Four Library Development Reports in British Columbia, 1945 to 1956

Programme for Library Development in British Columbia. Victoria, B.C.: Joint Committee on Library Policy, 1945. 36 p. maps

Programme for Library Development in British Columbia, 1950: Being a Condensation and Revision of the “Programme for Library Development in British Columbia,” 1945. Victoria, B.C: Joint Committee of the British Columbia Library Association and the Public Library Commission, 1950. 10 p.

Survey of Union Libraries in British Columbia. Victoria, B.C.: British Columbia Public Library Commission, 1950. 59 p.

Programme for Library Development in British Columbia, 1956. Victoria: British Columbia Public Library Commission, 1957. 15 p. (cover illustration below)

Over the course of a decade following the Second World War, British Columbia trustees, officials, and librarians sought to improve library services across the province. The provincial Public Library Commission (PLC, est. 1919), in conjunction with financing from the Carnegie Corporation, had issued two previous surveys, one in 1927–28 and another in 1940, that had led to the geographic extension of services through the formation of three union libraries (officially re-titled regional libraries in 1951): Fraser Valley, Okanagan Vally, and Vancouver Island.

However, the wartime and postwar scene began to reveal new issues beyond simple extension: the need to serve a growing population, the need for improvement in the quality of library service, the need to address technological developments, and the need for increased provincial financial support to reach people living in smaller, isolated communities beyond the south-west corner of the province.

British Columbia Public Library Commission Reports

Under the able chairmanship of William Kaye Lamb, chief librarian of the University of British Columbia, a 1945 report by a Joint Committee of the BC Library Association and the Public Library Commission sounded the alarm that public library service was inadequate, even in the major cities, Vancouver and Victoria which were housed in decades-old Carnegie libraries. “The pages that follow amply establish the shocking fact that not one community in British Columbia at present enjoys adequate public library service. Furthermore, they show that, for practical purposes, the majority of the people in the Province have no public library service at all.” (p. 1)

The 1945 report unveiled an ambitious program to remedy the situation. The report stated that with expanded services from seven existing libraries, the addition of one new union library district in West Kootenay, and one new Commission branch in the Peace River area at Dawson Creek, about 80% of British Columbians could be served. A revitalized public library map would include:
■ three proposed metropolitan districts serviced from Vancouver, New Westminster, and Victoria
■ four union systems organized in the Fraser Valley, Okanagan Valley, Vancouver Island, and West Kootenay (proposed)
■ two Commission branches at Prince George (already in service in a North-Central district) and Dawson Creek (proposed for the Peace River district)
The remaining population, about 20%, could be better served by converting existing public library associations (e.g., in Kamloops) into free municipal public libraries. The Open Shelf and Travelling Libraries operated by the PLC could supply rural towns, villages, and settlements. To implement its plan, the report called for improved provincial library aid and legislation to authorize the formation of metropolitan districts, an innovative approach by Canadian standards.

A subsequent brief report by the Joint Committee in 1950 complained that very few bold strokes had happened since 1945. Library service remained inadequate, in part due to low public expectations. Committee members repeated the call for increased general provincial aid (a meagre $25,000 in 1948–49), especially for the start of grants for city libraries. More importantly, in the same year the PLC issued a Survey of Union Libraries under the chairmanship of Edgar Robinson, chief librarian of the city of Vancouver.  By 1950, the three regional libraries were serving about one-fifth of the total population of British Columbia, and their progress demonstrated an efficient, cost-effective way to provide library service. Like many cooperative public libraries in Canada, school library service was one of these libraries’ strong suits.

Overall, the union libraries report aimed to improve rural services, strengthen existing union libraries, provide the provincial government with information to justify its expenditures and establish a future program for regional development. Various elements of union library operations were studied — governance, book collections, buildings, finances, personnel, bookmobiles, library objectives, standards and public relations. The report reiterated the importance of regional library work but noted the lack of trained personnel, substandard provincial support, and the need for additional regional development:

Gratifying as the record is, there is still obvious need for improvement in almost all phases of regional library work, and it is to this end that the present survey is pointed. Additional rural areas need service, some now being without a vestige of libraries, while existing libraries need additional and substantial financial aid from both local and provincial sources. (forward)

Six years later, in 1956, the third “programme for development” was more optimistic about the services provided by municipal and regional library systems:

The number of municipal public libraries has doubled, and five of the present ten have embarked on expansion programmes, including four new buildings. Financial support by municipalities has risen 60 per cent, though it is still well below the minimum required for services expected of a public library. Provincial aid has been extended to municipal libraries and has gradually increased over the five-year period. Three municipal libraries are now operating bookmobile service, and have mechanized their internal procedures.
The three regional libraries have acquired, with Provincial Government assistance, new headquarters buildings, which have helped immeasurably to improve the service. Local support has improved by 50 per cent or more ... .  (p. 7)

Generally, the better financed libraries were operating from a position of strength rather than weakness. There was a repeated call for the formation of metropolitan systems around Victoria, Vancouver, and New Westminster and new regional systems in the Kootenay and Kamloops districts. School libraries were deficient and depended too much on services provided by public libraries. The report emphasized the need to establish a graduate library school at the University of British Columbia. 

