Grande Bibliothèque suffers from under-funding
The Grande Bibliothèque has been a success story since it opened, but the underfunding that started with the financial crisis in 2008 has not let up and has cut into its events and the renewal of its collections so that public usage of the library is down. For example, it wasn’t so long ago that the library announced it would no longer be holding exhibits, preferring to focus its reduced efforts elsewhere.
If the CAQ ever has thoughts of trying to make nice with this city, putting funds back into the GB would be a great place to get obvious bang for its buck.
EmilyG 08:33 on 2019-10-29 Permalink
Public usage of the library is down. Though the reason I stopped going to that library is that I’m not sure they’ve gotten rid of all the bedbugs from their latest bedbug invasion. Or maybe that could be fixed with more funding?
SMD 08:48 on 2019-10-29 Permalink
Good news on that front:
Kate 09:13 on 2019-10-29 Permalink
SMD, they have already put some hard chairs in to replace the semi-padded ones they had since the beginning. I don’t know what’s happened upstairs in the nice reading areas by the windows. Where there’s upholstery, there are places for bugs to hang out.
I admit the bugs story has kept me away from the place.
Joey 10:34 on 2019-10-29 Permalink
The ebook selection is pretty good, though – even in English.
Ephraim 10:36 on 2019-10-29 Permalink
BB like soft furnishings…. so metal and plastic leave them no where to go.
EmilyG 20:54 on 2019-10-29 Permalink
Yeah, I know they have new furniture there, but that doesn’t in itself get rid of the bugs. But I understand the difficulty in getting rid of them – I heard they can hide inside books, and people can’t just look inside every page of every book in the library to try to find them.