Library changes seen as risk to Health Canada’s credibility
Managers shared consultant’s concerns about impact on decision-making, documents show
“Managers at Health Canada admitted that changes to the department’s library services would lead to risks to the department’s credibility and its ability to produce evidence-based decisions, according to documents obtained by CBC News.
The managers’ concerns have one observer saying that if the federal health minister doesn’t reverse the changes, “she’s putting Canadians at serious risk.””
Pull quotes:
“‘These kinds of practices introduce risks to the department’s credibility and its ability to produce evidence-based decisions’– Presentation to Health Canada managers obtained through Access to Information”
“”What’s happening at Health Canada is obviously very serious. But it is a component of a much more serious environment … that the Conservatives have declared a war on science,” Davies said.”
“One presentation to Health Canada’s Corporate Services Branch in March 2013 acknowledges problems with changes to the computer system in particular. According to the presentation, the number of requests for research material had already dropped by 80 to 90 per cent. Employees were apparently using “work-arounds” to get the information they needed, such as accessing university libraries through co-op students.”
Read the whole CBC article:
Why yes, libraries matter and have impact!
Stephen
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.