The Library of Canada sent out a message on a listserv concerning its closure of the Canadian Book Exchange Centre, with the following statement as their introduction:
The Government of Canada has introduced a new expenditure management system as part of an ongoing commitment to sound management of government spending. The new system is focused on managing results and on the ongoing assessment of all direct program spending, or strategic review, to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and value for money.
Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) strategic review concluded that the Canadian Book Exchange Centre (CBEC) program was not appropriately aligned with the priorities of Canadians and with core federal responsibilities.
I suppose the Government of Canada could have asked whether the CBEC was aligned with the priorities of the Canadians working at the Woodland Cultural Centre on Six Nations land in Brantford, who have no library acquisitions budget and thus rely on the CBEC to receive things like government publications pertaining to First Nations. (story)
For those who don’t know, CBEC:
helps Canadian libraries help each other. A resource-sharing service provided by Library and Archives Canada, CBEC is a redistribution centre, a clearing house that arranges for the exchange of publications deemed surplus by one library but needed by another. The Centre ensures that the nation’s collective surplus holdings are accessible to all, keeps material in circulation and provides an efficient, practical method of using libraries’ excess materials to help fill each other’s collection requirements.