The Nova Scotia government is currently considering removing the provincial rebate on the HST for printed books, raising the tax from the current 5% to 15%. This move would have a serious impact on literacy in our province. As you are aware, our libraries have not seen an increase to their budgets in many years and a rise in the HST on printed books would essentially mean a cut to materials budgets for each library region. Beyond the obvious harm to libraries, the local publishing industry, and our education system, this increase will also impact literacy levels in households across the province. NSLA is asking its membership to send a clear message to the Government that this move is not in the best interest of Nova Scotians. Please add your voice by signing the online petition and sharing this message with your colleagues, friends, and MLA. Thank you for your support!

The School of Information Management at Dal puts on a great public lecture series each year. These lectures are free and a great way to stay current on research happening in the information management field. If you haven’t been to one you have a chance to change that this coming Wednesday, February 25th, 2015 from 4:30pm-5:30pm at the Dalhousie Art Gallery, Dalhousie Arts Centre, 6101 University Avenue. Join Dr. Stijn Van Rossem (Unviversity of Antwerp) and Andrew Steeves (Gaspereau Press) for their talk: Not Bound by Time: Book Production in the Seventeenth and Twenty-First Centuries

CLA has launched a new series of blog posts, Community-Led Work in Practice: Experiences from Canadian Libraries . Last week John Pateman, Keynote Speaker from our 2014 conference, was featured in a post titled, Developing a Community-Led Strategy . We are hoping to get John’s full presentation from last years conference up on our site shortly. In the meantime you can enjoy this article which nicely sums up the keynote speech he delivered in Amherst last September.