This sentence from Marie-Claire Blais, taken from her novel A deaf man in the cityappears on one of the interior walls of the former Canardière branch of the Bibliothèque de Québec, recently renamed “Marie-Claire-Blais” in honor of the author born in the Limoilou district, where this branch is located.
This sentence, beautifully simple, I have often repeated to myself in recent days: for almost 10 weeks, the strike by employees of the Library of Quebec has continued, leading to the closure of almost all of its 26 branches.
Beyond the issues of this conflict, linked to the working conditions of employees, it is worth remembering the repercussions of this strike on users, which we hardly talk about.
In a press release published in November 2023, the City of Quebec said it was proud of the rating obtained by the Bibliothèque de Québec in the National Portrait of Quebec Public Libraries published by the Association of Public Libraries of Quebec. To support this pride, the City cites some figures taken from this portrait: “1D provincial library for per capita attendance (1,999,711 entries); 1D provincial library for the number of loans per capita (4,235,994 loans); 2e library for the proportion of the population subscribing to its services (33.5% of the population, or 186,778 people subscribing). »
This shows how libraries are an integral part of the lives of people in Quebec and how curious they are. In certain neighborhoods, after school, students from surrounding schools come to immerse themselves in comics while waiting for their parents to arrive. Elsewhere, seniors come to read their newspaper or a magazine while socializing. For many students or self-employed workers, it is a workplace away from the noise or cramped conditions of shared accommodation. Not to mention the numerous loans (books, DVDs, CDs, works of art, etc.) that are done there daily. As the City of Quebec states at the conclusion of its press release last November, “the Bibliothèque de Québec is an essential cultural and community place”.
Human beings are fundamentally curious, with this curiosity which Marie-Claire Blais specifies that it keeps us alive, but which, let us remember, must be nourished.
While we resolve this strike and as quickly as possible, because hunger is seriously starting to be felt