NALIS Workers Protest Outside of National Library

The National Library in Port-of-Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago, was the site of a protest on Wednesday. National Library and Information Systems workers were protesting promised pay increases that have not been fulfilled, with a union representative stating that further action will be taken if a resolution is not soon met with the library's administration.

Canadian archives community devastated

The Canadian archival community received a stunning blow on Monday: the management of Library and Archives Canada announced that the National Archival Development Program (NADP) would be discontinued.  The NADP was a grant program that funded archives projects and temporary jobs across the country in archives of all sizes.  This means that several projects around Canada will be stopped in their tracks and many archivists will be let go or essentially laid off.  The consequences across the country will be devastating, not to mention the fact that the NADP provided entry-level positions to an untold number of up-and-coming archivists (including this here blogger).

In other bad news from Canada, 245 workers at Library and Archives Canada will have their jobs affected with over 100 of those workers laid-off.  This is part of wide-spread and crippling budget cuts across the federal government that are being imposed by Stephen Harper's Conservative government.  Tough times, indeed.