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The Electronic HistoryFile: Canadian Library Biographies and Histories

As Canadian libraries develop a presence on the Internet, it is only natural that they will provide historical information about their development and about the people who were instrumental in library work. These histories have the capability of integrating text and graphics and the potential to utilize audio and video. Since 1995, a number of libraries in across Canada have developed historical web content.

The pages collected here represent public, university, college, special, and school library histories as well as biographical information on Canadians that provides substantive historical information.

People

Public Libraries

Academic Libraries

Special  Libraries

Other Histories

People

• Edmonton Public library branches named after Stanley A. Milner and Penny McKee
• Elizabeth Dafoe, chief librarian at the University of Manitoba 1937-60
• William Kaye Lamb, Dominion Archivist (1948-67) and National Librarian (1953-68)
• Bruce Peel, chief librarian at the University of Alberta 1955-82
• Freda Waldon, chief librarian of the Hamilton Public Library 1940-63
• Centennial history of libraries and librarians in Alberta, 1907-2007
• Women in Canadian Librarianship and Bibliography the National Library's exhibit profiling Margaret Beckman, Elizabeth Dafoe, Marie-Claire Daveluy, Sheila Egoff, Marion Gilroy, Adèle de Guerry Languedoc, Jessie Mifflin, Elizabeth Morton, Marie Tremaine, and Freda Waldon

Public Libraries

Alberta | British Columbia | Manitoba | New Brunswick | Newfoundland and Labrador
Yukon and the North West Territories | Nova Scotia | Ontario | Quebec | Saskatchewan

British Columbia

• the Burnaby Public Library dating to 1927
• the Castlegar and District Public Library, opened after WWII
• the Fort St. John Public Library, organized in 1950
• the Fraser Valley Regional Library, Canada's oldest regional library system, est. 1930
• New Westminster Public Library dating to 1865
• the Trail and District Public Library formed in 1925
• the Vancouver Public Library from its origins in 1869

Alberta

• Drayton Valley Municipal Library founded originally in 1957
• the Edmonton Public Library which opened in 1913
• the Grande Prairie Public Library, started 1939
• the Lethbridge Public Library, established in 1911
• a celebration of 100th anniversary of Alberta Libraries Act (1907-2007) of Alberta Public Libraries Act -- slide show

Saskatchewan

• the Estevan Public Library established in 1913
• the Regina Public Library which began operating in 1908
• the Wapiti Regional Library, Saskatchewan's first regional system formed in 1950

Manitoba

• The Cornish branch library, a Carnegie building now part of Winnipeg Public Library
• the Selkirk and St. Andrews Regional Library originally formed in 1901
• the Thompson Public Library, first opened in a school, 1962

Ontario

• the Aurora Public Library which began as a library association in 1855
• the Aylmer library, a branch of Elgin County Library since 1966
• the Barrie Public Library which started as a mechanics' institute in 1854
• the Belleville Public Library, first established in 1851
• the Brantford Public Library dating back to 1835
• the Brockville Public Library dating to 1842
• Burlington Public Library, which began as a school section library open to the public in the 1870s
• the Cambridge Public Library begun in the 1800s as mechanics' institutes in Galt, Preston, and Hespeler
• the Cobourg Public Library which began as a mechanics' institute
• the Collingwood Public Library opened in 1856 as a mechanics' institute
• the County of Simcoe Library, a county library cooperative dating to 1940
• the Dutton-Dunwich library, a branch of the Elgin County Library since 1966
• the Forest Public Library which began as a mechanics' institute in 1871 [now part of Lambton County Library]
• the Guelph Public Library dating to 1832
• the Hamilton Public Library and its forerunners dating to 1832
• the Hawkesbury Public Library, formed in 1963
• the Kitchener Public Library begun as a mechanics' institute in 1854
• outline history of London Public Library which opened in 1895
• the Meaford Public Library founded in 1854
• Milton Public Library, which began as a mechanics' institute in 1855
• the Newmarket Pubic Library, which began as a mechanics's institute
• the North Perth Public Library including Listowell
• the Norwich Public Library [in Oxford County Library], which began as a mechanics' institute in 1876
• the Oakville Public Library, starting as a "village library" in the 1830s
• the Parry Sound Public Library originating in 1885
• the City of Pickering Public Library which began as a mechanics' institute
• the St. Marys Public Library started as a mechanics' institute in 1857
• the St. Thomas Public Library that started as a mechanics' institute in 1873
• Sault Ste. Marie Public Library, which began in 1896 as a mechanics' institute
• Thunder Bay Public Library which began in Fort William and Port Arthur prior to 1900
• Toronto Public Library, established as a free library in 1882, along with neighbouring municipal libraries amalgamated in 1998
• Uxbridge Public Library which became free in 1898
• the Waterloo Public Library which began free in 1887
• the Welland Public Library dating to the formation of a library association in 1825

Quebec

• the library at Alma dating to 1968
• Coaticook Public Library opened in 1958
• Dolbeau Public Library formed in 1954
• the Montreal's Children Library formed in 1929
• Montreal's Atwater Library originally established as a mechanics' institute in 1828
• Quebec City's historic library past beginning in 1848
• Roberval founded in 1976
• Saint-Charles-Borromée founded in 1993
• Saint Félicien founded in 1962

New Brunswick

• the Saint John Free Public Library, Canada's first free municipal library that opened in 1883
• the York Regional Library formed in 1958

Yukon and the North West Territories

• the Carnegie Library at Dawson built in 1903/04
• Inuvik which started in the late 1950s

Nova Scotia

• the development of Nova Scotia Regional Libraries since the 1930s
• the Halifax Regional Library, formed in 1996

Newfoundland and Labrador

• the Provincial Library Board established in 1935

Academic Libraries

Colleges

• College Bibliocentre in Toronto

Universities

• Acadia University library orignally housed in College Hall in the mid-nineteenth century
• Dalhousie University's W. K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library dating to 1864
• McGill University McLennan and Redpath Libraries dating to 1893
• McGill Health Sciences Library established in 1823
• the Douglas Library, opened 1924, at Queen's University
• Université de Moncton Bibliothèque Champlain opened in 1965
• University of British Columbia
• University of Calgary Gallagher Library opened in 1975
• the McPhearson Library at the University of Victoria dating to 1903
• University of Western Ontario Lawson Memorial Library c.1934

Special Libraries: Government and Industry

• Library of Parliament at Ottawa
• the Manitoba Legislative Library dating to 1871
• the New Brunswick Legislative Library
• Ontario Legislative Library
• the Toronto Botanical Garden Library
• The University Health Network Health Sciences Libraries a merger of hospital libraries dating to 1896

Other Histories of Libraries, Library Education and Organizations

• Albert and Temmy Latner Jewish Public Library [Toronto, Ont]
• the Alberta Library Association formed in 1930
• Atlantic Provinces Library Association dating to 1918
• Canadian Library Association founded in 1946
• the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto
• McGill University Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
• Novanet, the network for Nova Scotia post-secondary libraries formed in 1982
• Saskatchewan Library Association dating to 1914
• School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia
• the School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, formed in 1969

Created February 1996 | Suggestions or comments to: Libraries Today | top of this page |