Four Libraries with a Long History
Gatineau, Quebec, November 29, 2004 — This month, the Earth Sciences Information Centre and the libraries of the Canadian Museum of Nature, the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canada Science and Technology Museum mark their 150th anniversary.
On November 10, 1854, the Legislative Assembly Select Committee of the Geological Survey approved an annual budget of £250 (equal to more than C$30,000 today) for the creation and maintenance of a museum and a library. This was the beginning of scientific Canadian library collections which have become irreplaceable national resources in the fields of geosciences, anthropology, natural sciences and the history of science and technology.
It all began in 1842 with the founding of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), in Montréal, under the direction of Sir William Logan. The eminent Canadian scientist and scholar studied and mapped Canada’s geology and it was his personal collection that formed the basis of the GSC Library. Over the ensuing century-and-a-half, the GSC Library evolved into the Earth Sciences Information Centre of Natural Resources Canada, and led to the creation of the libraries at the Canadian Museum of Nature, the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. From 1911 to 1972, the museum libraries (and the GSC Library until 1959) were housed in the Victoria Memorial Museum building in Ottawa, before moving to newer, separate facilities as the museums branched out.
Today, the collections of all four institutions amount to nearly 600,000 titles, including journals, monographs and maps, as well as select rare books and some first editions. They are available to anyone who can visit the libraries on-site, borrow the collections through interlibrary loan, or through the Internet. It is thanks to visionaries such as Sir William Logan, to his successors and to the professionals who staff these libraries that these institutions can collect, preserve and document our country’s heritage for all Canadians.
These great Canadian institutions can be consulted via the Internet at the following addresses:
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Museum: www.civilization.ca
Library catalogue: http://geoweb.civilization.ca:8001
Canadian Museum of Nature
Museum: www.nature.ca
Library catalogue: http://geoweb.nature.ca:8003/
Canada Science and Technology Museum
Museum: www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca
National Resources Canada
Earth Sciences Information Centre
http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/ess/esic/index_e.html
This press release is issued jointly by the four institutions noted above.
Media Information:
Chief, Media Relations
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Tel.: (819) 776-7167
Senior Media Relations Officer
Canadian Museum of Nature
(613) 566-4781
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