Canadian Special Libraries Form a National Identity, 1945–1970

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 personally 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, more attetnion to 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, smaller technical and business libraries were proving their worth. The 1948–50 Dominion Bureau of Statistics (DBS) reported 196 total libraries, an increase from 158 in its 1942–44 survey.

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 (CLA).

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 

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. Pauline Hutchison, who garnered accolades for her work in Toronto and the SLA, would eventually be inducted into the SLA Hall of Fame, established in 1960. Peter C. Newman, an aspiring journalist with the Financial Post who covered the 1953 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. Later, in 1958, at a Documentation Seminar held at McGill University, Rodolphe Lavergne, librarian at Canadair Ltd., delivered a summary on current special library applications of machines and documentation techniques in the Montreal area that indicated conventional library methods still prevailed. He would eventually become the head librarian of the École des Hautes Études commerciales de Montréal and teach at the McGill University library school.

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 the 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

“No one will be recognized by the Canadian Library Association–Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques as a fully qualified professional librarian in Canada unless he holds the equivalent of the B.A. degree as granted in Canada plus proof of library training equivalent to that required for the Bachelor of Library Science degree (B.L.S.) in Canada or Master of Library Science degree (M.L.S.) in the United States of America.” As the decade closed, in November 1959, the Canadian Library Association Bulletin featured the importance of special library work by devoting an entire issue to its progress. The issue featured important collections from across the country, along with regional synopses. It also introduced new professionals, such as Jack E. Brown, the new chief librarian of the National Research Council. He would oversee a significant era as the library officially became the National Science Library in 1966 and then assist with the development a new building, the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI), opened in 1974. He influenced the profession during the sixties and seventies with innovations such as the Canadian Selective Dissemination of Information service (CAN/SDI), a current awareness service for scientists and researchers based on centralized processing at the National Science Library (NSL) of scientific databases. 

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). According to the 1964 report of the DBS, there were 580 special libraries in 1961, and subsequent contemporary reports indicate that approximately 300 more libraries were established in the sixties. 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 major association, the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries. Shortly after, this action prompted a name change to the CLA’s Research and Special Libraries section. In 1962, a CLA Committee on Medical Science Libraries adopted its own constitution in Ottawa, hen later transitioned to a standing committee of the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges in 1967. In 1963, a group of Canadians in the American Association of Law Libraries successfully formed a national chapter affiliated with American Association of Law Libraries, 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 an entity separate from the CLA.

Mariam H. Tees, c. 1975

At this point, in 1966, the Toronto and Montreal chapters of the SLA began discussing the need to form a larger Canadian organization to coordinate activity at the national level. According to contemporary accounts, there were approximately 750 special librarians in Canada by the late 1960s. They were members of various groups: just more than 300 were members of the CLA Research and Special Libraries Section, about 350 were CLA members, and the two Canadian chapters had fewer than 200 members each. The SLA continued to be a strong influence in Canada, and the Montreal chapter hosted its second SLA conference at the beginning of June 1969, with the theme ‘Information Across Borders.’ Miriam Tees, librarian of the Royal Bank of Canada, chaired the organizational committee. She was in charge of a library of 50,000 volumes and 800 periodical subscriptions and looked forward to library computerization to provide faster service to the company. One of the key moments of the conference was an address by Beryl Anderson on Canadian information resources. In her summary, she made an important point by stating that a strong national association could be an effective instrument for fostering greater integration into the national information network. As well, the SLA conferred its Professional Award upon Beatrice Simon, an important figure in special library work and the assistant university librarian at McGill between 1947–65. It was a successful conference that brought attention to Mariam Tees’ remarkable abilities and eventually to her presidency of the SLA in 1975–76 when she assured the membership, “As we move further and further into the information era, people with our special training and knowledge become more essential than ever.” A week after the Montreal SLA conference concluded, at St. John’s, Newfoundland, members of the CLA Research and Special Libraries agreed to dissolve and begin preparations to form a new division within the CLA specifically for special libraries.

