Canadian Library History Blog

Confronting the Democratic Discourse of Librarianship: A Marxist Approach by Sam Popowich. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2019. 322 p. “So long as we are a democracy we need intelligence; so long as we need intelligence in the community we need librarians; so we shall need librarians to the end of Time.” — George H. Locke speaking to university students in Toronto, October 1932. George Locke’s assessment neatly encapsulated the thoughts of the “library community” in Canada, the United States, and Britain in the first part of the 20th century. Today, many people continue to support the belief that public libraries provide beneficial, free, and equal access to resources for everyone in the community they serve. Library historians have also followed this line of reasoning, using the themes of  “temples of democracy,” “cornerstones of liberty,” or “arsenals of democracy.” But are foundational themes in history really so simple? Readers of two classic Marxist histories, such as...

The Ontario Public Library: Review and Reorganization . Prepared for the Ontario Provincial Library Council by Albert W. Bowron. Toronto: Information, Media and Library Planners, December 1975; p. 184; maps; tables; paper. In June 1974, the Ministry of Colleges and Universities approved a provincial research study on Ontario’s public libraries. Albert Bowron, a prominent library consultant, was hired to complete a general investigation. He was well qualified for the task, having worked in Ontario libraries for more than a quarter-century. Bowron had graduated from the University of Toronto Library School in 1949, worked at Toronto Public Library, and headed the Scarborough Public Library in the 1960s before establishing his consultancy in 1969. He was well known across the province, for he had served as president of the Ontario Library Association in 1966–67. By the mid-1970s he had issued reports on more than a dozen library systems in Ontario, large and small. Albert Bowron, 1949 T...

James J. Talman was an archivist, librarian, and professional historian who made many scholarly contributions to Canadian history. He was the Western’s University’s chief librarian from 1947 to 1970. Three of his major works continue to be studied today: Anna Jameson, winter studies and summer rambles in Canada (1943); Loyalist narratives from Upper Canada (1946, reprinted 1969); and The journal of Major John Norton, 1816 (1970). His papers are held in the J.J. Talman Regional Collection at Western’s Weldon Library. The J.J. Talman Library at the Archives of Ontario is a research and reference collection for the general public. His graduate BA portrait is taken from Western’s Occidentalia yearbook in 1926. My biography first appeared on the Ex Libris Association site in 2017. James John Talman Born September 15, 1904, Beira, Mozambique; Died November 21, 1993, London, ON Education: 1925 BA (University of Western Ontario) 1927 MA (University of Western Ontario) 1930 PhD (University ...

Fred Landon was a journalist, librarian, a historian-teacher-administrator at Western University, and an author. After graduating from Western in 1906, he worked at the London Free Press before attaining the post of chief librarian at the London Public Library in 1916. At LPL, he established a local history collection and earned a Master's degree at Western in 1919. Then he became the university’s chief librarian in 1923, a position he held until 1947. During this time, he oversaw the development of the new Lawson Library; as well, he taught in the History Department until 1950. He was President of the Ontario Historical Society, 1926-28, and, in 1948-49, he was President of the newly formed Bibliographical Society of Canada. A branch of the London Public Library on Wortley Road was named in his honour on September 8th, 1955. Landon’s portrait is taken from Western’s 1941 Occidentalia yearbook, p. 117. My biography appeared originally on the Ex Libris Association website in 2017. ...

Gerhard Lomer was born in Montreal in 1882: he was the son of Adolph and Ellen Lomer, a well-to-do business family. In his youth, he spent time in the United States where he made a number of contacts that would further his literary career as an editor for two major American publishing series, the “Warner Library of the World's Best Literature” and “Chronicles of America.” However, his main contribution came in the field of librarianship at McGill University, where he introduced Canada’s first full-time one-year graduate library program in 1927 which was accredited by the American Library Association in 1931. My biography first appeared on the Ex Libris Association site in 2017. Lomer’s portrait appeared in the January 1920 issue of the Canadian Bookman . Gerhard Richard Lomer Born on March 6, 1882, Montreal, QC; died on January 14, 1970, Ottawa, ON Education: 1903 BA (McGill) 1904 MA (McGill) 1910 PhD (Columbia) 1910 Doctors Diploma in Education, Columbia Teacher’s College 1936 Fel...

Project Progress: A Study of Canadian Public Libraries . Prepared for the Canadian Library Association and its division the Canadian Association of Public Libraries by Urban Dimensions Group Inc. Toronto, Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, January 1981. 120 p., ill. Issued in French as: Projet progrès .    My review first appeared with shorter text in Canadian Public Administration vol. 26, no. 2 (June 1983): 315-316 as follows. . . . . . In 1979 the Toronto-based Urban Dimensions Group Inc. was commissioned by the Canadian Library Association to study problems confronting public libraries in Canada. The group’s report, Project Progress , identifies a number of issues affecting libraries in a national context, and offers practical data as well as recommendations to respond to these challenges. Implicit in this survey is a muted call to action. Yet, in the introduction, the CLA Steering Committee members offer a guarded forecast: “the future is before us.” There ar...

For a quarter of a century, from the mid-1930s to 1960, Elizabeth Dafoe was a central figure in the development of the University of Manitoba library in Winnipeg. No less important was her influence in Manitoba and at the national level. Her efforts were noteworthy and led to her selection to represent Western Canadian and academic interests on the wartime Canadian Library Council, which helped secure the successful formation of the Canadian Library Association in 1946. Dafoe’s pan-Canadian interests included the formation of regional libraries, a topic she promoted in wartime publications, and the creation of a National Library in Ottawa. She argued for its establishment in the May 1944 issue of Food for Thought , which is the subject of another of my blogs at this link . She advocated for legal deposit laws and better organizational systems to support serious students. She was President of the Canadian Library Association in 1948-49. From 1953 to 1960, she was a member of the Nationa...