Postwar Library Planning in British Columbia

The series of British Columbia reports of the 1940s and 1950s were unique statements in Canadian library planning. With the growth of the national economy, rising levels of employment, and the improvement in the standard of living, there was also an increased interest in the development of libraries. Cultural and social changes were taking place with the arrival of television and the popularity of sporting events. When the four library reports were published, the encouragement of metropolitan library planning was in its infancy and regional library service was not firmly established in other parts of Canada. British Columbia trustees and librarians had pioneered library extension work and, coupled with the PLC’s intention to publish up-to-date library surveys, they provided straightforward statements for efficient services, better grants, and improved standards.

By the mid-1950s, British Columbia libraries had reached reasonable levels of achievement and gained better provincial support. On a per capita basis, libraries in BC persistently ranked high in Canadian public library service levels. They were spending an overall $1.28 per capita expenditure compared to the Canadian average of 91 cents in 1957, as the following table summarizes.

Dominion Bureau of Statistics Public Library Receipts and Expenditures per person, 1957
local     prov.     total        book    salary
taxes    grants    receipts   exp.     exp.         
$1.04   $0.19     $1.28      $0.23    $0.83  BC
$0.71   $0.14     $0.92      $0.15    $0.54  Canada

The 1940s and 1950s had been marked by slow progress; nonetheless, BC libraries had profited from the repeated efforts of library planners to upgrade service on a provincial scale.

Two earlier Library History Today posts on British Columbia’s libraries are at:
BC public library reports 1927 to 1941
Two iconic films on the Fraser Valley Library

Ontario Libraries: A Province-Wide Survey and Plan, 1965 by Francis R. St. John Library Consultants

St John, (Francis R.) Library Consultants, Inc. Ontario Libraries: A Province-Wide Survey and Plan, 1965. Toronto: Ontario Library Association, 1965. 182 p.

At the beginning of the 1960s, Ontario’s public, school, university, government, and special libraries were trying to cope with a rapidly growing population, changing technology, and staff shortages. The Department of Education had made a few incremental improvements after the Wallace Report of 1957, but leaders in the library sector expected more effective planning and financial support from Queen’s Park. When William Davis, the Conservative M.P. from Peel County, was appointed Minister of Education in 1962, the Ontario Library Association (OLA) invited him to speak at its 1963 conference. The new Minister did not disappoint: he spoke about the importance of libraries as community agents and stressed better planning was necessary to achieve their service goals. Most importantly, he offered to finance studies sponsored by the OLA.

The OLA accepted the offer of financial assistance from the Minister and formed a Research Committee in 1964 under John Parkhill, head of Toronto Public Library’s (TPL) reference library, to consider study options for the province. This committee chose Francis R. St. John, the former director of the Brooklyn Public Library and a well-respected American library consultant, to conduct a provincial-wide study of all library types, which included universities because William Davis had added the newly formed Ministry of University Affairs to his cabinet duties in 1964. St. John’s firm began work in January 1965 and released a final report in February 1966.

 

The 1965 St. John Report on Ontario Libraries

While the American consultant surveyed libraries in the province, major educational changes were being planned. William Davis was a dynamic minister: during his tenure, he oversaw the formation of a new community college system and two new universities, created an educational television network, increased education spending dramatically, and amalgamated thousands of small school boards across the province. The Provincial Library Service (PLS), headed by William Roedde, studied legislation to eliminate less relevant clauses (e.g., the per capita free library rate, free library status, and local plebiscites to establish libraries), to abolish Association Libraries, and authorize the establishment of five regional library co-operatives. In the library sector, studies proposed a new library school for the Western University and strengthened existing university library education in Toronto and Ottawa.

Francis St. John’s work was the comprehensive study of school, university, special, and public libraries that OLA had sought for a decade. The report was a singular milestone in large-scale library planning in Ontario, especially for public libraries. The major trends in the early 1960s—regionalism, coordinated provincial planning, and service to smaller libraries in rural areas—were emphasized in 63 specific recommendations. Through his consultations, St. John emphasized the need for cooperative development and promotion of larger service units. The report specifically recommended the encouragement of larger regional units (p. 37-39) and that conditional provincial grants be directed to regions rather than individual public library boards. Association libraries (154 in 1964) were to lose their grants and be encouraged to contract with county or regional libraries (p. 31-34). No more county library co-operatives could be formed; the report recommended their operation should be transformed into stronger county library boards. The task of centralized processing for all school and public libraries within a region was assigned to the regional library co-operatives (p. 43-51). Each regional system would have a reference centre responsible for information resources within the region (p. 52-58). St. John revisited the idea of TPL serving as a central provincial resource centre and receiving provincial funding for this task (p. 59-61). TPL would also maintain a central bibliographic database of holdings to facilitate provincial interloan and interaction with the National Library union catalogue operation. The report advised that orientation programs be developed for new library trustees for governance. A chapter on library legislation put forward 15 recommendations, especially regarding regional governance and operations.

