Plans To Close 144-Year-Old BC Legislature Library

But what's underway is diminishment, not enhancement. The legislative chamber is the heart of democracy, the library its brain. These collections are B.C.'s memory. Making it less accessible invites political Alzheimer's disease. This sorry process began when the provincial archive was rolled into the Royal B.C. Museum and saddled with cost-recovery demands that resulted in fee schedules that discourage public use. Want a copy of a historic map? The fee is $35 to $75. Want a simple photocopy? Forty cents a page, twice what Vancouver Public Library charges, four times the fee at UBC's library. Want to review some cabinet minister's briefing notes or some society's annual report? That might cost $50 an hour. And don't expect research help --unless you can afford a day off work. Cost constraints mean archivists are there only four days a week between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=45dbe5f4-bab5-4905-93f0-00f4b710bf4d&p=2 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on March 26, 2007]

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