Canadian Library History Blog

The National Library of Canada, Its Eventual Character and Scope; A Brief Submitted to the Chairman and Members of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences by the Canadian Library Association/Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques, 1949 [For release on 18 August 1949] . [Ottawa]: the Association, 1949. 5 p. with exhibits. On 8 April 1949, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent asked the Governor General of Canada to approve an Order-in-Council, appointing a Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences under the chairmanship of the Right Honourable Vincent Massey. For two years, the Commissioners held public hearings across the country, received briefs, and called many witnesses to investigate the state of Canada’s arts and culture. A final report appeared in June 1951. This brief was crucial in outlining the vision, functions, and structure for establishing a National Library by advocating the need for a national biblio...

A National Library for Canada; A Brief Presented to the Government of Canada submitted by the Canadian Library Association/Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques, Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Historical Association, Canadian Political Science Association, Social Science Research Council of Canada. [Ottawa: s.n.], December 1946. 16 p. with appendices. Canadian Library Association Statement on a National Library, 1946 “A National Library is, first of all, the most comprehensive Library in the world in its own country. A National Library is also a centre for services to other libraries, research workers and individuals . . . an agency responsible for the national bibliography . . . in short, the nerve centre of the whole network of libraries in the country.” This introduction to the need for a National Library, presented to the federal government on 27 January 1947, signalled a new approach to establishing a national library. Previous efforts had emphasized the ...

A National Library by Elizabeth Dafoe. [Toronto:] Canadian Adult Education Association, 1944. 5 p. [offprint from Food for Thought , v.4, no. 8, May 1944] After introducing her topic with a summary of major publications and earlier efforts to advocate for the establishment of a national library in Ottawa—all of which had come to nought—Elizabeth Dafoe, chief librarian at the University of Manitoba, posed the question: Is the apathy of the public in this regard due to ignorance of the real nature of a national library, the confusion of its functions with those of a parliamentary library, lack of pride in Canada's history and cultural growth, or a general indifference to libraries and library service? Elizabeth Dafoe, n.d. Then, she proceeded to develop a cogent statement in a strong and well-argued manner on the need and functions of a national library that would constitute an important part of a postwar plan for library development in Canada. Her report would form part of a later...

Library banner for 50th anniversary As the National Library of Canada (NLC) moved inexorably to its golden anniversary in 2003, it was still a viable institution despite years of cutback management. In line with neoliberal philosophy, services had been reduced or eliminated (e.g. the popular Multilingual service) but many basic functions remained that made it a recognizable national entity. Although it was aging technology, AMICUS, Canada's national bibliographic database, contained 25,000,000 records for more than 1,000 Canadian libraries. The NLC's Union Catalogue was a reliable source for bibliographic information and library locations for books and periodicals that could be used by other libraries for interloan. The NLC's comprehensive Canadiana collection was largely due to Legal Deposit Provisions whereby Canadian publishers were required by law to send, as a general rule, two copies of all published works in various formats. The Library's Canadian Cataloging in P...

By the time Guy Sylvestre retired at the end of 1983, many ideas crafted in the Future of the National Library (published in 1979) were no longer achievable. In the early 1980s, Canadian political and social life was in a state of flux. The election of a Conservative federal government in 1984 was a harbinger of fiscal restraint in public spending. In western nations the welfare state, often associated with Keynesian economics, had reached its apogee. The era of neoliberal economic reforms, also embraced often by neoconservatives such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, had arrived. For the majority of people, including librarians, this critical change in political decision making was at first slowly perceived. But, by the time Bill Clinton's campaign slogan, "It's the economy, stupid!", helped him win the 1992 American Presidential election, everyone began to realize that market issues trumped social and cultural issues in North America. The success of the Refo...

National Library of Canada, The future of the National Library of Canada = L'avenir de la Bibliothèque nationale du Canada . Ottawa, 1979; ix, 88, 93, ix p. At the end of the 1970s the most thoughtful statement about the goals and services of Canada's National Library (NLC) appeared in a short bilingual ninety-page publication, The Future of the National Library of Canada . The culmination of three years of consultation and review, The Future contained various recommendations, eleven in all, about where the NLC might head in the 1980s. Throughout the report, it is clear that the National Librarian, Guy Sylvestre, believed that strengthened programs, better financing, further organizational growth, and cooperative work with Canadian libraries would benefit the country's informational needs on a collective basis. The study recognized that Canadian library resource sharing was taking place in a decentralized national framework with distributed leadership, but it sough...

Canada's centennial, 1967, was not just a time to reflect on the country's past but a time to look forward as well. After the $13 million dollar Public Archives and National Library Building on Wellington Street opened in June, both archivists and librarians had better facilities and more staff to provide their services. The National Library had grown to more than 200 workers. When Dr. W.K. Lamb, the Dominion Archivist and National Librarian, retired in 1968, a decision was made to appoint separate directors for the two institutions. The new National Librarian was Guy Sylvestre, an author, civil servant, and Associate Director of the Library of Parliament from 1956-68. Dr. Sylvestre had worked in Ottawa for a quarter of a century and possessed a good knowledge of library activity across Canada. Now he was in a position to exploit his contacts in the nation's capital and develop ideas about the National Library (NLC) that would make it more relevant in the expanding Canadian...

Sixty years ago, in January 1953, Canada's National Library Act took effect. The original statute was passed on May 27, 1952, during the 6th session of the 21st Canadian Parliament under the Liberal leader, Prime Minister Louis St-Laurent. The year 1952 was not uneventful. The country was emerging from the immediate postwar era in a more prosperous condition; Elizabeth II became Queen of Canada; Canadian armed forces were fighting in Korea; CBC television went on the air; and a national Old Age Security scheme was introduced. For most Canadians, the National Library was a lesser consideration in nation building. However, the idea of assembling the greatest collection of literature on Canada in the world and making it available to all Canadians had been an important recommendation of the influential Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (aka the Massey Report) when it was released in 1951. The report was clear about its national importance: ...