In February 2007, I made a presentation on the common school library system that Egerton Ryerson established for Canada West (after 1867 Ontario) after he became Superintendent of Education in 1844. Ryerson, of course, is considered to be the founder of the Ontario school system and a leading Canadian figure in 19th-century education. And he is also a central figure in the development of ‘free’ public libraries in Canadian history. Before Ryerson launched his library scheme in 1853, subscription libraries created to serve specific groups dominated the public space across the southern part of C ..read more

 Public Libraries and Marxism by Joe Pateman and John Pateman. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. 119 p., indexed. Public libraries offer an amazing range of information and services in Western society, but to what end? Library organizations and librarians mainly focus on the functional aspects of library services and professional activity while ignoring power relationships and the institutional framework of libraries within society. Public Libraries and Marxism analyzes the public library from a Marxist perspective by challenging our conventional liberal-democratic views that focus m ..read more

Citizen Participation in Library Decision-Making: The Toronto Experience edited by John Marshall. Metuchen, New Jersey: School of Library Service, Dalhousie University in association with the Scarecrow Press, 1984. p. 392., illus. and maps. In the early 1970s, reform-minded politicians began to dominate the old city of Toronto council. Strong mayors, such as David Crombie (1972-78) and John Sewell (1978-80), as well as new city councilors were concerned with the direction of urban development, expanded social services, and transparency in politics. They believed community initiatives and citi ..read more

One Place to Look; The Ontario Public Library Strategic Plan. Prepared by the Ontario Public Library Strategic Planning Group. Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Culture and Communications, 1990. 68 p., illus. Also published in French with title: Une voie d'accès à l'information. Soon after the passage of the seminal Public Libraries Act in 1985 by the Progressive Conservative government in Ontario, provincial library planners in the Ontario Library Association (OLA) began focusing on information policy and strategic planning in 1987. The strategic plans which the newly formed provincially-funded O ..read more

Pour un système cohérent de bibliothèques au Canada français by Raymond Tanghe. Montréal: Fides, 1952, 38 p. Le bibliothécariat by Raymond Tanghe. Montréal: Fides, 1962. 117 p. Raymond Tanghe (portrait at right c.1962) was born in France in 1898 and came to Canada in 1920 after serving in the French army during the First World War. He was an academic by choice and earned a PhD at the Université du Montréal in 1928.  His professional writings were in human and economic geography, especially urban planning, at the l’École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal in the 1930s. He became ..read more

 Public Libraries and Marxism by Joe Pateman and John Pateman. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. 119 p., indexed. Public libraries offer an amazing range of information and services in Western society, but to what end? Library organizations and librarians mainly focus on the functional aspects of library services and professional activity while ignoring power relationships and the institutional framework of libraries within society. Public Libraries and Marxism analyzes the public library from a Marxist perspective by challenging our conventional liberal-democratic views that focus m ..read more

Libraries of Metropolitan Toronto: A Study of Library Service Prepared for the Library Trustees’ Council of Toronto and District. By Ralph Robert Shaw. Toronto: Library Trustees’ Council of Toronto and District, 1960. Illustrated, pp. 98. In the late 1950s, there were thirteen library boards serving the metropolitan area of Toronto. One board, Toronto, served 658,000 people. Twelve adjacent boards served 742,000. More centralized regional service for police and other area concerns had formed after the creation of a Metropolitan government in 1953 through a provincial act. A few years later, in ..read more

Library Service in New Brunswick: A Report and Recommendations by Peter Grossman. Fredericton: New Brunswick Department of Education, 1953. 62 p., maps, illus. Peter Grossman, c.1953   For many years in the first part of the 20th-century, public library service lagged in the province of New Brunswick; however, in 1951 a provincial Library Association was established with Maurice Boone, the chief librarian of the Legislative Library and formerly librarian of Acadia University, elected as President. The Association pressed government officials to improve public library services ..read more

St John, (Francis R.) Library Consultants, Inc. Ontario Libraries: A Province-Wide Survey and Plan, 1965. Toronto: Ontario Library Association, 1965. 182 p. At the beginning of the 1960s, Ontario’s public schools, universities, governments, and special libraries were trying to cope with a rapidly growing population, changing technology, and staff shortages. The Department of Education had made a few incremental improvements after the Wallace Report of 1957, but leaders in the library sector expected more effective planning and financial support from Queen’s Park. When William Davis, the Conse ..read more

Report on Provincial Library Service in Ontario by W. Stewart Wallace. Toronto: Ontario Department of Education, January 1957. 62 p. with six appendices published between 1944–55. By the early 1950s, the plans originally made for postwar library reconstruction ideas were only partially achieved in Ontario and Canada. Passage of the National Library Act of 1952 and the official recognition of W. Kaye Lamb as National Librarian were the most successful endeavours. After 1945, the Ontario Library Association (OLA) relied on briefs and presented development plans based on ideas prevalent during ..read more