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Ontario’s libraries are calling on the provincial government to establish a digital public library for Ontario to ensure all residents have the same access to materials.
Dina Stevens, executive director of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries, says libraries are mostly funded by municipalities, so each library system has to purchase its own material.
She says e-books cost three times as much as print books, and they can be especially expensive for libraries when they’re being purchased on a library-by-library basis.
Similar systems exist in other provinces, and the former Liberal government promised to create an Ontario Digital Public Library _ though that came mere days before the start of the 2018 election campaign that gutted the party.