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| Library of Parliament, Ottawa, 1940s |
In the spring of 1946, Elizabeth Homer Morton, the Secretary of the Canadian Library Council, recounted her observations on special library services to the Special Libraries Toronto Chapter. In the fall of 1945, she had travelled across Canada to assess library services. She visited a variety of special libraries: the Oakalla Prison Farm libraries in Burnaby, British Columbia; the library of the hospital ship Lady Nelson in Halifax Harbour; the Co-operative Wheat Pool libraries on the Prairies; and the extension work of Hudson’s Bay House in Winnipeg to company posts. She concluded optimistically, “Library service in Canada owes a great debt to the special librarians past and present. Not content with building up their own collections, they have done much for Canada’s education and information services by encouraging the institution of public library services.” Indeed, the growth of special libraries due to the intensity of industry and research in the war years 1940–45 had given cause for optimism in the two Canadian chapters of the Special Libraries Association (SLA), in Montreal and Toronto. While government libraries, such as the majestic Library of Parliament, comprised the majority of special libraries, small business libraries were being established at a greater pace and proving their worth.
In the immediate postwar years, there were three centres of special library collective action: the two established chapters of the American SLA, and, in 1949, the Research Section of the Canadian Library Association. The latter national grouping served to address issues common to college, university, research, and special libraries, and to promote their interests. The primary focus on special library work was mostly the preserve of the two chapters, which sometimes worked with the New York Chapter of SLA to organize specific conferences devoted to special librarians. These two chapters focused on special librarians’ identification of their profession and career. They fostered the development of group associations beyond their local areas and sought to clarify the role of special libraries. They ascertained collective needs and pursued goals to support members and engage with the public interest. Sharing best practices, advocating for libraries, networking with colleagues, and establishing standards of service promoted confidence within their parent organizations. Consequently, the two decades following 1950 eventually led to the decision to form the Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services (CASLIS) in June 1969 as a constituent division of the Canadian Library Association.
Three Postwar Conferences, 1947–49
As a springboard to promote member involvement, three regional conferences were organized by the Toronto, Montreal, and Western New York SLA Chapters: one in Toronto on Oct. 17–18, 1947, another in Rochester on Oct. 8–9, 1948, and a third in Montreal on Sept. 23–24, 1949. Training for librarians and staff was the general focus of the first two meetings. At the King Edward Hotel in Toronto in 1947, two prominent voices, Winifred Barnstead, director of the University of Toronto Library School, and Edna Poole, longtime librarian of the Toronto Academy of Medicine, expressed the view that general university courses, not specific ones, constituted the best way for educators to advance special library work. Librarians should engage in continuing education efforts to further their careers. Beatrice Simon, from McGill University, outlined her view on the training requirements for medical, hospital, and nursing librarians. Mary Jane Henderson, the head of the Montreal Sun Life Assurance Co. library, spoke on training in he life insurance industry. A year later, at Rochester, Phyllis Foreman, librarian of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, spoke on training library assistants for circulation work and George Johnson, librarian of the Law Society of Upper Canada, addressed issues related to in-house ‘sub-professional’ training for the ordering of materials.
In Montreal, a new theme, communication and cooperation, formed the basis for discussion. The keynote speaker, W.K. Lamb, the Dominion Archivist, addressed the issue of creating a union catalogue for the proposed National Library at some length. It was an arduous task, but he felt special libraries could play a role in contributing to a union catalogue because “they can play a very important part. By your very name, you have specialized needs and unusual needs, and you have unusual material stored away in these libraries. I do not look upon the Union Catalogue as anything narrow.” Lillian Steers, librarian of the Dept. of Mines and Resources, outlined cooperative efforts in Ottawa amongst libraries. Mildred Turnbull, librarian at the Royal Bank of Canada in Montreal, spoke on cooperation among different types of libraries in her city.
The three regional meetings were productive efforts to connect members with peers and complemented the annual summer postwar SLA conferences held in Boston, Chicago, Washington, and Atlantic City from 1946 to 1950. When the Toronto Chapter proposed to hold the conference, the SLA set a date of 1953. The Toronto group was growing in numbers and felt confident it could manage the task. By summer 1952, Toronto had formed a local Executive and committees under the capable and energetic chairmanship of Pauline Mary Hutchison, librarian of the Canada Life Assurance Co.
