Canadian Library History Blog

College and university education evolved slowly in the Canadian Maritime provinces before 1900. By the time of the First World War, Dalhousie was the most prominent university in the region. Established in Halifax in 1818, it began to expand after 1911 when it relocated to the more spacious Studley campus where much-needed new buildings could be constructed. By this time, two other smaller, distinguished liberal arts universities had also gained prominence: Acadia in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and Mount Allison in Sackville, New Brunswick. Acadia was established in 1838 and began to grow in the early 20th century. Mount Allison, founded in 1839, was noted for being the first university in the British Empire to award a bachelor’s degree to a woman as early as 1875. Collections at all three institutions were relatively small. When James Bain reviewed library progress across Canada in 1895, he reported that Dalhousie (college) held 20,000 volumes, Mount Allison held 4,500 volum...

War Devastated Libraries in Europe in 1945 In the summer of 1945, in the aftermath of war, many European communities lay in ruins. Millions of people had died, a mass displacement of persons and families had occurred, and food shortages were commonplace. Amid this disastrous situation, the daunting task of rebuilding and restocking many demolished libraries was no less serious. For example, an estimated 15,000,000 library items had been destroyed in Poland, especially in Warsaw. However, even before the war ended, there were plans to restore libraries, notably the American Library Association’s project to create an American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries to operate from the Library of Congress. From 1945–47, the ALA Center collected, documented, and shipped more than 3,500,000 books overseas to over 40 countries. Another international organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), founded in 1945, undertook to launch a number of ...

Library Service in New Brunswick: A Report and Recommendations by Peter Grossman. Fredericton: New Brunswick Department of Education, 1953. 62 p., maps, illus. Peter Grossman, c.1953   For many years in the first part of the 20th century, public library service lagged in the province of New Brunswick; however, in 1951 a provincial Library Association was established with Maurice Boone, the chief librarian of the Legislative Library and formerly librarian of Acadia University, elected as President. The Association pressed government officials to improve public library services, and in the following year the Department of Education invited Peter Grossman, the Director of Libraries for Nova Scotia, to conduct a survey throughout the province and devise a plan for future library development. Peter Grossman, a native British Columbian with experience in regional libraries in the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island, spent five weeks in the summer of 1952 investigating school, governme...

Roads to Reading . 16 mm film, colour, sound, 14 minutes, 1958. Produced by the Nova Scotia Film Bureau for the Nova Scotia Provincial Library. Directed by Margaret Perry with Alberta Letts as technical advisor. Journey from Zero = La Longue Randonnée . 16 mm film, sound, colour, 13 minutes, 1961. National Film Board of Canada, Directed by Roger Blais. By 1960, regional libraries were fairly well established in Canada. The sight of a bookmobile on Canada’s rural roadways was by no means novel anymore. In Nova Scotia, where regional services had begun in earnest in the late 1940s, there were five regional systems: Cape Breton (headquarters in Sydney), Annapolis Valley, Pictou County (headquarters in New Glasgow), Colchester-East Hants (headquarters in Truro), and the Halifax City Regional Library. In 1952, Nova Scotia adopted a new library act that provided a comprehensive plan for a centralized direction and regional libraries to cover the entire province, financed to the amount ...

The 1880s were a critical turning point for free library legislation in Canada. Ontario was not alone in enacting legislation for free public libraries, that is, library service owned and funded by a local government accessible to local residents without charge at the point of service. Unlike Ontario, however, in the Maritime provinces specific legislation for the establishment of a free public library was the typical method chosen by Legislatures. Saint John became the earliest incorporated library to assume this course in 1883. In the nineteenth century, Saint John was served by various subscription-membership libraries, notably the St. John Mechanics' Institute, in operation from 1839-90, and the St. John Society Library, in operation from 1811-69. Agitation for a free library, similar to the Toronto experience, began as early as the late 1870s. The success of a project that secured more than 2,000 books for a free library led to the appointment of a city commission in 1880, c...

Newfoundland Royal Commission 1933: Report. William Warrender Mackenzie, 1st Baron Amulree, chair. London. H.M.S.O., 1933. vi, 283 p., maps. The Newfoundland Royal Commission, 1933 Important advances were made in Canada in the 1930s by the provision of Carnegie grants for public library development in British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. However, in Newfoundland library development was sparked by economic hardship and an entirely different investigative process. At the beginning of 1900, Newfoundland remained a Crown Colony of the British Empire and did not achieve the status of a self-governing Dominion until 1907. The capital, St. John's, had the misfortune of seeing its Carnegie promise of $50,000 for a free public library, made in June 1901, lapse despite the best efforts of a prominent judge, Daniel W. Prowse, who successfully lobbied for passage of a Public Libraries Act in 1902 (2 Edw. VII c.20). Although a city library board was established, early ...

Gerhard Lomer, Report on a Proposed Three-year Demonstration of Library Service for Prince Edward Island. Montreal: McGill University Library, 1932. 52 p., illus, folding plan. Nora Bateson, The Carnegie Library Demonstration in Prince Edward Island, Canada, 1933-1936 . Charlottetown: Prince Edward Island Libraries, 1936. 52 p., illus. with an Appendix: The Public Library Act (assented to April 4, 1935; p. 50-52). Nora Bateson, Library Survey of Nova Scotia . Halifax, Department of Education, 1938. 40 p., map; with an Appendix: An act to provide for the support of regional libraries: p. 40. Nova Scotia Regional Libraries Commission,  Libraries for Nova Scotia , 2nd rev. ed. Halifax: the Commission, 1940.12 p. The Depression in Maritime Canada presented enormous obstacles to library development. This period did, however, spur important new thinking about how public library services could be established and maintained by public funds and management. As the n...