Within the Department of Education, St. John advised the consolidation of all library functions in a single Library Division where the PLS, public libraries, elementary and secondary schools, universities and colleges, and government libraries would integrate their work and develop plans (p. 19-21). The Travelling Library service was to be eliminated (p. 13-15), and the PLS upgraded with more staff.  Provincial direction would improve after the creation of a new Ontario Provincial Library Council (OPLC) to make recommendations to the Minister respecting the development and coordination of library service (p. 22-24).

Libraries in elementary and secondary schools and those in higher education required a different approach than regionalism. St. John was critical of school libraries and proposed that schools with at least 150 students be required to maintain a centralized school library with holdings of 3,000 to 5,000 books or ten books per capita in larger schools. A school with 250 pupils should have at least one full-time librarian. Centralized cataloguing at the University of Toronto was proposed for colleges and universities supported by government financing. St. John recognized the Toronto library had already been asked by the government to compile basic collections of 35,000 volumes each for three new universities (Trent, Guelph, and Brock) and two Toronto regional campuses (Scarborough and Erindale). The Ontario New Universities Library Project began in October 1963 with a budget of $1.3 million for book purchases over the following 3-1/2 years. The Committee of University Presidents was urged to support the concept of collection building to avoid duplication of resources. Further, the report proposed that the government provide financing to build in-depth research collections. St. John also recommended the government finance a long-distance facsimile experiment between the three largest collections at Toronto, Western, and Queens for at least five years. As well, the report agreed with plans for higher library education in the three universities, and it recommended the appointment of trained librarians and specialists to school districts and regional co-operatives to serve as area supervisors and field advisors.

St. John’s approach to government and special libraries proposed more efficient, systematic operations: a system of depository libraries to receive provincial publications overseen by the Library Division in the Dept. of Education; centralized cataloguing and classification of documents by TPL for designated depository libraries; and submission of holdings into the proposed TPL bibliographic database. However, the report’s influence was limited. It was not until 1970 that the Ontario government established a depository library system, and, in the following year, the Ministry of Government Services began to publish its Ontario Government Publications Monthly Checklist. Also in 1970, an Ontario Government Librarians’ Council was established.

The initial press reaction to the report acknowledged that Ontario had fallen from the ranks of library leadership. It was a shock to some. William Davis immediately announced that provincial funding would be increased by 50% to $5 million, a new Public Libraries Act would be introduced in the legislature, another supervisor would be added to the PLS, and that the Globe and Mail journalist, J. Bascom St. John, would head up a committee to study the recommendations. Davis relied on policy advisors because his departments were expanding rapidly to reshape Ontario’s educational system. The Department of Education was about to examine all aspects of education through a Provincial Committee on the Aims and Objectives of Education (the Hall-Dennis Committee) established in 1965. The concept of “open education,” whereby students learned on their own progress rather than adhering to standardized grade steps, was on the march. When the OLA met in Ottawa to discuss St. John’s findings in April 1966, it endorsed and amplified many recommendations, although the president, Leonard Freiser, Librarian at Toronto’s Education Centre Library, criticized the report’s focus on organization, not service delivery.
 

Ontario Public Libraries Act 1966

After a short time, on 7 June 1966, William Davis announced a completely revised Public Libraries Act, 1966: “It [the St. John report] recommended that legislation be provided for an Ontario provincial library council and advisory council and that provisions for regional library service be improved. We have accepted these recommendations and followed certain other recommendations in the report.” He described the four main legislative sections:
▪ the powers and responsibilities of library boards;
▪ the role of the newly designed 23-member OPLC to develop and coordinate service under the Minister’s control;
▪ the role of the 14 regional library co-operatives with Metro Toronto included in current amendments to the Metropolitan Toronto Act;
▪ the strengthening of county libraries.
The new Act eliminated some prominent vestiges of the past—the need for local plebiscites to establish libraries (1882), the requirement to be a British subject (1905), the voluntary Library Association form of governance (1909), and the minimum per capita library rate of 1920. However, the PLS would continue to play a limited leadership role because St. John’s concept of a strengthened Library Division coordinating library activities in all types of libraries was rejected. The primary duties of the Director of PLS were to supervise the Act’s operation, promote and encourage the extension of service, serve as non-voting secretary of the Ontario Provincial Library Council, and oversee grant regulations.