The Special Libraries Conference, Toronto, June 1953
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| Pauline Hutchison, c.1953 |
The 1953 Toronto conference, which took place at the Royal York Hotel for four days beginning on June 22nd, drew about 1,000 attendees from the United States and Canada. It was an opportunity to showcase American and Canadian library progress since the previous SLA meeting in Montreal in 1936. The April issue of Special Libraries had profiled libraries in Montreal and Toronto that SLA members could visit. A special four-day tour to Montreal and return to Toronto was offered for advance registrants. Toronto had a diverse array of library resources to explore, including the Academy of Medicine (the second-largest medical collection in Canada), libraries of the Ontario Legislature, the Osgoode Hall Law Society, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Pauline Hutchison worked tirelessly to offer a blend of speakers for an informative (and entertaining) annual meeting. Canadian speakers provided a variety of interesting topics at the opening Monday session: Marian Thompson, from the Toronto Star Library, spoke about handling large files of pictures. Edna F. Hunt, assistant chief librarian at the National Research Library in Ottawa, explained new developments in inter-library loan activity. Two general fora on ‘Canadian Resources’ were held on Tuesday. Dr. Robert C. Wallace, the former Principal of Queen’s University, provided a comprehensive survey of Canadian scientific research. Resource extraction was the topic J. Gerald Godsoe, vice-president of the British American Oil Co. Ltd., summarized. Earl S. Neal, an Imperial Oil Co. director, provided a succinct account of oil exploration and the expansion of Canadian oil and gas markets. Later, at the SLA banquet on Wednesday evening, A. Davidson Dunton, Chairman of the CBC Board of Governors, entertained delegates about America’s northern neighbour, even venturing to say that Canada would not be assimilated by America simply because it was different.
The Toronto SLA conference was a successful undertaking that highlighted growing expertise in special library work among Canadians. Peter C. Newman, an aspiring journalist with the Financial Post who covered the convention, wrote on June 27th, “Today, the business library is a common feature of almost every type of enterprise, with insurance companies, banks, public utilities, publishers, and manufacturers leading the parade. Trade associations, law firms and advertising adgencies are other important library operators.” As careers developed, some special librarians were venturing into the field of Documentation, which explored new principles and techniques for information searching, storage, and retrieval. Two years after the convention, at the 1955 Canadian Library Association conference in Saskatoon, Edna Hunt outlined documentation efforts at the National Research Council, the Defence Research Board, and the Aluminium Laboratories Ltd. in Kingston. She would continue to make significant library contributions, both nationally and internationally, and be a founding member of the Canadian Association for Information Science in 1970–71. Pauline Hutchison, who garnered accolades for her work in Toronto and SLA, would eventually be inducted into the SLA Hall of Fame, established in 1960.
Growth of Special Libraries and Professionalism
Throughout the fifties, there was sustained growth in special libraries, particularly company libraries, as well as librarianship. Western libraries were being established, especially in Alberta, for example, Imperial Oil (1950) and Shell Oil and British American Oil in 1954. Louise Lefebvre, the chief librarian at the Pulp & Paper Institute in Montreal, and one of the founders of the Quebec Library Association in 1932, signalled changing directions in her talk at CLA’s 1957 conference in Victoria. What was a special library? She said, “The special library is, in short, a particularized information service, which correlates, interprets, and utilizes the material at hand for the constant use and benefit of the organization it serves.” What about the special librarian? She said, “The Special Librarian of the future, the one for whom industry is already clamoring and ready to pay a high salary, is a specialist with a degree in library science and a reading knowledge, if possible, of languages such as French, German and even Russian. Such a combination of talents to-day is painfully scarce.” In the same year, the Librarians Group of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada issued a statement criticizing the federal government’s so-called ‘improved’ schedule of salaries and benefits for librarians after investigating its unfavourable comparison with those of other professions in the public service. Additionally, in 1956, another new section devoted to special interests formed in CLA: the Canadian Music Library Association was organized as an official section to promote services in its field of librarianship at the annual meeting held in Niagara Falls with a membership of 35.
