Library History Today Blog

Proceedings of the Library Service in the Schools Workshop, University of Alberta, Edmonton, June 26–27, 1959 . Ottawa: Canadian Library Association/Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques, September 1959. 59 p. Canadian School Libraries before 1950 Although there were hundreds of Canadian school libraries by the mid-19th century, the vast majority were primarily small, informal classroom collections managed by busy one-room teachers in rural areas. As they developed in the first decades of the 20th century, larger elementary school libraries remained underfunded and continued to rely on access to small classroom collections. Students often used children’s services supplied by public libraries (notably Toronto Public Library) or bookmobile services from regional or county libraries, a system patterned on British practice which offered the advantage of recreational reading. Separate centralized libraries in schools, distinct from public libraries, began to appear first in the secondary...

Resources of Canadian University Libraries for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Report of a Survey for the National Conference of Canadian Universities and Colleges , by Edwin E. Williams. Ottawa: National Conference of Canadian Universities and Colleges, November 1962. 87 p. Resources of Canadian Academic and Research Libraries/Ressources des Bibliothèques d’Université et de Recherche au Canada by Robert B. Downs. Ottawa: Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 1967. 301 p. By the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, the number of full-time undergraduate and graduate university students across Canada was increasing dramatically, and provincial governments were granting new charters to several universities, such as Victoria, Calgary, Waterloo, York, Guelph, Brock, and Carleton. Additional funding for faculty, teaching staff, and buildings came from federal and provincial governments to accommodate this growth. Consequently, the expansion of libra...