Item - 2020.FA2.5

The Toronto Francophone Affairs Advisory Committee received a presentation from the Toronto Public Library regarding the Library's budget for the French collection.

Susan Caron, Director, Collections and Membership Services, Toronto Public Library, gave a verbal update on the Toronto Public Library's 2020 French Collection Budget.

I believe that protecting and promoting French language reading materials in the Toronto Public Library system is an important responsibility of the City of Toronto. Likewise, it is important that we ensure that our French language materials are of good quality and of interest to the large and growing Francophone and Francophile population of Toronto. 

On January 10, 2020 I was notified by committee member Serge Paul about media reports regarding changes to the Toronto Public Library’s French collection, including the article << Les bibliothèques de Toronto retirent des milliers de livres en français >> par Étienne Fortin-Gauthier, ONfr+. There have since been several additional media articles that indicate proposed cuts to the French collection have been reversed. 

In response to these media reports, I have reached out to our Chief Librarian Vickery Bowles, who has agreed to have library staff give a presentation to our committee about the Toronto Library’s 2020 French collection budget, as well as an overview of any anticipated changes to the collection.