Strengthening Courthouse Libraries: Share Your Feedback on the New Draft Library Operations Policy

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Following the valuable discussions and feedback received from law association presidents and staff at FOLA’s Spring Plenary, we’ve taken steps to streamline and strengthen our approach to library services across Ontario. We’re pleased to share a new draft Library Operations Policy, which consolidates and updates the previous Core Library Services and Management Responsibilities Policy and the Additional Library Services and Responsibilities Policy into a single, comprehensive document.

This new draft reflects the priorities and concerns raised during the Plenary — most notably, the removal of the previous 15% threshold for association-related duties. In its place, we’ve adopted a principled approach: Law Associations are expected to contribute to salaries when association duties form a meaningful portion of a staff member’s role.

We are now seeking input from you to ensure the policy is both practical and aligned with your operational realities.

📄 What’s Included

To support your review, we’ve included:

🗓️ Share Your Feedback by January 30, 2026

Please take a moment to review the draft and share any comments, questions, or suggestions. Your feedback will help us finalize a policy that promotes operational clarity and supports service excellence in courthouse libraries. Share your feedback via email to admin [at] lirn [dot] ca.

🔍 Summary of Key Changes

Integration

  • Combines the two previous policies into one unified document
  • Consolidates definitions and responsibilities

Core Library Services

  • No major changes to service definitions
  • Continues to specify that that Core Library Services must be available to all entitled users (per Law Society of Ontario By-Law 13)
  • Continues to specify that borrowing privileges and after-hours access may be limited to Law Association members
  • New – confirms that Associations may restrict access to disruptive individuals

Library Management Responsibilities

  • Retains original responsibilities (e.g., cataloguing, HR, financial admin)
  • New – improved clarification that reporting to the Law Association’s Board/committees on library activities as a library activity

Additional Library Services

  • Fully integrated and expanded examples (e.g., current awareness, website and social media maintenance, library training)
  • Continues to specify that these services are discretionary

Association Activities

  • Continues to state the need to distinguish between Library and Association duties
  • Continues to state that executing library services and responsibilities is the priority for library staff
  • New – provides improved guiding factors and detailed examples (e.g., CPDs) to support classification

Use of LiRN Grant for Salaries

  • Continues to state that grants are restricted funds to support library operations
  • New – while the draft policy continues to state that Associations must contribute to salaries when staff perform Association duties, the previous threshold of 15% of staff time is replaced with a principled, proportionate approach: when association duties form a meaningful portion of a staff member’s role

Oversight

  • Maintains existing audit provisions and transparency and record-keeping

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