On October 22, 2009 CUPE 391 hosted its first writers event, “Public Libraries: Keep Them Local.” The panel discussion, hosted by CUPE 391 president Alex Youngberg and moderated by author and CUPE Communications rep Daniel Gawthrop, featured local authors Caroline Adderson, Carellin Brooks, David Chariandy, Larissa Lai and Stan Persky, as well as political columnist Bill Tieleman. The purpose of the event was to highlight the importance of public libraries’ acquisition and cataloguing services in protecting the local integrity of library collections. Acquisitions and cataloguing are the latest services to come under threat of possible contracting out, and 391 President Alex Youngberg highlighted the current trend of “Chapter-izing” libraries in which privatized acquisitions lead to “cookie cutter” collections that don’t reflect the rich diversity of local cultural history. These films, and others, are available in higher definition on James’ YouTube site: http://www.youtube.com/user/Spartikus

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