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 the CLA. The Canadian special libraries sector had grown in numbers and confidence in the sixties. Initial membership in CASLIS reached almost 300 at time when there was about 1,000 special libraries, almost half of which were government. However, in the 1970s, this category would grow in number and begin to coordinate its activities through formalized group associations at the federal and provincial levels. There was less concern for nationwide undertakings.

Bank of Montreal Library, Montreal, 1969

The general proliferation of library groups and the development of ‘type of library’ membership adopted for the five divisional groupings in the CLA by 1970 indicated that national concerns or projects for librarians were giving way to provincial, regional, local, and personal professional issues, especially continuing education to further careers. As well, the activities of international affiliations remained attractive: both SLA Canadian chapters continued their connection with the SLA after 1970. In 1971, the Canadian Music Library Association of the 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. 

 

Three 1950s Prairie University Libraries: Rutherford, Dafoe, and Murray Memorial

Before the Second World War, there was only one standalone university library building in the Canadian west. The University of British Columbia library opened in 1925 on the Point Grey campus in Vancouver under the direction of John Ridington. However, with the post-1945 increase in student numbers, which included returning war veterans, overcrowding in three Prairie universities led to development plans that included the transfer and consolidation of library collections from various academic buildings into a separate, central library structure. University collections had grown incrementally across each campus, and at mid-century, Manitoba held almost 250,000 volumes, Saskatchewan about 125,000, and Alberta almost 150,000. These were relatively large holdings in a Canadian context and were comparable to academic libraries of a similar size in Ontario, such as Queen’s or Western, which had erected buildings in the interwar years, the Douglas (1924) and Lawson (1934) libraries. With the increasing pressure to develop research collections and upgrade library operations, the 1950s proved to be a busy decade for university construction across Canada marked by extensions to existing libraries and the opening of new ones.

 

Rutherford Memorial Library, University of Alberta, 1951

Rutherford Library, University of Alberta, 1951

Rutherford Memorial Library at the University of Alberta opened on May 15, 1951, after delays in planning and shortages of construction materials. The library was named after the former Premier of Alberta, Alexander Cameron Rutherford. It was designed by the firm Mathers and Haldenby of Toronto incorporating modified elements of the English Renaissance (also known as Georgian Revival) architectural style. This style is characterized by symmetrical lines, proportion, panel ceilings, and detailing such as window pediments, quoins, and elegant furnished interiors. Rutherford was a handsome four-storey structure of rose-colored brick with white limestone trim. The library’s exterior styling blended seamlessly with older campus buildings, which featured the Collegiate Gothic style.

 

The chief librarian, Marjorie Sherlock (1945–55), who actively assisted with its planning, rightfully declared, “The Rutherford Library is a beautiful building.” Indeed, Rutherford was an impressive and inviting environment for students and staff alike. The walls of the entrance halls and the main staircases were faced with polished Tyndall limestone from Manitoba and Italian marble. The staircases featured marble treads and risers, accompanied by stair rails and banisters of bronze. Painting, sculpture and art objects were an integral part of the building. The two-storey main reading room displayed oak panelling, Empire Green walls, dark walnut furniture, and red leather chairs. Its entrance was dominated by an extensive mural by Henry G. Glyde depicting his personal interpretation of Alberta’s early ‘pioneer’ colonial history near Fort Edmonton, which critics now consider demeaning in its depiction of relations between Indigenous peoples, settlers, and traders.

 

Henry George Glyde mural, Alberta History, 1951

Although Rutherford’s architectural style and interior decoration were retrospective, the design plans featured a relatively functional layout on each floor with separate areas and some modern features, such as an electric elevator that delivered books from the closed stacks to the main circulation desk for users. The entire design allowed for the centralization of collections, such as the law library on the first floor, and separate divisions for library services: acquisitions, cataloguing, circulation control, and reference service. Marjorie Sherlock planned to reorganize the library classification using the Library of Congress system, and, for this purpose, she hired Bruce Braden Peel, who became the chief librarian after her marriage and retirement in 1955.

