A National Library for Canada; A Brief Presented to the Government of Canada, December 1946

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, which was presented to the federal government on 27 January 1947, signalled a new approach to establishing a national library. Previous efforts had emphasized the construction of a new facility, the collection of books, and the growth of national libraries of other countries. The 1946 Joint Brief recommended a different course of action:

The main argument of this Brief is that, while a great building is probably not possible at this stage, it is not necessary to wait for a building to establish the National Library for Canada and that, in fact, the ultimate building will be more satisfactorily planned if the National Library is brought into being first.
The Brief therefore asks that a committee or board be set up now to investigate the practical possibilities of starting such services as the Brief suggests . . . . (p. 3)

The emphasis on a service role was a pragmatic decision based on a recognition that the Dominion government under Mackenzie King was not likely to fund an expensive building and pay for its upkeep and expansion in a postwar setting that prioritized jobs and a transition to a peacetime economy. Instead, temporary quarters could be utilized until conditions were more favourable. Accordingly, the Brief requested that a committee or group responsible to a cabinet minister (or a committee of ministers) study the matter and report back with recommendations for action. By this time, the Canadian Library Association had been formed in 1946, headed by its first President, Freda Waldon, the chief librarian of the Hamilton Public Library. She was concerned with prioritizing CLA’s efforts and had decided to focus on the service components of a National Library, especially its bibliographical potential.

Freda Farrell Waldon, n.d.

The other learned societies also agreed to this direction. A National Library for Canada set forth the various functions of such a library, its national benefits, and future proposals for implementation and investigation. Several documents and supporting resolutions were appended to the Joint Brief to expand various points of interest. A few essential functions were presented under three succinct heading: (1) a centre of research; (2) national services; and (3) international obligations.

As a research centre, the Library would cooperate with the Public Archives, National Art Gallery, National Museum, National Research Council and other institutions to preserve and organize the use of all records of the country. A comprehensive collection would involve deposit legislation and copyright amendments.

As a national service, the Library would perform four essential functions. To coordinate existing library resources, creating a bibliographical centre based on a union catalogue was the first step. In this way, books could be made available through lending or copying. A national bibliography could compile lists of government documents and issue a catalogue of all books published in Canada and about the country, and books authored by Canadians. Thirdly, the Library could prepare and circulate exhibitions showing the achievements of Canadians. Finally, the Library could provide technical services to libraries “in the fields of cataloguing and classification [that] would not only save time in every library in Canada but raise standards, increase efficiency and help to ensure uniformity of practice.”

As a national government agency dealing with international issues, the Library would keep abreast of international bibliography, facilitate international loans, and communicate with other national libraries.

The fundamental benefits of a National Library were presented in more succinct detail. The Library would be a centre of intellectual life in Canada: it would guarantee that the country’s history would be preserved, and signify the importance of literary endeavors and contributions by publishers to Canadian life. Its activities would energize library work across the nation.

In recommending the formation of a committee to study these issues, the Joint Brief proposed that the study committee should consider the following points (p. 14):
1. The general organization and function of the National Library;
2. The most desirable form for a permanent advisory body;
3. Necessary legislation, including amendments to the Copyright Act; and
4. The immediate services to be instituted, with estimates of costs.

The idea that a National Library could begin as an information bureau and bibliographical centre was a practical proposal that made implementation easier and less financially stressful for the federal government. Services could be introduced, “Then, step by step, as one service after another is instituted, the National Library will grow and develop and when the time comes to erect a great building the living organization will be there, ready to occupy it.”

Federal Government Action to Establish a National Library

The government’s initial response to the Joint Brief took some time, but after more than a year, in May 1948, the House of Commons referred the National Library proposal to the Joint Committee of the Library of Parliament. This Committee reported in short order, in June, that as a first step toward the creation of a National Library the planning of a Bibliographical Centre should proceed. In September 1948, Dr. W. Kaye Lamb was appointed Dominion Archivist with authority to prepare the way for the Library.

In November, the government made appointments to a National Library Advisory Committee to assist Dr. Lamb. A year-and-a-half later, on 1 May 1950, the Canadian Bibliographic Centre came into existence on the first floor of the Public Archives building. By 1951, the Centre was publishing a bilingual national bibliography entitled Canadiana and establishing a union catalogue by photographing thousands of catalogue cards.

