Western Libraries is the library system of the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximat ...

. In 1898, the university Senate appointed James Waddell Tupper as the University of Western Ontario's first University Librarian. In 1918,

John Davis Barnett John Davis Barnett (1848-1926) was an early Canadian curator-librarian. Barnett collected the materials to create one of the significant early personal Ontario libraries and was a vocal proponent of education through the use of freely available pri ...

founded the Western Libraries collection with a donation of 40,000 books from his personal library. Before this donation, the collection held less than 1000 different works. Western Libraries has since grown to include eight locations, which are the D. B. Weldon Library, the Allyn and Betty Taylor Library, the C. B. Johnston Library, the Education Library, the John & Dotsa Bitove Family Law Library, the Music Library, the Archives and Research Collections Centre, and the Map and Data Centre. Across these locations the library collection contains over 11 million print and electronic items with an additional 60,000+ items added each year.

D.B. Weldon Library

The D. B. Weldon Library (commonly shortened to "Weldon") is the largest

academic library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...

on the

campus in

, Canada, and one of the largest academic libraries in the country.

Colonel D. B. Weldon

The library is named after Colonel Douglas Black Weldon, who fought in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and commanded the London Regiment of

the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada The Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada is a Primary Reserve light infantry regiment of the Canadian Army, with companies in Cambridge and Kitchener, and is an infantry sub-unit of 31 Canadian Brigade Group, headquartered in London, Ontario. Th ...

during the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

. He served on the university's Board of Governors from 1946 to 1967, and his son David Black Weldon was Chancellor of the university from 1984 to 1988. The library of the

Royal Canadian Regiment Museum The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum is located at Wolseley Barracks (the former CFB London) in London, Ontario, Canada. History Although original architectural drawings of Wolseley Hall drafted in 1886 show space allocated to a museum, the muse ...

in London is also named after him.

Architecture

The building itself is "modernist" and "angular", an example of the "new, sharply-planed

brutalism Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

" typical of buildings constructed on campus during the 1960s. It was built from 1968 to 1972 by London, Ontario architects Murphy, Schuller, Green & Martin, and was opened on June 1, 1972. It underwent renovations in 1997-1998 and 2006–2007, and 2008–2011.

Collections

Weldon Library serves the faculties of Arts & Humanities, Information & Media Studies and Social Science. Highlights of the collection include materials in the Government Publications Research Collection and an extensive collection of research materials on microfilm and microfiche. The library has approximately 9 million items in print and on microfilm, making it the fourth-largest academic library in Canada. The university archives are also located in the library, along with other special archives, including the

Canadian Tire Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is a Canadian retail company which operates in the automotive, hardware, sports, leisure and housewares sectors. Its Canadian operations include: Canadian Tire (including Canadian Tire Petroleum gas stations a ...

Heritage Collection, and the J.J. Talman Regional Collection, which archives material from throughout

southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake ...

. The ground floor contains periodicals and microfilm, and the first floor, where the entrance is located, contains circulation and research desks, as well as archives of government publications. The second through fifth floors contain the main collection of books, as well as reading and study areas.

Pride Library

The Pride Library is a collection of over 6,000 books, periodicals, and audio-visual resources by and about

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

people housed within the D.B. Weldon Library. The library is the first official queer resource centre at a Canadian university. Since its founding in the Faculty of Arts in the late 1990s, The Pride Library has grown with the support of donors, volunteers, faculty, and administrators. Subjects include the

gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii ...

movement, gay and lesbian literary history,

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

, women's health and safety,

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, ...

, bisexuality, trans life,

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

, censorship, and

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

. Also included in the collection are early sexology works, homophobic classics, and queer pulps from the 1950s and 1960s. The Pride Library was founded by Professor James Miller in his office in 1997. In the summer of 2005, it was relocated on the main floor of the Weldon Library and officially reopened on February 14, 2006. A donation of $50,000 from the university administration in the spring of 2006 covered the renovation of the new space and the conversion of the catalogued books into a circulating collection.

Stained glass window

The front of the Pride Library is decorated with a

stained-glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

. The window celebrates and commemorates 135 influential gay and lesbian authors. It was designed and constructed by

artist Lynette Richards and consists of the Pride Library logo amid a list of some of history's most influential queer authors. The Pride Library logo contains a series of shelved books, coloured with the spectrum of the rainbow, supported by the logo of the now-disbanded Homophile Association of London Ontario (HALO), which has made significant contributions to the Pride Library.

Allyn and Betty Taylor Library

The Allyn and Betty Taylor Library is the second-largest

on the

campus. It serves the faculties of Engineering, Science, Health Sciences and the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

History

The Allyn and Betty Taylor Library was officially opened on November 22, 1991, with the design and construction of the new library funded through the Renaissance Campaign (1989 –1994). At the time of the Library's opening, Allyn Taylor (Western's Chancellor from 1976 to 1980) was quoted as saying: "My long association with Western is very close to my heart. Betty and I are proud and thankful indeed to have our names linked with this fine, new library, and can only say how grateful we are to the anonymous benefactor responsible." The $11.8 million three-floor addition to the north side of the Natural Sciences Building had a total seating capacity of 1,000 in 1991.

Layout

The main floor (M) contains the service desk, study rooms, as well as many large study tables, and is considered a "normal conversation area". The two lower floors, Ground (G), and Lower Ground (LG) contain upwards of one hundred study cubicles for quiet study, and is considered a "silent area". There are also six floors (S1-S6), which are known collectively as "the stacks", and house the majority of the print collection.

Study Spaces

Collaborative learning spaces are ideal for preparing presentations, assignments, reciting presentations or studying independently. All areas are AODA compliant. Media Rooms and Media Tables are bookable by the Western community and are equipped with various techniques to facilitate collaboration, including multi-view display screens, adaptors, and projectors.

Music Library

The Music Library is situated in Talbot College, its primary users are associated with the Don Wright Faculty of Music. As of 2008, the library possessed 67,471 scores, 25,600 LPs, 26,000 CDs, 31,460 books, 11,610 microforms (fiche, film and microcards), 2,600 rare books, scores, and libretti, 600 current periodicals and 402 videos.

External links

Allyn and Betty Taylor Library

Western LibrariesPride Library Website

References

{{Authority control Academic libraries in Canada Libraries established in 1918 University of Western Ontario 1918 establishments in Ontario