Investing in Modernization of Ontario Public Libraries - by Councillor Paul Ainslie, seconded by Councillor Gord Perks

Ensuring modernization of libraries is key and can be achieved through a Broadband Action Plan as it would leverage the Province's significant purchasing power to give all Ontario public libraries access to a common set of e-learning and online information resources, to support the growing use of digital library tools. Since 2000, Ontarians have accessed their local public library digitally 1.3 billion times. In 2018, 284,000 Ontarians enrolled in over 700,000 online courses through local public libraries across Ontario. Ontarians borrowed 494,026 e-books from local public libraries in 2018. Rural Ontario residents accessed twice as many e-books per capita through the library as people in urban communities. Transformation of Inter-Library Loan is a service available to all Ontarians enabling them to borrow material across the Province through their local library, however 35 percent of requests are not fulfilled due to lack of funding. The Federation of Ontario Libraries is requesting that funding be increased to meet demand.