There was little time to criticize or analyze the recommendations made by St. John. The new Libraries Act essentially refined the existing one initially formulated in 1920 and amended frequently over four decades. It was apparent the government did not intend to implement recommendations proposing the integration of library services across all educational sectors. Significantly, university and college libraries were moving independently: they rejected the idea of centralized coordination from the provincial government because they felt their interests lay within the post-secondary sector rather than regional groupings suggested by St. John. After the the Commission to Study the Development of Graduate Programmes in Ontario Universities (the Spinks Commission) reported the weak state of most Ontario university libraries in November 1966, the Committee of Presidents of Provincially-Assisted Universities in Ontario (CPUO) began to develop a co-operative approach to sharing existing resources and to initiate planning for expansion. This Council approved the creation of a provincial-wide university system to include reader services, an interlibrary transport service, a bibliographic centre at the University of Toronto, and the formation of the Ontario Council of University Librarians, composed of the chief librarians, as an advisory body to the CPUO.

Community colleges agreed to form a Bibliocentre to acquire and process books centrally shortly after 1967. As well, school libraries remained outside regionalization efforts. The Ontario Teachers’ Federation published School Library Standards in 1966. The Dept. of Education increased funding for school resources and library facilities, followed by publication of The Library Handbook for Elementary Schools in Ontario in 1967. More courses for teacher-librarians were introduced to bolster assistance for students in learning to use library resources. Regarding government or special libraries, St. John was criticized for omitting reference to federal libraries, many of which were located in Ottawa. The public library sector became the main beneficiary of the St. John findings, although the OPLC as an advisory, coordinating body did not live up to its potential.

The report framed by Francis R. St. John served as a general guideline for a centralized system of libraries within a province. However, the Ontario government, indeed, librarians, trustees, and officials at all levels chose to continue in the traditional ‘type of library’ sectoral organization entrenched across North America. A multi-type library development model was laid to rest with the prospect that technology, not administrative organization, would suffice to develop all types of libraries into an interconnected network.

Ontario Public Libraries: The Provincial Role in a Triad of Responsibilities, 1982

Ontario Public Libraries: The Provincial Role in a Triad of Responsibilities. The Report of the Ontario Public Libraries Programme Review for the Minister of Citizenship and Culture. Toronto: Ministry of Citizenship and Culture, 1982. Executive Co-Ordinator, Peter J. Bassnett. Tables and appendices; xxxiii, 318 pp.

In September 1980, Ontario’s Minister of Culture and Recreation (MCR), Reuben Baetz, met with the Ontario Public Library Council (OPLC) to announce a two-year Public Libraries Programme Review (OPLPR). Scarborough’s chief librarian, Peter Bassnett, would be the director and work with a small intermediary group at the outset to plan the review process. Since 1975 he had been chief librarian at Scarborough. Before this appointment, he had managed systems at North York and worked in the UK for many years. The Minister believed a positive approach with abundant consultation would improve the delivery of library services throughout Ontario. The 1970s had been a time of controversy about the role of regional library services, the accountability of library boards, disputes with municipal authorities, the funding provided for libraries by the provincial government, and dissenting viewpoints about policies for future planning. A previous report on provincial libraries by Albert Bowron in 1975 had produced much discussion but no significant legislative changes. Revised public library legislation was the major objective because the older statute, enacted in 1966, had not proved to be as effective as originally expected.

The Ontario Public Libraries Programme Review

The OPLPR established fifteen groups in search of consensus and solutions for many contentious issues. Some groups explored general provincial concerns: policy and social purpose (1), general delivery of services (2), governmental liaison (3), provincial financing and accountability (4), and field services (5). Task groups on planning and development for technological potential (6), electronic information (13), and co-operatives and processing centres (15) addressed technical and networking questions. Special considerations for northern Ontario (7), publishing and libraries (12), and access to resources (14) required separate groups. Finally, four groups studied cultural identities and services for French languages (8), Native services (9), multicultural programs (10), and disabled persons (11). Each group was responsible for a report to Peter Bassnett, who was charged with publishing a final report. In addition, Bassnett held 20 open sessions for discussion and received 368 briefs encompassing a wide variety of issues.

The OPLPR sets its course for a year-and-a-half with the knowledge that the Progressive Conservatives under William Davis had finally secured a majority government in a March 1981 election. Four years would be sufficient to develop new legislation for libraries. The OPLPR submitted seventy-five recommendations by August 1982. By then, there was a new Minister, Bruce McCaffrey, in charge, and, earlier in the year, in February 1982, the MCR had become the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture, with its Library and Community (MCZC) Information Branch relocated in the Arts, Heritage and Libraries division.

