Library History Today Blog

Lillian Smith became the first Canadian children’s librarian with academic credentials when she began her career at Toronto Public Library in 1912. By the time of her retirement, TPL was providing book services at Boys and Girls House, 16 library branches, 2 settlement houses, 30 school libraries, and two hospitals. The quality of services at Boys and Girls House so much impressed Edgar Osborne, a British librarian and collector, that he donated 1,800 children’s books to TPL in 1949, the nucleus of today’s outstanding collections at the Lillian H. Smith Branch at 239 College Street which was named in her honour. She developed a system for children’s library services that was regarded as one of the best in the British Commonwealth and in North America. Lillian Smith made valuable contributions to the American and Ontario library associations in children’s and youth services and was instrumental in forming the Canadian Association of Children’s Librarians in 1939. Lillian Helena ...

Marie-Claire Daveluy was a Montreal-based librarian whose career spanned three decades in which she made a number of important contributions to Canadian library science. In 1937, she co-founded the École de bibliothécaires at the Université de Montréal. She served as this school’s chair for several years and sought to combine American library techniques within a French-Canadian context. Daveluy also helped establish the Association canadienne des bibliothécaires de langue française in 1943. A noted literary figure, her novels and short works for youth and children won her a number of meritorious awards, notablly the Prix David. Daveluy pioneering efforts succeeded within a male dominated profession that adhered to moral and religious principles prescribed by the Catholic Church which governed many political and social institutions in Quebec before the 1960s “Quiet Revolution.” Her portrait is taken from L'Académie canadienne-française by Victor Barbeau (Montréal, c.1963), p 41....

 Mary Kinley Ingraham was the chief librarian at Acadia University from 1917-1944 at a time when very few females headed academic libraries in North America. Fittingly, her achievements include literary works as well as academic publications. As an acknowledged leader in Maritime librarianship, she was one of the founders of the Maritime Library Association in 1918. Ingraham was also an innovator: under her guidance, Acadia launched a pioneering bookmobile service to three provinces in 1930. She was an instructor of library science at Acadia, a poetess, and author. She edited and published a literary monthly called Book Parlance, a history of the United Baptist Woman’s Missionary Union, and various books of verse. My biography appeared earlier in 2015 in the Ex Libris Association biography website. The image from the Acadia University archives is taken from Tanja Harrison’s article, “The courage to connect: Mary Kinley Ingraham and the development of libraries in the Maritimes” (p....

Helen Gordon Stewart was an early, important influential leader in Canadian librarianship, especially in western Canada. She had an ongoing relationship with the Carnegie Corporation of New York which saw her famously promote and administer the formation of the Fraser Valley Library in the early 1930s. As well, she was a recognized expert in regional library development in the southern United States where she taught at the Louisiana State Library School and worked as a consultant in South Carolina. No less important was her work with the Carnegie Corporation and British Council in Trinidad Tobago. There is an international quality to her accomplishments that is matched only by Toronto’s chief librarian, George Herbert Locke in the first half of the 20th century. I created this bio in 2018 for the Ex Libris Association website. The image is taken from As We Remember It; Interviews with Pioneering Librarians of British Columbia (p.16) . Helen Gordon Stewart Born Dec. 19, 1879, Fletche...