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AFMC Resource Group on Libraries and Standing Committee on Research and Graduate Studies urge the Canadian Government to reconsider funding cuts to the NRC�s and Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information

June 2, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Ottawa) The 70% budget cuts the National Research Council has announced for the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) are severe and counterproductive to the increasing demand for reliable information from health practitioners, scholars, students and consumers.

“As Canada’s national science library, CISTI provides essential publication collections, analytical personnel and leadership that are crucial to knowledge translation and delivery in Canada” says Patrick Ellis, Chair of AFMC’s Resource Group on Libraries.

CISTI’s leadership in coordinating the implementation of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Open Access policy, the National Library of Medicine (US) resource sharing service (DOCLINE) in Canada and development of a Canadian Virtual Health Library represent critical resources for Canadian libraries and researchers. According to Dr. Penny Moody-Corbett, Chair of the AFMC Standing Committee on Research and Graduate Studies, these drastic cuts “will have a devastating impact on all of these crucial innovative projects”.

Moody-Corbett adds that the cuts to CISTI represent yet another reduction to Canada’s knowledge creation and transfer infrastructure that underpins both research and the flow of research knowledge into clinical settings. “For Canadians, cuts to the CISTI -budget will mean less access to scientific journals and the research that Canadians have paid for. CISTI’s role as the national science library cannot be diminished if we are to realize the full benefit of Canadian health research and healthcare innovations by implementing the best possible information.”

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For more information, please contact:
Irving Gold
Vice President, Government Relations and External Affairs
The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada
613-730-0687 Ext. 236
igold at afmc.ca