The OPLPR report, Ontario Public Libraries: The Provincial Role in a Triad of Responsibilities, was issued, mostly in microfiche to the consternation of many, by autumn 1982 for review by library boards, politicians, and librarians. The Bassnett report made clear-cut statements that cut across the entire spectrum of public library services. It found that the current provincial role performed by the LCIB or OPLC was deficient (p. 68–71). The Report indicated more specific legislation and guidelines were required (p. 93). Lack of awareness about the LCIB and OPLC and their inadequate authority had stalled communication and led to ineffectual provincial leadership. A strengthening of provincial direction within the Ministry through an enlarged staff component to plan and liaise with the library community was essential. A Public Library Services Division and a new advisory body would be required (rec. 7.72 and 7.73). Other recommendations for increased staff for data collection, French-language service, networking, services for disabled persons, aboriginal services, multicultural activity, management, and training responsibilities (p. 168–187) would permit the MCZC to deal with policies that it brought forward. Some ideas originated from background studies or were influenced by general developments such as the 1981 United Nations International Year of Disabled Persons theme ‘Full Participation and Equality.’ Assistance for non-professional staff, mostly untrained persons in charge of small libraries, was an important issue, the subject of one lengthy submission from an ad hoc group of consultants. In one case, the Task Force on Native Services, the main thrust urging the formation of a Council to oversee library services for natives at an estimated $290,000, was disregarded because the group insisted on working outside the framework of the LCIB. The OPLPR’s recommendations on northern Ontario conditions mostly bypassed the ideas from Task group 15 headed by Richard Jones, director of North Central region.

During the Programme Review, the regional role—now retitled the intermediary role—was gradually reshaped. A Network Development Office was transferred to the Ministry offices in July 1981 and some LCIB staff worked on a provincial study of union products for resource sharing in regional systems. The OPLPR was wary of multiple regional processing centres and bibliographic databanks. Task force 15 had recommended the Midwestern Region centre become a Crown Corporation. Instead, the OPLPR (p. 164–167) followed the Ministry’s internal report that recommended further study of Midwestern’s possibilities. A new path was clarified: automation and cooperative area networks were to become local level responsibilities supplemented with planning and financial assistance offered by the Province. Centralized regional acquisitions and processing utilities would no longer receive support. The Programme Review recommended intermediary involvement with basic services, such as rotating book collections, staff training, special collections, reference centres, programming for groups, and direct service to municipally unorganized populations. Some briefs authored by administrative groups emphasized long-standing issues such as resource libraries and centralized processing, but these positions were not conclusive. The key point was the Review’s statement that the intermediary role “is an extension of the Provincial Government’s responsibility and role in the delivery of public library services across Ontario” and that there were currently three types of regional service, “the northern, southern, and Metropolitan Toronto area” (p. 147–148). Northern distinctions warranted more proactive provincial library intermediaries. The southern systems were more complex, so the Review recommended a gradual phase-in over five years to one provincial agency with field offices, starting with Southwestern, Lake Erie, and Niagara (p.154–159). Metro Toronto required amendments to the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto Act to repeal the Metro Library Board’s status as a regional library system and to authorize more sitting Metro Council members for the upper-level board. Provincial funding for the Metro Board would need an examination to determine what special purposes the province wanted to accomplish with its legislative payments (p. 160–164).

At the local level, the OPLPR made forty-two recommendations clarifying functions and management. Several recommendations would eventually make their way into the revised Library Act almost three years later in 1985. In place of standards, boards should embark on community analysis; boards should provide services their communities desired or needed; legislation for free entry to libraries and use of materials should be enacted; and services for particular groups (e.g., the disabled and Francophones) should be augmented with provincial assistance. Capital funds should be made available because only a few libraries had shared in the brief Wintario capital construction program in the late 1970s before the government redirected it to other purposes. Funding from programs such as Wintario and the Board of Industrial Leadership was important but episodic. Special funding for the creation of county-regional municipal systems and enrichment of per capita grants to northern libraries was a desideratum. Some recommendations addressed the composition of boards and their relationship with appointing bodies by affording municipal councils more control. The century-old traditional board of nine members, with the majority composed of public and separate school appointees from larger county school boards, was a leftover from the 1960s restructuring of school authorities. Now, municipal councils should make all the appointments (p. 116). In summarizing the provincial conditional grant to libraries, the Review found little change over ten years: the 1971 grant had totalled $8,552 million (20% of total support), and in 1981, $25,279 million (19% of total support). The Bassnett report recommended continuing payment of annual grants directly to boards. On the issue of non-operating boards, currently in 136 communities, the Report recommended the grant be paid only if municipal revenue matched its grant (p. 132–135). This policy, along with the promotion of larger units of service in counties and upper-tier municipalities, had the potential to halve the total number of boards.

