Letter to Wendy Duff, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Information re: Inforum Collection

UTFA has learned from numerous members of the decision to dismantle and disperse the Faculty of Information Inforum Library collection effective May 1, 2018. I write to you today to express the UTFA Executive’s concern that such a decision appears to have been made without thorough consultation and input from important stakeholders. UTFA, therefore, urges you to halt implementation of changes until such time that, at a minimum, collegial consultation occurs.

As you know, it is a central tenet of academic governance that decisions posing a potential substantial impact on a unit’s ability to fulfill its academic mission ought to be reached through a transparent and collegial process. This includes wide and open discussions with faculty members and librarians. As stated in the Memorandum of Agreement between The Governing Council of the University of Toronto and The University of Toronto Faculty Association (hereinafter ‘the MOA’) “[l]ibrarians are important contributors to the University of Toronto’s academic mission as a research-intensive institution” and the parties to the MOA recognize “the leadership, expertise and initiative of librarians in developing one of the world’s great library systems.” It is therefore surprising and disappointing that the recent decision to disperse the Faculty of Information collection was made with no widespread collegial process to inform the decision.