The Minister of Culture, Nathalie Roy, announced on December 15 new funding of $ 6.8 million to the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) “to promote its digital shift”. However, by crossing this new amount with those of BAnQ’s needs assessed in 2020 by an external firm, we see that only 1.7 million would remain as real additional funding. Calculations.
It was in the wake of the announcement of the new legal deposit obligation for digital publications that Quebec unveiled an additional investment of $ 6.8 million for the flagship of Quebec libraries. “A first sum of 3.6 million will be paid for projects and activities in information resources, such as the modernization of the management system of libraries and of the Quebec adapted book service”, indicated last week the firm of Mr.me Roy.
However, in BAnQ’s strategic diagnosis delivered by the firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton (RCGT) in 2020, it is in the needs of the Quebec Infrastructure Plan for Information Resources (PQI-RI) that these projects and resources are found. The amount needed for the PQI-RI was estimated for 2022 by RCGT at 3.9 million, against planned funding of only 2.54 million.
“The 3.6 million announced [le 15 décembre] constitute an increase in the contribution of around 1 million compared to that of 2019-2020 ”, BAnQ explained this week to the Duty. The new amount thus makes it possible to fill part of the gap between the needs and the planned funding.
“This recurring amount, which will represent an average of 3.4 million per year until 2026-2027, is intended for investments in information resources,” added BAnQ. This is not a surplus, but rather an additional sum which makes it possible to meet the needs expressed in the RCGT report and which fills part of the shortfall in investments in information resources. “Good news for BAnQ, then.
And a clarification that allows us to understand that the government has not really added 3.6 million per year to the funding provided for the PQI-RI, but a little less than 1 million per year, until 2026-2027.
Regular maintenance
The second sum granted by Quebec is an envelope of 2.5 million which “will be used in particular for the acquisition of new equipment, the digitization and the distribution of its collections and funds. The sum will also be used to renew BAnQ’s technological infrastructures and to increase the discoverability of cultural content, ”according to the office of the Minister of Culture.
RCGT’s diagnosis estimated the only regular maintenance needs for the digitization component at 2.9 million per year. BAnQ, last July, however declared to the Duty that this diagnosis did not include the costs of its great digital shift. With the new 2.5 million, “it therefore continues to lack digitization $ 400,000 per year”, calculated the institution.
On the other hand, this injection makes it possible to reduce the shortfall for the regular maintenance of the collection and all the infrastructures, estimated by RCGT at $ 12,857,400 in 2022. “Indeed, we can subtract these 2.5 million from projections of financial needs 2021-2022 ”, according to BAnQ.
In short, instead of $ 2.54 million per year, BAnQ will receive an average of $ 3.4 million. This is where the institution sees a real boost “in funding of around $ 1 million.” “To this are added the additional $ 700,000 […] reserved for upgrading the technological processes and structures that will enable BAnQ to receive content, ”investments necessary to receive and process the documents that will be sent to it to meet the new legal deposit on digital publications.
As for the remaining 2.5 million dollars, they belong to a type of expenditure which was, again last July, considered outside the costs of the great digital shift. It would therefore be a new investment of 1.7 million for this change to BAnQ, rather than 6.8 million.
Where and when to start
Is this amount sufficient to promote BAnQ’s digital transition? “BAnQ’s technological shift has been underway for several years,” the institution pointed out. A large part of BAnQ’s day-to-day activities is already part of this trend. “
“The investment of 6.8 million announced [le 15 décembre] will help change parts of this digital transformation. It contributes in particular to financing the purchase of new equipment as well as to maintaining the level of digitization operations in place. It is also helping to implement the legal deposit of digital publications, a very important step forward. “
That said, the costs related to the pursuit of BAnQ’s digital transformation strategy are being assessed, BAnQ reiterated in the same email. “It’s an ongoing process. “