Canadian Science Libraries

Ho. Li. Crap. Someone needs to put a stop to this. From The Tyee:

What's Driving Chaotic Dismantling of Canada's Science Libraries?
Scientists say the closure of some of the world's finest fishery, ocean and environmental libraries by the Harper government has been so chaotic that irreplaceable collections of intellectual capital built by Canadian taxpayers for future generations has been lost forever.

Many collections such as the Maurice Lamontagne Institute Library in Mont-Joli, Quebec ended up in dumpsters while others such as Winnipeg's historic Freshwater Institute library were scavenged by citizens, scientists and local environmental consultants. Others were burned or went to landfills, say scientists.

Furthermore, the government is falsely claiming that vital content is being retained by extensively digitizing material from nine regional libraries that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) whittled down to two.

"The Department has claimed that all useful information from the closed libraries is available in digital form. This is simply not true. Much of the material is lost forever," reports one DFO scientist who requested not to be named.

This is material dating back over a hundred years -- measurements, data. To lose this is beyond comprehension -- what happens when big government tries to manage big science. Much more at the site -- I feel physically ill reading this.