McGill University Library is the library system of

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, Canada. It comprises 13 branch libraries, located on the downtown Montreal and Macdonald campuses, holding over 11.78 million items. It is the fourth-largest research intensive academic library in Canada and received an A− from ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

''s 2011 University Report, the highest grade awarded to the library of a large university.

Description

The largest of the branch libraries is the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, which is housed in the McLennan and

Redpath Library Opened in 1893, Redpath Hall was McGill University's first dedicated library building. It is situated at 3461, rue McTavish (3461, McTavish Street). Through numerous renovations, the library was extended to the south with the addition of the Re ...

Buildings. The Humanities and Social Sciences Library has notable collections in

Canadian Studies Canadian studies is an interdisciplinary field of undergraduate- and postgraduate-level study of Canadian culture and society, the languages of Canada, Canadian literature, media and communications, Quebec, Acadians, agriculture in Canada, natura ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

American Literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

British History The British Isles have witnessed intermittent periods of competition and cooperation between the people that occupy the various parts of Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Ireland, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Jersey and t ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and East European Studies, and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The Library'
ROAAr
Group was formed in 2016 to unite Rare Books and Special Collections, The Osler Library of the History of Medicine
The Visual Arts Collection
and Archives and Records Management. Rare Books and Special collections contains holdings on a variety of subjects, including art and architecture, Canadiana, history, literature, the

history of ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histor ...

, travel and exploration, and the history of the book. The

Lawrence Lande Lawrence M. Lande, OC (November 11, 1906 – 1998) was a writer, bibliophile, bibliographer, and collector of books and manuscripts. He donated a book collection of early Canadiana to McGill University. Library and Archives Canada conside ...

Collection of Canadiana consists of 12,000 items, including books, pamphlets, maps, prints, periodicals, government documents, and broadsides. The

Osler Library of the History of Medicine The Osler Library, a branch of the McGill University Library and part of ROAAr since 2016, is Canada's foremost scholarly resource for the history of medicine, and one of the most important libraries of its type in North America. It is located i ...

, in the McIntyre Medical Building, is Canada's foremost scholarly resource in the

history of medicine The history of medicine is both a study of medicine throughout history as well as a multidisciplinary field of study that seeks to explore and understand medical practices, both past and present, throughout human societies. More than just histo ...

, and one of the most important libraries of its type in North America. As of 2011, th
Humanities and Social Sciences Library
and th
Schulich Library of Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Engineering
are open 24/7 in most cases during midterms and finals during the academic year. The

Islamic Studies Library The holdings of the Islamic Studies Library, a branch of the McGill University Library, stand together with those of the Robarts Library of the University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research unive ...

, located in Morrice Hall with the

McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies The McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies and the Islamic Studies Library were established in 1952 by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and since 1983 both have been housed in Morrice Hall on McGill's campus in downtown Montreal, Quebec. McGill's ins ...

that prepares graduate students for M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, is one of the largest collections of its kind in Canada. The McGill University Library's Cyberthèque – a large-scale, multi-purpose information facility – opened its doors to McGill students in 2008. Located in the Redpath Library Building at street level, the "experiential" Cyberthèque blends a diverse range of studying and learning spaces for groups and individuals, various technology and multi-media installations, and timely assistance in accessing and using information. This unique facility was designed by Montréal architect François Emond and his team a
ékm architecture
together with Douglas Birkenshaw, and his team at Bregmann + Hamann from Toronto.

Branch libraries

Se
map
of branch libraries.
Birks Reading RoomHumanities and Social Sciences LibraryBlackader-Lauterman Collection of Architecture and Art
*

Education Curriculum Resource CentreEdward Rosenthall Mathematics and Statistics LibraryMacDonald Campus LibraryMarvin Duchow Music LibraryNahum Gelber Law LibrarySchulich Library of Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Engineering

Special Branches
ROAAr Units

Rare Books and Special Collections
*

McGill University Archives The McGill University Archives (MUA) performs integrated archival and records management for McGill University. and is housed on the fourth floor of the McLennan Library Building The McLennan Library Building of McGill University in Montreal, Queb ...

Visual Arts Collection

Partnerships and collaboration

The Library is a member of the

Canadian Association of Research Libraries The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) was established in 1976 and brings together thirty-one research libraries. Twenty-nine members are university libraries, plus Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and the National Research Counc ...

, the

Association of Research Libraries The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 127 research libraries at comprehensive, research institutions in Canada and the United States. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research l ...

(ARL), and the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ), as well as other cooperative groups. The Library is a contributor to the

Open Content Alliance The Open Content Alliance (OCA) was a consortium of organizations contributing to a permanent, publicly accessible archive of digitized texts. Its creation was announced in October 2005 by Yahoo!, the Internet Archive, the University of California ...

Projects

As of 2010, one of the Library's major projects involves digitization of books in the public domain. In 2013 the McGill library became the second non-US based partner institution with

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

digital library and plans on making their digitized collections available through this repository. The library regularly contributes unique digitized public domain from their collections to the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

History

From 1862 to 1893 the library was located in the west wing of th
Arts Building
(Molson Hall), where the collection slowly expanded. In 1893 the Redpath Library opened in what is now

Redpath Hall Opened in 1893, Redpath Hall was McGill University's first dedicated library building. It is situated at 3461, rue McTavish (3461, McTavish Street). Through numerous renovations, the library was extended to the south with the addition of the Re ...

. At the same time, the first full-time University Librarian, Charles H. Gould (1893-1919) was appointed. Under Gould and Gerhard Lomer (1920-1947) both the collection and staff expanded. By the 1920s and 1930s the central library's lack of space meant that there was more departmental and area libraries being established. In 1952 a large addition to

was opened to the south and the east wall of the original building was enclosed. It was at this time the library reading room was moved over what is now known at the Redpath library building and the Hall became a music hall. It was during this time that the University Librarian became primarily responsible for this main library collection that covered the humanities and social sciences discipline. Area libraries in Medicine, Law, Engineering, Physical Sciences, Divinity, Nursing and other disciplines were still largely independent. In 1969,

McLennan Library The McLennan Library Building of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada is situated at 3459, rue McTavish (3459, McTavish Street) on the northeast corner of rue Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke Street) and rue McTavish (McTavish Street). The building ...

(Humanities and Social Sciences) opened, and Senate set up a University Libraries Commission whos
Report (1971)
recommended reorganization and greater coordination in the administration of the library systems.

References

External links

McGill Library Official website''Fontanus: from the collections of McGill University''
library journal
Medical Library Archives Collection
Osler Library Archives, McGill University. Collection of primary sources documenting the growth of the Medical Library at McGill University. {{authority control Libraries in Montreal McGill University Academic libraries in Canada