The chief librarian and university administrators were justly proud of the new library, which cost approximately $2,000,000 to provide about 85,000 sq. ft. on four floors. The lower level housed space for the university extension library, a reading room for applied science students, a projection room, a smoking room, and areas for staff. On the ground floor, there was a law library, a reserve reading room for 120 readers, and closed reserve stacks for about 10,000 volumes for study purposes. A reading room for medical students and a staff area for processing periodicals occupied the rest of the main floor space. The second floor offered a main reading room, seating for 240 students, and a small reference desk. This floor also housed the library catalogue and periodical collection. Because the main library stack areas were only open to teaching staff, graduate and honours students, requested books by the majority of users were issued in the central area at the main circulation desk. The top floor was primarily devoted to seminar and conference rooms.

Rutherford Library main delivery desk, second floor, c. 1951

Rutherford was an outstanding addition to the University of Alberta campus. But, like all libraries, over time, increasing collections, staffing, and university enrollment led to a decision about its future. Library expansion was required in Alberta, but university growth necessitated the construction of a new library, the D.E. Cameron Library, which opened in 1964. Rutherford was reorganized to provide a larger law library on the upper floor, an undergraduate library on the second floor, and more spaces for special collections, rare books, and government documents. There were further changes, of course, notably the addition of a free-standing library built adjacent to it in 1973, Rutherford North. Half a century later, in 2025, a prominent feature of ‘Rutherford South’ (as the old library came to be known) is the Bruce Peel Special Collections. The 1951 Rutherford Library combined an engaging elegance with a utilitarian arrangement of rooms, enduring qualities which continue to fulfill the needs of Alberta’s students to this day.

 University of Manitoba Library, 1953, the Elizabeth Dafoe Library

 

University of Manitoba Library, 1950s

When the University of Manitoba’s new campus library officially opened on September 26, 1953, it announced the arrival of Modernist architectural styling and functional planning for university libraries on the prairies. In place of the traditional collegiate-style campus buildings, the library featured an attractive exterior of Tyndall Stone, a cream coloured limestone from a Manitoba quarry, and floor-to-ceiling walls of glass. Elizabeth Dafoe, the chief librarian (1937–60), helped oversee the design and construction of the new library. When she wrote about plans for the library several years later, in 1959, she said: “Every library, however, has two large areas of service: first, Public Service (Circulation and Reference), and second, Technical Service (the acquisition and preparation of materials for use).” She believed the effectiveness of the first was dependent to a considerable degree on the efficiency of the second.

 

Further, “Because the funds for our disposal were insufficient to erect a building ample enough to serve the university adequately for many years to come, we knew that we must have as few permanent partitions as possible and that not only the stack rooms but other areas as well must be as flexible as seemed practicable. Free-standing stacks and stack partitions between some rooms seemed to be the answer.” Indeed, the new library, costing about $900,000, was not only economically practicable but also consolidated smaller collections from across the university, thus allowing for better student and faculty use. The south end of the building provided an exhibition space and a small 80-seat theatre for films. 

The Buffalo Hunt by William A. McCloy, 1953

The design architect for the library was David F. Thordarson, a young Manitoba graduate (1949) with a BA in Architecture.  He had joined the Winnipeg firm, Green Blankstein Russell, which oversaw completion of the building and its Modernist rectilinear styling. The building prioritized functionality over ornamentation by utilizing glass partitions to accentuate the open floor plans and large windows that revealed interior functions from the outside. The entrance floor located at ground level featured an open lobby, a readers’ lounge, an exhibition room, a theatre, a projection room, and a small kitchen for social events. One notable feature, a colourful, dreamlike mural by William Ashby McCloy, became a prominent feature at the front entrance: it depicted three flying bison, one of which was the Great Bull Bison with his head turned back to a flying hunter who was in rapid pursuit in the sky over the Red River.

Elizabeth Dafoe plaque

The library proper spanned three floors (one below the entrance level) with separate areas for technical services, periodicals, and a bibliography room, as well as the special Icelandic collection with adjoining stack rooms. In sum, the small library was both graceful and functional, and readily accessible in the centre of campus. The main circulation desk was on the second floor, with the reserve reference desk downstairs. Honours students and graduates were assigned carrels on each of the three floors of stacks. Faculty researchers were provided with sixteen larger cubicles in a separate room. Library shelving held 160,000 volumes with special sections for maps, the valuable Icelandic collection and periodicals. Rare books were assigned their own room.