The Bassnett report concluded by drafting a policy statement regarding public library service (p. 188–192). Ultimately, provincial goals should be:
▪ provision of public library legislation ensuring deww access and delivery of services;
▪ encouragement and support for municipal libraries;
▪ ensuring library collections reflect the population characteristics of their jurisdictions;
▪ encouragement and assistance for technological changes;
▪ development of a province-wide public information utility by networking municipal libraries; and
▪ provision of funding and staff support to achieve these goals.

The cost of expanding provincial support was not expensive: Task Group 4 estimated a 10.5% increase from $25.7 million to $28.5 million (p. 194). At the former regional levels, expenses could be reduced by 40 percent and be redirected to augment the proposed public library service division. In terms of the Public Libraries Act, the OPLPR recommended a complete overhaul. In response to the OPLPR, Bruce McCaffrey announced at the November 1982 Ontario Library Association conference in Toronto that his Ministry preferred to issue a ‘green paper’ for more discussion without any specific commitment to action, A Foundation for the Future/Réalitiés et Perspectives. This ‘green paper,’ released in December 1982, would form the basis for legislative changes. In February 1983, Wil Vanderelst, from the MCZC policy secretariat, became the new director of the LCIB, now shifted to the Ministry’s Culture and Regional Services Division. While the Ontario Public Libraries report had sought consensus on many issues, in fact, its author, Peter Bassnett, expressed dissatisfaction with the ‘green paper’ in the Toronto Star in May 1983. He felt many of his recommendations had been passed over or modified. Such was the fate of many recommendations in the OPLPR: finding consensus in the library community was an uncommonly difficult task.

Programme Review Outcomes

There were, however, positive outcomes of the OPLPR. Municipal councils gained more control over library board appointments, thus ending a decade-long struggle. Free access to a variety materials became an important feature of new legislation enacted in 1985. The Province reiterated its support for conditional grants paid directly to library boards. The conflict and confusion about regional library boards was reduced when the province took control of southern and northern ‘intermediary’ services and began to deliver targeted policies, such as Francophone concerns, disabled programs, and improved service to indigenous communities. The review, which appeared at the same time when ‘turnkey systems’ were beginning to provide integrated solutions for library functions, proposed extensive automation projects be supported by provincial studies (p. 166). The idea of equalization of services addressed on large geographic scale came firmly into play. In fact, after almost four decades, very few changes have been made to the original 1984–85 legislation; again, one of the accomplishments that may be traced to the Bassnett report.

Two Canadian films about bookmobiles: Roads to Reading and Journey from Zero

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 now 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, the province 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 of more than 50 percent by the provincial treasury. A Provincial Library Service was established to encourage and assist the formation and operation of new regions. Despite the progress of the 1950s, there were still many areas, e.g., the area surrounding Halifax and Dartmouth, that remained outside regional services. Regions served about half the population of the province through 31 branches, schools, and bookmobiles.

Alberta Letts, the Director of the Provincial Library centred at Halifax, was an energetic leader who was not reluctant to try any measure to promote and form new regions. In concert with the Nova Scotia Film Bureau, a short documentary of how regional services could benefit Nova Scotians was introduced in 1958. It became a beneficial aid at local meetings and indeed gained some prominence across Canada, in part due to the remarkable efforts of two librarians. Alberta Letts was finishing her 1957–58 term as President of the Canadian Library Association, and another regional director at Cape Breton, Ruby Wallace, would assume the presidency of CLA in 1962–63.

Roads to Reading a Film on Public Libraries in Nova Scotia 1958

Roads to Reading was a short feature designed to offer a glimpse of everyday regional library work. At the outset, viewers see an Annapolis Valley bookmobile stop where people exchange books and pick up popular reading. The bookmobile serves fishing villages and farms alike with 1,500 books. Its services radiate out from a central staging point where books are sorted and selected for distribution. The film gives an overview of all the regional operations including branches at Glace Bay, Tatamagouche, and Reserve Mines where the branch memorializes Father Jimmy Tompkins’ efforts to introduce library services and promote adult education starting in the 1930s. Smaller places, such as the Air Force Station Greenwood, a post office, and even a bank vault, give a sense of community resourcefulness in supplying reading materials for all ages. The city of Halifax was an interesting case that served a single municipality through its well-resourced central library. Even the Legislative Library was part of the network of libraries serving Nova Scotians. The film’s concluding minutes provide a “how to” synopsis about forming a regional system from local committees, municipalities, and the final authorization by the provincial government. “Reading is always in season,” explains the narrator as the bookmobile disappears down a sunny roadway.

