Digital Documents in Canadian Library History

Libraries Today intends to provide important documents pertaining to the history of Canadian libraries and librarians in e-text format. Already, there are a number of other sources that have provided original sources that can be used to study the development of libraries from coast to coast. A number of documents bear on public library history in Ontario, but this is not the main focus of the project. Please take time to view the documents and send comments to Libraries Today at the address below and, of course, submit your own suggestions for digitization.

Canadian Resources Early Canadian Online: "The Niagara Library, 1800-1820" by Janet Carnochan [read at the Canadian Institute 6 Jan. 1894] and the Catalogue de la bibliothèque de l'Institut canadien de Québec, 1898. National Library of Canada: the Massey report on the establishment of a National Library in "The Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences 1949-1951."

Libraries Today electronic texts New documents will be posted in various digital formats. In some cases, Adobe Acrobat images may be available, scanned documents in HTML format will be offered, and gif or jpeg images of print doucments. The following documents are available for viewing: the 1851 Actto Provide Mechanics' Institutes and Library Association in the Province of Canada (now Ontario and Quebec); the Free Libraries Act, 1882 passed by the Legislature of Ontario; Ontario Library Association Constitution adopted in 1901; "A Plea for a National Library" by Lawrence J. Burpee published by the University Magazine in February 1911; British Columbia's Public Libraries Act, 1919which introduced the concept of a library commission to Canada [PDF file requires Adobe Acrobat Reader] Constitution of Canadian Library Association, adopted in 1947 the concluding chapter of Libraries in Canada, A Study of Library Conditions and Need, p.137-45, published in 1933 by Ryerson Press and ALA