On May 25, 1961, in recognition of Elizabeth Dafoe’s long tenure, a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the renaming of the library in her honour. The former head librarian already had gained the respect of many people years before the new library opened. As the student paper, The Manitoban, expressed in March 1952: “One of the library’s first requisites, then, is a librarian who is both patient with and interested in the students. We, at the university, are especially fortunate in having Miss Dafoe. For the library is of prime importance in the student’s progress, and its management by a person who understands so well the needs of professor and student, cannot be too greatly emphasized.” In time, as student numbers grew throughout the sixties, the library became overcrowded. Plans were made to enlarge it. Finally, after a quarter century, in 1978, an addition by Green Blankenstein Russell was made to the northwest section of the library.  

Murray Memorial Library, University of Saskatchewan, 1956

 

The third Prairie library, the Murray Memorial Library, named after the University's first president, Walter C. Murray, was built between 1954–56 at a cost of approximately $1,500,000, including furnishings and equipment. When it officially opened on November 30, 1956, the University President, Walter P. Thompson, declared it was “Another dream come true.” The Murray Library was a central building designed to house many university collections previously dispersed among six branch libraries. The basic open design brought books and readers together in a close relationship.

 

Murray Memorial Library, Nov. 1956

The library was well-planned in the Mid-Century Modern architectural style by the architect, Henry Kenneth Black, from Regina, and the librarian David C. Appelt, a native New Zealander who had become the head librarian in 1946. Kiyoshi Izumi, a young aspiring architect, served as the Ken Black’s representative and Keyes Metcalf, Director of University Libraries at Harvard, was a consultant on the project. Murray Memorial displayed an austere and unimposing rectangular exterior with a flat roof, uniform fenestration, and entry at grade level. Building materials included structural steel or reinforced concrete, granite at the entrance and Tyndall stone as a wall cladding and window trim.

It was also an unabashed modular building, displaying a significant interior change in planning for Canadian academic libraries. In modular planning the floor space is divided into equal rectangles: the Murray library was designed on 4 ft. x 6 in. scheme to accommodate its approximately 100,000 sq. ft. on four floors. This scheme enabled adequate floor-loading capacities, uniform ceiling heights, and provided for mechanical and electrical systems for air and lighting. Although the new building style lacked visual appeal, indeed it could be said to be boring, both H.K. Black and D.C. Appelt recognized that the international-style structure was well-suited to functional library requirements, future reorganization, and expansion. It was economical too.

Early decisions made in the planning stage determined the layout for Murray Memorial:
1. It would have open stack access with circulation control at the building exit.
2. Closed reserve collections would continue.
3. There would be no subject divisions.
4. Branch libraries would continue on a reduced scale. Research materials (except for Medicine) would be in the main library.
5. The Provincial Saskatchewan Archives would be located on the lower level.
6. There would be temporary space for the College of Law and the Law Library on the second floor.

Murray Memorial Library first floor plan, entrance at right

 

 

On the first floor, the circulation desk was situated at the entrance/exit with the catalogue adjacent to it. Further into the interior was a large, readily accessible reference room which featured a service desk that provided improved assistance. Book stacks were located on the second and third floors. The reserve reading room was on the lower level. The Murray Memorial Library served the university for two decades before undergoing extensive renovation in the 1970s during which a six-floor south wing was added to accommodate growth.

 

Seven decades later, in the 21st century ‘information age’ and the era of the ‘digital library,’ the services of the Rutherford, Dafoe, and Murray libraries continue to satisfy campus needs and exemplify the diverse choices librarians and architects made in the 1950s to address contemporary issues with flexible building designs that successfully transitioned to the future.

 

Further Reading:

 

My earlier blog on Elizabeth Dafoe is at this link.

Elizabeth Dafoe, “A University Library [Manitoba].” Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada 36, no. 4 (1959): 106. 

Bruce Braden Peel’s 1979 history of the University of Alberta is available at the Internet Archive.

Edith Park, “The Rutherford Library” 1951 alumni history at the University of Alberta.

