Canada 

Directory Information

 Formal Name:            National Library of Canada
 Name of Librarian:     Marianne Scott
 Address:                    Bibliotheque Nationale du Canada, 395 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON K1A 0N4
 Phone:     (613) 996-1623         Fax:     (613) 996-7941
 E-mail:    reference@nlc-bnc.ca

History

Until the end of World War II, libraries were too few and too weak to lobby for a national library. Postwar developments, among them the formation of the Canadian Library Association (1946) and the findings of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters,  and  Sciences  (1949-51),  led to increased pressure on the federal government to set up a national library.  Kaye Lamb, the Dominion Archivist,  was given responsibility for planning it. In 1953 the National Library came into being. Its chief responsibilities were to compile a national bibliography and a national union catalogue of holdings of major Canadian library collections. Lamb served as both Dominion  Archivist and  National Librarian.  Under the National Library Act of 1951, the Library was given the status of a department reporting to parliament through a minister (in the 1990s the Minister of Communications) .

Until 1967 the National Library staff struggled along in temporary quarters. In that year the Library moved into its own building, shared with the public (now National) Archives. Both institutions have long outgrown the space and have had to transfer holdings
and operations to other buildings in the area or Ottawa, Ontario. and Hull, Quebec, but they still share the main building.

Lamb retired in 1968 and the posts of National Librarian and Dominion Archivist were separated. Guy Sylvestre succeeded Lamb as National Librarian. Under his leadership the National Library Act was revised in 1969 to include legal deposit. The revision spelled out more clearly the National Librarys coordinating role among federal government libraries and its potential for coordinating bibliographic services for the country.

Services

Other national services maintained by the Library include a Canadian Book Exchange Center, the Muitilingual Biblioservice,  and manual and automated reference, information, and advisory services, with emphasis on the Canadiana collections, such as government documents, newspapers, theses, music (sheet music, sound recordings, manuscripts, and papers), children's literature, and literary manuscripcs. A program of exhibitions, cultural events, and publications complements the core activicies.

The Library also coordinates a Cacaloguing-in-publication program and provides secretariats  for advisory groups on services to disabled persons and for federal libraries. The Library Development Center offers a unique information service on Canadian and
foreign library developments.


Sources:

World guide to libraries. New York: Saur, 1998.
World encyclopedia of library and information services. 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association,c1993.