By the mid-1950s, there was a growing recognition for the need for professional qualifications, greater clarity of purpose regarding services, and more assertive action regarding working conditions. In fact, at the outset of 1959, the SLA revised its membership categories: new members in the active class would now have to hold a degree from a library school of recognized standing and have had three years of professional experience in a special library to qualify. The CLA Council followed suit in November 1959 when it adopted its position on a national standard for librarians: |
| Jack E. Brown, 1950s |
Striving for a National Focus
The 1960s witnessed a dramatic period of growth for special libraries of various types—those serving parent organizations (e.g., governments), libraries developed for specific subjects (e.g., films), or libraries organized to hold different formats (e.g., maps). Contemporary surveys indicate that almost 300 special libraries were formed during this period. General categories of service included reference, user orientation, document delivery, information retrieval, bibliographic assistance, and current awareness. Across North America some special libraries were beginning to be known as “information centres” or “documentation centres,” and librarians were starting to embrace new computerized technology to play a helpful role in a new era of information and knowledge. Local perspectives were lessening and libraries were expanding their range of services and clienteles. The NSL was leading the way in providing delivery of documents as well as information and translation services. The two Canadian chapters sought to enhance member involvement, refine leadership structures, and pursue broader goals and objectives. For example, the Toronto chapter investigated the extent of training in Canadian library schools and the value of continuing education opportunities in its schedule of 1963/64 workshops.
At the national level, two important studies touched on special library work in the early 1960s. Beatrice Simon, assistant chief librarian at McGill University, conducted a study of major universities, Library Support of Medical Education and Research in Canada (1964), that proposed a national program for improving access to Canadian medical information resources, such as improved financial support and the establishment of a National Medical Bibliographic Centre and Information Service. A second report, Science-Technology Literature Resources in Canada by George S. Bonn, the science and technology chief at the New York Public Library, included universities and major research libraries. He recommended that the NSL in Ottawa serve as the central collection in science and technology, supporting and encouraging principal regional libraries to strengthen their collections and provide better service aided by special grants. Networking among libraries and the availability of computerized databases promised to greatly expand the range of information available to special libraries.
Librarians were rearranging professional connections and forming new groups to better address their concerns. In 1963, many university and college librarians formerly in the Research Section of CLA formed their own association, the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries. Shortly after, this action prompted a name change to CLA’s Research and Special Libraries. In 1963, a group of Canadians in the American Association of Law Libraries successfully formed a national chapter affiliated with AALL, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, with Marianne Scott of McGill University as its first president. In June 1967, the Association of Canadian Map Libraries was established at the Public Archives of Canada as a separate entity.
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| Mariam H. Tees, c. 1975 |
At the June 1970 CLA meeting in Hamilton, special librarians formally adopted a name change and a new constitution for the Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services (CASLIS). This step constituted a significant milestone in establishing Canadian special librarians as a voice in national affairs within CLA. The Canadian special libraries sector had grown in numbers and confidence in the sixties, and the CASLIS initial membership almost reached 300. However, the proliferation of library groups and the development of ‘type of library’ membership adopted by the five divisional groupings in CLA by 1970 indicated that national concerns or projects for librarians were giving way to provincial, regional, and local issues, especially continuing education to further careers. As well, the activities of international affiliations remained attractive: both Canadian chapters of SLA continued their connection with SLA after 1970. In 1971, the Canadian Music Library Association of CLA dissolved and chose to affiliate with the International Music Library Association rather than CASLIS. Instead of charting national policies, CASLIS executives spent their energies recruiting and establishing chapters in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, and Edmonton during the 1970s. During this time, the new association and its member chapters participated in a variety of joint programs and workshops with other library and information science groups. It was the strength of the local chapters that heightened awareness of CASLIS for years to come.
My previous blog on the organization of special libraries in Montreal and Toronto by 1940 is at this link.
My previous blog on the 1936 SLA conference held in Montreal is at this link.
My biography of Jack Ernest Brown is at the Ex Libris Association website at this link.