David Appelt’s report on planning for the Murray Memorial Library: “University of Saskatchewan Library, Saskatoon,” is in Proceedings of the Meetings at Midwinter ALA Conference, Chicago, Illinois, February 1 and 2, 1953, ed. by Donald C. Davidson. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 1953, pp. 8–18. 

Marion Elizabeth Gilroy (1912–1981)

Marion Gilroy, BA portrait, 1932

Marion Gilroy began a promising academic career at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia during the 1930s. With the benefit of a Carnegie Fellowship award for a proposed study of adult education in the Halifax area in 1938, she earned a library degree at Columbia University. Then she returned to her native province to assume the task of directing the War Services Libraries in the Atlantic Defence Area for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Merchant Marine. After the end of the Second World War, in 1946, she became the supervisor of regional public libraries in Saskatchewan with the responsibility of promoting them across extensive rural areas populated by small towns and rural farms. Her initial energy and enthusiasm led to the creation of the North Central Regional Library in the Prince Albert-Melfort area in 1950.

Through the fifties, Gilroy helped North Central develop as a model aided by the establishment of a Provincial Library in 1953 to expand extension work, especially travelling library service and a regional bookmobile. Despite the fierce independence of local communities, she continued to promote the regional concept with numerous local organizations and municipalities. She was somewhat successful in west-central Saskatchewan, where the Wheatland Regional Library eventually formed in 1967. As well, the initial stirrings of regional work in the southeast would lead to the formation of the Southeast Regional Library in 1965. However, these events did not occur until after Gilroy had left public library work in Saskatchewan.

For almost two decades, Marion Gilroy was a tireless promoter of regional systems. In 1959, the Canadian Department of Northern Affairs requested her assistance to survey library conditions and needs in the Northwest Territories. Gilroy characteristically responded by citing the need for a regional approach: “A regional library service for the Northwest Territories should be free to borrowers, flexible and geared to meet the needs of all the people of the north. It must not stop at providing materials to meet the demands of readers at all levels; it should actively stimulate and promote reading, listening and discussion. A public library system should work in close co-operation with all educational agencies including schools and school libraries with programs concerned with health, welfare, social and economic well-being, as well as with community organizations. Radio can help. A library on wings would be an asset…” (Marion Gilroy, Down and Up North, 1960).

Gilroy’s academic career resumed after she completed graduate studies in librarianship at the University of Chicago in 1959 and resigned her supervisory position in the Provincial Library in 1963 to accept a teaching position as an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Librarianship. After her retirement in 1978 and death in 1981, the Regional Library headquarters in Prince Albert was named in her honour in 1985. 

I originally posted this biographical synopsis for the Ex Libris Association in 2019. The post also continues on the current ELA website. Marion Gilroy’s image is her graduate BA portrait that appeared in the Acadia University Yearbook, The Axe, in 1932.

Marion Elizabeth Gilroy

b. 20 Aug. 1912, Spring Hill, NS; d. 21 June 1981, Vancouver, BC

Education:

1932 BA Acadia University
1933 MA University of Toronto
1939 BS in LS Columbia University (Carnegie Fellowship program)
1959 MLS University of Chicago

Positions:

1933–1940 Research Librarian, Public Archives of Nova Scotia
1940–1946 Acting Director, Nova Scotia Regional Library Commission and Director, Atlantic Command Library
1946–1963 Supervisor, Regional Libraries of Saskatchewan
1963–1978 Associate Professor, University of British Columbia School of Librarianship

Publications

Gilroy, Marion (1933). The Loyalist experiment in New Brunswick. MA thesis, University of Toronto.

Gilroy, Marion (1933). “The partition of Nova Scotia,1784.” Canadian Historical Review. 14 (4): 375.

Gilroy, Marion (1936). “Customs fees in Nova Scotia.” Canadian Historical Review. 7(1): 9–22.

Gilroy, Marion (1936). “Our Need of Library Service.” Dalhousie Review 16 (3): 351–61.

Gilroy, Marion (1937). “Regional Libraries for Nova Scotia?” Maritime Library Association Bulletin 2 (3): 3–4.

Gilroy, Marion (1937). “Libraries for Nova Scotia.” Nova Scotia Journal of Education 8: 213–217.

