Review — In Solidarity: Academic Librarian Labour Activism and Union Participation in Canada (2014)

In Solidarity: Academic Librarian Labour Activism and Union Participation in Canada ed. by Jennifer Dekker and Mary Kandiuk. Sacramento, California: Library Juice Press, 2014; viii, 355 p., illus.

Collective action by faculty and librarians and their diverse organizations and associations has traditionally dealt mostly with academic standards and professional goals. With respect to economic issues, professors and librarians historically have engaged in individualistic pursuits. Until the 1970s, focused work to improve economic conditions was not considered appropriate activity for university or college faculty and librarians. The spectre of “trade unionism” loomed large at many campus meetings aimed at discussing collective action and improving salaries and working conditions. A further complication during this formative period—librarians’ predilection for creating associations no matter how small in membership—also impeded coordinated action towards certified and non-certified bargaining units (aka, special plans). However, after Canadian federal civil service workers attained collective bargaining rights and the ability to strike in 1967, the concept of public sector unions gained increased acceptance and faculty associations began to choose a familiar path of collective action.

It is within this background that In Solidarity delves into various challenging issues that academic librarians have engaged with over the years. The fifteen articles in this book are divided into four parts: (1) the historical development of labour organization of academic librarians; (2) case histories from various institutions; (3) current issues in labour activism and unionization; and (4) the practical complications and challenges that labour issues present in libraries. This general-specific pattern of articles in alternate sections is useful because context is provided, and the nitty-gritty of labour activism in the library profession (known chiefly for its conservative elements) on Canadian campuses is addressed for a various subjects and alternative analysis.

The two editors, Jennifer Dekker (University of Ottawa) and Mary Kandiuk (York University), provide a short introduction to the text and introduce the broader aspects of the volume, especially the common experiences of librarians relating to unionization. Labour activism can subdivide into many particular topics: salaries, benefits, pensions, general working conditions, workplace security (aka, deprofessionalization), librarian workload, promotions, tenure, job classification, academic status, grievances, and even can be termed professional matters, like defining ranks, seniority, collegial governance, and general terminology (e.g., the transition over time from “professional librarian” to “academic librarian”).

The first section offers two papers:  Leona Jacobs traces the history of academic status and labour organizing for Canadian academic librarians. and Jennifer Dekker’s exploration of the crucial part the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) played in academic librarians’ escape from the campus isolation of a “library ghetto.” CAUT’s acceptance of librarians as partners in faculty associations in the 1970s was a fundamental step forward because the vast majority of university libraries only provided a few dozen positions for librarians and little (or no) bargaining power on campus. In contrast, other predominantly female campus professionals, such as nurses, could rely on provincial or national organizations for assistance. These accounts of librarians’ struggles for recognition demonstrate the fragile and fractured nature of collective action across Canada during the past half-century and provide valuable background for three other chapters.

The second part of the book features three case histories. These accounts highlight the earlier papers and explore issues at different institutions in more detail.  Martha Attridge Bufton outlines gender and status issues at Carleton University from 1948-75, a brief presentation based on her more detailed thesis. Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens discusses the quest for academic rights and recognition at the University of Toronto, a story of determination on the part of rank-and-file librarians after a mid-1970s mini-revolution. Two college librarians, Robin Inskip and David Jones, outline a successful effort to organize and achieve parity within the ranks of Ontario post-secondary college teachers and faculty. These articles offer insight into conflicts between administrators, faculty, and librarians that occurred during attempts to organize and provide a coherent voice for librarians at their home institutions. Not every campaign was successful because the recognition of librarians was often disputed.

The third section featuring collaborative articles by librarians from different parts of Canada, provides insight into contemporary issues that librarians continue to grapple with in an academic setting. Academic librarians are partners in the post-secondary sector, and this raises a variety of topics discussed by the contributors. The role of librarians as teachers, researchers and community members is one feature. Another is librarians as faculty association participants, a condition of representing minority views and priorities within a broader, more complex context. Collective agreements are studied in another paper, along with an examination of the complaints and collegiality of determining what the “quiet librarian” would do or think.