Journey from Zero a Film about Bookmobile Service in British Columbia 1961

Journey from Zero is less didactic and its quality ensured by the NFB production standards. In many ways, this film is a travelogue—a visit to Canada’s northern areas in British Columbia where books and reading are a welcome commodity to miners, forest workers, aboriginals, military personnel, seasonal tourists, and maintenance workers living along the Alaska Highway. JFZ’s director, Roger Blais, was an experienced NFB filmmaker who would later become the head of audiovisual production for Expo 67. The film begins at the Dawson Creek library, which is mile zero. Here a small book van is stocked with books for delivery to remote communities. These books are a free service from the British Columbia Library Commission operating from the Peace River Co-operative Library formed in 1952. Over the course of two weeks, the journey will take the van about 900 miles north as far as Whitehorse.

The librarian, Howard Overend, wrote about his experience in his book published in 2001, The Book Guy: A Librarian in the Peace: “The acting for Journey from Zero was minimal and without speaking parts. There was to be, Roger said, a voice-over in the film so all we had to do was to simulate our usual mobile library work: driving, carrying in the books, meeting the teachers and pupils, showing books to community librarians and so on.” The first stop came at mile 295—a military fire hall station in Muskwa, a now decommissioned armed forces garrison. Then on to Fort Nelson to a library located in a motel office manned by a volunteer. At mile 392, the small van reached Summit Lake, the highest point on the Alaska Highway, where a school housed a small collection of books. At the Liard River, miles 496, the van takes a short side trip for a swim in the hot springs, offering a welcome relief from the tedium of driving and traversing narrow roadways. Then on to Cassiar, a small settlement which is today a ghost town due to closure of an asbestos mine, and finally, Atlin, a small community created during the gold rush era. At this point, the van moves into the Yukon to visit Whitehorse, where a proposed regional library system was in development. The van has travelled about 900 miles and it is time to return home. The film closes with the idea that the world of literature is available to the world of mountains and forests in the farthest reaches of British Columbia, the Peace and Northern Rockies districts.

During the 1960s, these two films publicized the idea of bringing books to people through organized regional services. Alberta Letts went on to form five new regional library systems in Nova Scotia during the 1960s. Unfortunately, she died in a car accident in 1973. Howard Overend continued in the Peace district until the early 1970s until he left to become director of the Fraser Valley Regional Library and for a short time the Territorial Director for Yukon in the early 1980s. He passed away in 2017. Roger Blais was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000.

 Roads to Reading can be viewed on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhmrRFG7CY

Journey from Zero can be viewed at the National Film Board site: https://www.nfb.ca/film/journey-from-zero/

Howard Overend’s personal account is in The Book Guy (Victoria, B.C: TouchWood Editions, 2001), pp. 202–207.

 

REGIONAL LIBRARY SYSTEMS IN ONTARIO, 1965-1985

The new 1966 Public Libraries Act formed the structure for rapid, and conflicting, developments into the mid-1980s when this act was greatly modified. This was an era of continuous change in local government at a period of time when municipal regional government replaced older county structures. Expanded provincial jurisdiction over municipalities in Ontario became common. As well, federal/provincial centennial financing--$38.7 million net cost in Ontario--became available to assist the largest construction program since the Carnegie grant era. Almost seventy public library buildings were renovated or constructed in Ontario on a cost-shared basis with municipalities. The 1966 Act modernized local board structures and funding. As well, the Act introduced quasi-independent regional library systems governed by trustees in an effort to equalize services and coordinate planning across cities, towns, older counties and districts in Ontario.

The entire philosophy and administrative apparatus of library service were in flux. Living and Learning, a 1968 report, proposed integrating school and public libraries: it was received coolly in the public library sector. In 1972, the Provincial Library Service (PLS) in Toronto was transferred from the Department of Education to the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, partly to reinforce efforts in the field of continuing education. Provincial library board grants were doubled and a report, The Learning Society, followed. However, within two years libraries were shifted to a new Ministry of Culture. These administrative changes were made without extensive studies or preparations and reinforced a sense of drift towards recreational library services.

Throughout this turbulent period, the size of the PLS remained mostly unchanged and it continued to publish communication pieces in the Ontario Library Review and also added In Review; Canadian Books for Young People in summer 1967. In Review was edited by Irma (McDonough) Milnes, who later helped create the Canadian Children's Book Centre in 1976. To signal a new beginning, provincial travelling libraries were phased out and certification for librarians ended in 1972. Gradually, the PLS mandate was shifted to coordination through fourteen regional systems rather than inspection and supervision. Although the new regional systems did not normally directly serve Ontarians (except Metro Toronto and the northern regions that provided books and services) provincial aid to these bodies increased from $67,000 in 1959 to $8,384,000 in 1981. By 1980, 99% of Ontarians had direct access to municipal tax-supported public library service.

