Libraries cannot any longer align themselves with their institutions’ priorities because public institutions in Canada are undergoing a fundamental restructuring, the outcome of which is unclear. Federal and provincial governments are transferring responsibilities to the municipal level, putting cultural funding in direct competition with schools, hospitals, social and emergency services. Multi-culturalism will alter the mandate, collections, programming and staffing of cultural institutions. Art librarians, lacking the ability to communicate with decision-makers, need a strategy to allow them to embrace new values and technology or they will be swept aside in the rapid change already evidenced daily which marginalizes the library and calls into question time-honoured traditions such as free access to information.