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 ...
in
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'
ROAArGroup 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 Libraryand th
Schulich Library of Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Engineeringare 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 architecturetogether with Douglas Birkenshaw, and his team at Bregmann + Hamann from Toronto.
Branch libraries
Se
mapof branch libraries.
Birks Reading RoomHumanities and Social Sciences LibraryBlackader-Lauterman Collection of Architecture and Art*
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 ...
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
*
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 ...
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
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 ...
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.
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Libraries in Montreal
McGill University
Academic libraries in Canada