Year    Population 000s    Population Served 000s    Circulation 000s    Volumes 000s
1965         6,788                     5,303                                  44,736               10,060
1970         7,551                     6,667                                  50,277               12,495
1975         8,172                     7,937                                  53,128               17,645
1980         8,754                     8,524                                  56,917               23,291
Table I: Public library expansion, 1965-80 (Sources: Ontario Library Review, Public Library Statistics, and Report of the Minister of Education)

After 1970, total expenditures (both municipal and provincial) rose rapidly as well, although inflation accounted for more a major portion of this increase in the following table.

Year    Library Boards*    Population Served 000s    Expenditure** 000s    Per Capita Expenses
1960          309 (201)                  4,178                               $ 10,442                 $ 2.50
1965          311 (220)                  5,303                                  17,888                    3.37
1970          347                           6,667                                  39,172                    5.88
1975          463                           7,937                                  80,979                   10.20
1980          546                           8,524                                 139,009                  16.31

* Association libraries in brackets (abolished in 1966)
** does not include provincial library agencies, e.g. regional systems
Table II: Public library boards and expenditures, 1960-80 (Sources: Ontario Library Review, Public Library Statistics, and Report of the Minister of Education)

Regionalization of library services in the province presented opportunities to provide improved services and new ways to achieve them. But, on balance, the record of the 1970s was mixed. The 14 library regions had differing resources and financial bases to work with. They were successful in instituting better communication patterns, e.g. telex, that aided inter-library loan. Metro Toronto created a centralized metropolitan reference collection by assuming Toronto Public Library's reference collection in 1968 and eventually opening a much-heralded central reference library in 1977. Two regions, Niagara and Midwestern, developed centralized processing operations where publishers' books could be displayed, purchased, and catalogued at greater discounts but Niagara was forced to close at the end of 1979 due to debt. Three northern regions created a computer produced book catalogue of holdings for users. Across Ontario, regional film "pools" and union catalogues of audio-visual resources were created for local libraries, groups, and individuals to access programs and entertainment that proved popular.

But, by the mid-1970s, there were signs of discontent and the province funded the “Bowron Report” to investigate options. Unfortunately, consensus on its main recommendations could not be achieved and with the Niagara closure the provincial minister in charge of public libraries decided to embark on a thorough multi-year study of regional systems and public library service. Eventually, in 1984 a new Public Libraries Act was passed to take effect for 1985. It reduced the number of regions, standardized their services, and shifted their focus to networking and technological improvements without making direct major changes to local services. Rather than quasi-independent boards operating regions, the province introduced eight Ontario Library Service areas and retained control and funding for these.

The long-term review and introduction of a new Act came at a time--the late 1970s and early 1980s--when automation and telecommunications were beginning to transform the way library service was delivered to the public and the way in which books and periodicals were published. The Random House Electronic Thesaurus first appeared in 1981 and already, from 1977 on, the full-text of the Toronto Globe and Mail was available in database form when it became the first newspaper to publish electronically and in print on the same day. In libraries, computerized output was becoming a viable alternative to the traditional card catalogue. Indeed, the PLS was actively investigating computer applications and networking in Ontario through an office established at the Metro Toronto Library by the regional systems.

The potential of computer-based information technologies on library resources and library administrative functions (especially circulation, cataloguing, and communication) were studied extensively for the subsequent half-decade. This activity signaled the end of librarians’ and trustees’ preoccupation with administrative units of service and the need to extend services to unserved populations. Instead, they were obliged to reconsider the status of non-print collections as "secondary" in budgeting and planning and to prepare for an automated future. In 1980 it was quite possible to speculate on “electronic libraries,” as Henry Campbell, Toronto's chief librarian (1956-78) did, but, by 1985, when the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture sponsored a provincial symposium, "Libraries 2000," new technological possibilities were becoming practical realities. The dominance of print culture, which Marshall McLuhan had challenged in the 1960s, was in decline and electronic modes of communication on the rise. Regional telex equipment had forged links in the 1970s, but now fax and electronic networks connected by computer workstations in offices and homes were transforming ideas about the delivery of library services. Libraries could not escape this trend: both the Ontario Library Review and In Review ceased publication in 1982.

Between 1965 and 1985 there were many changes in public administration, technology, demographics, economic development, and social conventions, but the idea of improving modern library service and distribution reading and literature to the reading public, developing bibliographic systems and information, and making librarians important elements in linking citizens with information, remained constant in Ontario’s “public library community.” Progressive changes in the model of service to communities, advances in technology, the growth of the liberal “welfare state” in the public services sector, multiculturalism, and bilingualism, had provided the framework for library promoters to innovate and adapt in Ontario. Across Canada, new directions were clear by the third quarter of the twentieth century: as libraries united in cooperative efforts to share resources and to apply automation in daily operations the old relationship with printed resources were in decline and the electronic future raised many new challenges that required further study and action.

My blog on the Bowron Report, 1976

My blog on the Ontario Public Library Programme Review (1982) that formed the basis for the new public libraries act enacted in 1985.