A Plea for a National Library by Lawrence Burpee, 1911
Just over a century ago, in 1911, Lawrence Burpee published an article entitled “A Plea for a National Library” in Andrew Mac Phail’s February issue of the University Magazine , an influential literary magazine to which many leading Canadian academics, politicians, and authors contributed. Burpee came up with a great idea: he suggested that the Dominion government create a national library in Ottawa close to Parliament Hill. His essay looked at models, such as European national libraries and especially the Library of Congress in the United States, to argue that a national institution was essential for Canada's intellectual and cultural development. Burpee obviously was dissatisfied that Canada lagged behind other nations. He asked: “Are we Canadians either so inferior, or so superior, to the rest of the world, that we cannot use, or do not need, such an institution?” Obviously, Burpee was a progressive thinker! Lawrence Burpee, nd You can read his entire article on the Internet A...