Canadian Library History Blog

There are many enthusiastic Lucy Maud fans and scholars across the world, and the recent University of Guelph library's Montgomery conference held last weekend (Oct. 24 - 27) was a great success. What many people do not know about is the library's connections with Montgomery here in Ontario. After she moved to Swansea (now Toronto) in 1935, she became a library trustee on the local library committee, the Swansea Memorial Free Public Library, which had been formed after WWI. Unfortunately, this coincided to some extent with Montgomery's later years, which often saw her slip into a depressed state for some time (e.g., she really did not make many entries in her famous journal after the start of WWII). She did not write about libraries .... unfortunately for us. As a trustee, Montgomery would have been responsible for attending regular meetings, reviewing finances, approving book purchases, etc., in the small Swansea operation. But there is another connection as well....

Earlier this year, I posted an article by A.S. Popowich, “The Politics of Public Library History,” Dalhousie Journal of Information and Management, v. 3, no. 1 (Winter 2007), to the older Libraries Today website at the University of Guelph. The author discusses a number of interesting theories about the early development of public libraries and their fundamental societal mission and value. Web 2.0 is mentioned too, for after all, perhaps ideas circulating in the virtual world could be related to those in print culture. There are a few points I would like to investigate, but first a couple of corrections. The article ranges “far and wide” on the critical theory side and might attract or repel library historians of various persuasions on this score. But what got my attention were two points where the author misconstrues things. First, in summarizing Robert V. Williams’ 1981 article in the Journal of Library History 16 (2) 1981, 327-36 on “The Public Library as Dependent Variable” (JLH i...

From 'Libraries Today' to a blog space for Canadian Library History! At last: a more convenient way to post information, reviews, and comments about Canadian library history. Maintaining a website for ten years while standards change from HTML to XHTML or XML, etc., can be very exacting. The development of weblogs or blogs over the past three years has been very impressive -- in fact, I was considering changing my old site, "Libraries Today," into a blog for some time. Technology may change again -- blogs may go the way of the old BBS services of the late 80s and early 90s. For now, I will try to post ideas, etc., about Canadian library history, or even general library history, via a blog rather than trying to further develop the old Libraries Today further. Why have a blog on Canadian History? There is a concern with contemporary political, administrative, economic, and social issues that are relevant to library history. What influence does the study of the ...