Engaging Patrons: Fight Back on the 2011–2012 Toronto Budget and Beyond

Abstract

Libraries and librarianship everywhere are under attack, but popular resistance has been strong. The Toronto Public Library Workers Union (TPLWU) Local 4948 (CUPE) led a successful community fight back campaign to the Ford administration’s 2011–2012 austerity budget. That campaign not only stopped further crippling cuts to the TPL, it garnered support for the library workers during a difficult round of collective bargaining which followed, and it has begun to change the conversation about the library from “cuts” to “investment”.