What is the relationship between urban NS and rural NS?
- What is the relationship between NS and other provinces % urban v % rural?
If we reduce access to information resources how are we going to maintain a ‘creative rural economy’ Furthermore, what are we hollowing out when our Tourist Information Centres are closed?
Ernest Blair Experiment 