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Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies
Part2:Country studies
Canada
Are the models in flux?
Public libraries have increasingly been offering services for people with disabilities.
CNIB hopes that the services will become more widely and equitably available from mainstream library avenues, for example, the public or school library.
The Canadian Library Association (CLA)'s Opening the Book report in 2005 recommends a strategy for a national network of equitable library services for all print-disabled Canadians. The network would be comprised of “service libraries” (i.e. public libraries), a “national co-ordinating agency” i.e. Library and Archives Canada, and alternative format producers (i.e. CNIB etc).
The report summarises the proposed model as follows (much more detail is contained in the report itself):
“The National Network for Equitable Library Service for Canadians with print disabilities (the Network) would be comprised of a partnership of three distinct, but closely connected components:
- Service Libraries to provide accessible public library type services that are appropriate to the needs of Canadians with print disabilities in their local communities
- A National Coordinating Office at the federal government level to coordinate the Network and fund its activities. It is proposed that Library and Archives Canada could assume responsibility for this national coordinating role
- Production Centres to provide staff expertise and specialized resources to acquire, catalogue, produce, store and preserve alternative format collections”.