As is true of every unit on our campuses, the University of Alberta Library has been evaluating how to respond and adjust to the realities posed by the recent budget reductions. Our primary goal is to ensure the financial sustainability of the library system while still moving forward toward realizing the Library’s vision of connecting, engaging, and creating across our campuses.
This will be a very challenging transition that will necessitate changes to our previous operations. One of these changes will include the permanent closure of the Winspear Business Library, effective May 1, 2020. Although the closure will mean that the Library no longer occupies space in the Business building, I want to reassure everyone in the Alberta School of Business that the services and resources we offered in the Winspear Business Library will remain available.
The University of Alberta Library will continue to invest in world-class business research resources and provide the expertise of business librarians. We know that these collections are instrumental to teaching and research. Our librarians have worked hard to support and to collaborate with students and faculty and this will not change.
Services and resources already available online will be uninterrupted by this change. With many of us working and studying from home, the services that our staff provide online remain open for business as they are every day of the year. In the meantime, we are in the process of planning the relocation of physical collections, with a number of options under consideration. As yet, no decision has been made about future use of the space.
Dale Askey
Vice-Provost (Library and Museums) and Chief Librarian
For more information and the latest updates about the University of Alberta Library, please visit the Library website.Library website.
If you have further questions, please contact library@ualberta.ca or the Alberta School of Business.library@ualberta.ca or the Alberta School of Business.