Gilroy, Marion (1937). Loyalists and land settlement in Nova Scotia. A list compiled by Marion Gilroy under the direction of D.C. Harvey. Halifax: Published by the authority of the Board of Public Archives of Nova Scotia.

Gilroy, Marion, comp. (1938a) A catalogue of maps, plans and charts in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. Compiled under the direction of D.C. Harvey, Archivist. Halifax, N.S.

Gilroy, Marion (1938b). “The imperial customs establishment in Nova Scotia, 1825–1855.“ Canadian Historical Review. 19 (3): 277–291.

Gilroy, Marion (1946). “The Buffalo Conference [A.L.A. June 16–22, 1945].” Maritime Library Institute Bulletin 10, no. 4: 3–4.

Gilroy, Marion (1951). “Saskatchewan's first regional library.” Ontario Library Review 35 (1): 87–88.

Gilroy, Marion (1952). “Taking the books to the people.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 9 (2, pt. 1): 39–43.

Gilroy, Marion (1952). “A New Prairie Crop; New Library Activity in Northern Saskatchewan.” Food for Thought 12 (7): 5–10.

Gilroy, Marion (1956). “Nora Bateson.” Food for Thought 16 (6): 242–244.

Gilroy, Marion (1960). “Down and Up North.” Food for Thought 20 (6): 276–281, 290.

Gilroy, Marion (1960). “With Parka and Sleeping Bag.” American Library Association 54 (4): 294–299.

Gilroy, Marion (1960). Library co-operation in Britain, 1950–1958. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association.

Gilroy, Marion (1963). Libraries in the Western Part of the Island of Montreal: Present and Proposed; a Report for the West Island Regional Library Council. Montreal: s..n.

Gilroy, Marion (1964). “Cat’s Cradles to Tractors; Books and Libraries for the Northwest Territories.” Canadian Geographical Journal 69 (6): 198–201.

Gilroy, Marion (1966). “Sights and Insights: Jokkmok to Yerevan. British Columbia Library Quarterly 29 (April): 8–13.

Gilroy, Marion and Samuel Rothstein, eds. (1970). As we remember it: interviews with pioneering librarians of British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia School of Librarianship with the cooperation and assistance of the Library Development Commission of British Columbia.

Gilroy, Marion (1968). “Regional Libraries in Retrospect, 1927-1967.” In Librarianship in Canada, 1946–1967; Essays in Honour of Elizabeth Homer Morton ed. by Bruce Baden Peel, 58–72. Victoria: Canadian Library Association.

Gilroy, Marion (1979). Pioneers! O pioneers: the genesis of regional libraries. [Regina]: Saskatchewan Library Association.

Associations/Committees:

Maritime Library Association; President, 1941–45
Saskatchewan Library Association, President, 1948–49
Canadian Library Association; President, 1951–52

Other Activities:

Marion Gilroy “performed surveys of library needs across Canada, in regions as diverse Montreal Island and the Northwest Territories. She also hosted many radio and television broadcasts and had a stint as a movie star in the National Film Board production Books for Beaver River.” During her teaching at UBC [University of British Columbia] she taught courses in public libraries, school libraries, readers services and book selection. In later years she traveled to exotic places including Russia and the Canadian North.
— Celebrating Women’s Achievements

One of the individuals to whom the Saskatchewan of today owes a great debt of gratitude is often referred to as “the small woman in the big hat driving the big black van.” Her name was Marion Gilroy, and her accomplishments are nothing short of heroic.
— Verne Clemence, Saskatchewan's Own, 2004

Sources:

Chan, May (2004). Marion Gilroy fonds. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Archives (last revised October 2011). Accessed March 27, 2014.
Library and Archives Canada. Celebrating Women’s achievements. Marion Gilroy. Accessed December 5, 2023.
Clemence, Verne. “Books for the Regions: Marion Gilroy, 1912–1981” in Saskatchewan's Own: People Who Made a Difference. Calgary: Fifth House, 2004.
Kerr, Donald. A Book in Every Hand: Public Libraries in Saskatchewan. Regina: Coteau Books, 2005 (pp. 62-81).