After almost a half century of debate, incrementalism had triumphed as the key to forming a Canadian national library. When the Massey Commission studied the issue of a national library and issued its report in 1951, a number of meaningful ideas advanced in the Joint Brief were already underway.

Further Reading:

A National Library for Canada; A Brief Presented to the Government of Canada by The Canadian Library Association/Association Canadienne des Bibliotheques, The Royal Society of Canada, The Canadian Historical Association, The Canadian Political Science Association, and The Social Science research Council of Canada, December 1946, is available online at Library and Archives Canada as a submission to the Massey Commission.

My blog on a subsequent brief by CLA to the federal government in 1949 concerning the national library is at this link.

A National Library by Elizabeth Dafoe (1944)

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 brief to Ottawa by the Canadian Library Association and other national organizations. At the federal level, there was support for a National Library by politicians such as Paul Martin, Sr., a prominent progressive Liberal MP from the Windsor area, and a few other Members as well.

Elizabeth Dafoe and the Need for a National Library 1944  

 Dafoe’s appeal for a national library expressed her concern that libraries should be an integral part of the country’s postwar fabric. They were institutions that could preserve and make available the historical record of many ideas, events, and personages giving Canadians a national identity. Indifference, apathy, or ignorance of Canada’s past or its potential future were failings that could be surmounted if library advocates developed a concerted campaign. Dafoe admitted that library service in Canada was “disjointed and unorganized compared to such service in Great Britain.” In particular, there was no single agency responsible for preserving printed records of the country as a whole or coordinating an effort to assemble these records. But there were solutions at hand. One crucial element in a Dominion-wide plan was the establishment of a national library in Ottawa.

    Dafoe outlined some essential features such as service that would reappear in the years ahead. These ideas were not original, yet her timing when governments were assuming a greater role in society was favourable. Her primary aims for a national library were as follows:
• the primary goal is the collection of all books and pamphlets published in the country or relating to it. This activity would involve the legal deposit right to receive free copies of each book printed or copyrighted in Canada. As well, the acquisition of older or rare books and other publications relating to Canada which were published beyond its borders was an important consideration.
• the national library would be responsible for making its collection available to scholars and students of the country. This would not involve lending the latest works of fiction, but rather important works for serious study and investigation. To achieve this goal, the library would require “proper housing of the collection, adequate recording and administration of it, sufficient space for readers, and a safe and efficient system of delivery to students who are unable to visit the library in person and who cannot obtain the required publications from a library in their vicinity.”
• the creation and maintenance of a national union catalogue of holdings by major libraries. Catalogue listings/locations would be the key to sharing books in the various Ottawa governmental libraries and identifying rare, valuable books across the country. The catalogue would form a reliable system of inter-library loans and greatly assist research.
• the establishment of a photo-duplication section where “photostatic, enlarged photo-print, or microfilm copies of books or articles could be made on request and issued at cost.” As well, assistance in selecting, purchasing, and allocating materials would eliminate duplication in collection building.

    In looking at the actual mechanics of building a national collection, Dafoe turned to the Parliamentary Library, which served Canada’s members of Parliament as a legislative reference library. Its chief, Félix Desrochers, had estimated that about 350,000 books could be moved to form the nucleus of a genuine national library. Cooperation with the Public Archives was also essential. She foresaw the future in a cooperative, networking environment with Ottawa’s national institutions providing leadership for the provinces and major libraries across the country. Dafoe’s plea was not a new vision but one that was argued in a compelling way at a crucial time. Her ideas would reappear in a few years when the Canadian Library Association and four learned societies presented the federal government with a brief, A National Library for Canada, in December 1946.

    In her concluding remarks, Dafoe posted another question: “Is it too much to hope that in time we shall see in Canada a chain of libraries: provincial, regional, and municipal; public, business, university and college; and at the centre, practically and spiritually if not geographically, a great National Library?” The next quarter-century would see positive steps in Canadian library development; but Elizabeth Dafoe died in 1960 before a building housing the national archives and library opened its doors on Wellington Street, a few blocks from Parliament Hill.

Read my biography about Elizabeth Dafoe at this blog site.