Announcement from the National Library of Canada

Message to Stakeholders — Acquisitions

In May 2009, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) wrote to inform you of a short-term moratorium on purchased acquisitions. Then, in August 2009, we sent another message to advise you that we are in the process of reviewing our approach to the management of Canada’s documentary heritage in order to better meet the needs of today’s society and to remain relevant, trusted, and valued by the Canadian public.

As you know, the information environment has been profoundly transformed with new forms of digital information that challenge all memory institutions to adapt what and how they collect. Due to the overwhelming digital production and the use of social technologies by organizations and individuals, new expectations among users have arisen. That said, LAC must ensure that the documentary heritage the institution acquires and preserves today, whether it is rare books, electronic publications or other essential materials, truly contributes in providing the most accurate picture of Canadian life and that its content is of value to Canadian society in the future.

Therefore, over the past few months, we have been developing a Documentary Heritage Management Framework (DHMF) based on three pillars of documentary heritage: acquisition, preservation and resource discovery. The DHMF will be based on four guiding principles designed to assess the value of acquisitions: Significance, Sufficiency, Sustainability, and Society and on key roles: foundation building, collaboration, program, and transfer.

A preliminary Acquisition Orientation Instrument was developed, to guide our decision making by using standardized criteria and understandings. The purpose of this instrument is to institute a systematic approach to the professional justification of the acquisitions of documentary heritage. At the same time, the intent is to be open to new approaches with other memory institutions. The feedback we have received to date from our stakeholders were factored into the Acquisition Orientation Instrument.

We invite you to consult the Documentary Heritage Management Framework and the Acquisitions Orientation discussion documents at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca and encourage you to provide feedback and comments. Stakeholder consultations are being prepared and your input is needed to further develop this acquisitions approach. Also, please consider either making a link to our website or posting the contents of our discussion documents on your website.

As part of the ongoing exercise of considering new approaches to the management of Canada’s documentary heritage and evaluating the way acquisitions are carried out at LAC, we implemented a short-term moratorium, which will be lifted, effective January 30, 2010. This is allowing us the time to evaluate business practices within LAC’s collections and to fine-tune and prepare the implementation of the new Framework and Orientation.

We would like to thank you for your collaboration during this phase of modernization. LAC values the relationship it has established over the years with you, our stakeholders, clients and suppliers, in providing the most accurate representation of Canadian life for the benefit of present and future generations.

For more information, or if you wish to consult with us on the discussion documents, please contact Chantal Marin-Comeau, Director of Acquisitions at chantal.marin-comeau@lac-bac.gc.ca or 819-997-7003, or with me at doug.rimmer@lac-bac.gc.ca or 819-934-5790.

Doug Rimmer
Assistant Deputy Minister
Documentary Heritage Collection Sector
Library and Archives Canada

Canada’s First National Book Collecting Contest

The National Book-Collecting Contest was created by the Bibliographical Society of Canada to encourage young Canadians to collect books and study the discipline of researching and writing bibliographies. The prizes were awarded to the winning entrants at the Annual General Meeting held in Toronto on Wednesday June 24th. The first prize ($2500) went to Charlotte Ashley for her collection The Works (and Quirks) of Alexandre Dumas pere. The second prize ($1000) winner was Vanessa Brown for her collection The L.M. Montgomery Collection in the Forest City. The third prize ($300) winner was Naseem Hrab for her collection The Complexities of Ordinary Life: Autobiographical Comics and Graphic Novels.

The Bulletin

The Bulletin is published in the spring and fall each year, as the newsletter of the Bibliographical Society of Canada and is distributed to members together with the Papers/Cahiers. Each new issue of the Bulletin will now be made available on the website upon publication. Past issues will be digitized as time permits.

Members wishing to continue to receive the Bulletin in paper form should indicate this on their 2009 membership renewal form.

Tremaine Medal 2009

It is with great pleasure that the Tremaine Medal Committee announces that the medal has been awarded this year to Professor George Parker.

A child of the Maritimes, George L. Parker was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on 10 December 1934, and schooled in Nova Scotia. He attended primary school in Lunenburg from 1940 to 1945, and subsequently finished his elementary and secondary education in Yarmouth. In 1952, he entered Mount Allison University in New Brunswick where he completed an Honours B.A. in English. He next ventured to the United States, undertaking a master’s degree in English at Pennsylvania State University which included a thesis on Canadian literary humour. After finishing his M.A. in 1957, George Parker took on instructional positions, working one year as a high school teacher in Liverpool, Nova Scotia and then lecturing for several years at the University of Saskatchewan. In the early 1960s, he returned to graduate school, where he began a PhD in English at the University of Toronto. It was at Toronto that he embraced Canadian publishing history as a research subject, completing as part of his degree requirements a dissertation that examined the relations between McClelland & Stewart and the Canadian authors published by the company prior to the Second World War.

While a doctoral candidate, George held teaching positions at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Carleton University and University of Toronto. After graduation, he held posts at Queen’s University and Royal Military College (RMC). RMC hired him as an assistant professor in 1969, and once there he steadily rose through the ranks, becoming a Professor in 1982. At RMC, he also held the positions of Chair of the English department from 1986 to 1993 and served as Acting Dean of Arts from 1991 to 1992. Dr. Parker retired from RMC in 1997, and in 2005 the college recognized his achievements by honouring him with the title of Emeritus Professor.

During the course of his career, Dr. George L. Parker has published the groundbreaking monograph The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada (1985) and edited or co-edited five books, including two volumes in the Evolution of Canadian Literature series (1973), a collection of R.E. Watters’ essays and speeches, and the CEECT edition of Thomas Chandler Haliburton’s The Clockmaker, Series One, Two, and Three (1995). In addition, he has authored more than 25 articles and book chapters, and produced approximately 90 entries for printed and online dictionaries and encyclopedias. Dr. Parker is currently refining the manuscript of his forthcoming collection The Publishing Industry in Toronto 1900-1970.