The final section presents four case studies emphasizing the broader issues in practice today concerning librarian rights and responsibilities in various campus situations. A strike at the Western University in London highlights conflicts in a library setting. Success and failure in labour organizing (including one paper that reveals resistance to unionization in the state of Louisiana) unfolds in this section, followed by the issue of collegial self-governance with the establishment of a Library Council at Brock University (CAUT has long supported the concept of library councils but their formation has been hampered by local considerations for decades).

Readers will find there are several takeaways from reading In Solidarity. One easy conclusion is that working conditions and status for librarians vary greatly in Canadian academic institutions. The case studies illustrate that the terminology for academic status or academic freedom is often defined differently in collective agreements. Nor are the requirements for research and service consistent by any means. Faculty views on the academic status of librarianship are also inconsistent. Further, although librarians are usually members of faculty associations, their level of participation and success is necessarily limited by their small numbers: The chapter on “The Mouse that Roared” is a descriptive epithet that does not apply in all cases.  The articles present arguments favouring strengthening academic status and participation in faculty associations.

While there is a complicated legacy and contemporary challenges inherent in contractual issues involving librarian workloads and academic participation, the general trend presented in these pages is a positive one, even though Jennifer Dekker worries at the outset that “the gains librarians made in the 1970s and 1980s are being dialed back today.” Of course, a review of the history of librarian labour activity shows that opposition to collective bargaining and academic advancement has existed for many years. The recent (i.e., after 2000) attacks on the rights of academic librarians (including unjustified terminations) at Canadian universities and colleges follow this entrenched “tradition,” but are no less painful in particular situations.

The literature on librarian unionization and collective bargaining in any Canadian setting—schools, government, post-secondary or public libraries—is sparse, so In Solidarity is a welcome addition. This collection is a worthwhile effort to document librarian union participation and activism, telling the story in many cases from a first-hand perspective, and offering helpful examples of successful action.

Biography: James John Talman (1904-1993)

James J. Talman was an archivist, librarian, and professional historian who made many scholarly contributions to Canadian history. He was the Western’s University’s chief librarian from 1947 to 1970. Three of his major works continue to be studied today: Anna Jameson, winter studies and summer rambles in Canada (1943); Loyalist narratives from Upper Canada (1946, reprinted 1969); and The journal of Major John Norton, 1816 (1970). His papers are held in the J.J. Talman Regional Collection at Western’s Weldon Library. The J.J. Talman Library at the Archives of Ontario is a research and reference collection for the general public. His graduate BA portrait is taken from Western’s Occidentalia yearbook in 1926. My biography first appeared on the Ex Libris Association site in 2017.

James John Talman

Born September 15, 1904, Beira, Mozambique; Died November 21, 1993, London, ON

Education:
1925 BA (University of Western Ontario)
1927 MA (University of Western Ontario)
1930 PhD (University of Toronto)
1960 DLitt (Hons) (University of Waterloo)
1972 LLD (Hons) (University of Western Ontario)

Positions:
1931–1934 Assistant Archivist, Ontario Provincial Archives
1934–1939 Provincial Archivist of Ontario (1934-1939) and Legislative Librarian of Ontario (1935–1939)
1939–1947 Assistant and Associate Librarian, University of Western Ontario
1947–1970 Chief Librarian of the University of Western Ontario
Professor in History Department and Faculty of Graduate Studies in post-retirement, University of Western Ontario

Publications (selected):
J.J. Talman authored more than 300 publications. A comprehensive list was compiled by Hilary Bates, “Bibliography of academic and journalistic writings by James J. Talman” in Aspects of nineteenth-century Ontario: essays presented to James J. Talman, ed. by Frederick H. Armstrong, Hugh A. Stevenson, and J. Donald Wilson: 334-50. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974.

Talman, J.J. and Elsie McLeod Murray, eds. (1943). Winter studies and summer rambles in Canada, by Anna Brownell Jameson. Toronto: Nelson.
Talman, J.J., ed. (1946). Loyalist narratives from Upper Canada. Toronto: Champlain Society.
Talman, J.J. and Ruth Davis Talman (1953). ‘Western,’ 1878-1953, being the history of the origins and development of the University of Western Ontario during its first seventy-five years London: University of Western Ontario.
Talman, J.J. (1963). Huron College, 1863-1963. London: Huron College.
Talman, J.J., ed. (1959). Basic documents in Canadian history. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
Talman, James J. (1968). “Twenty-two years of the Microfilm Newspaper Project.” Canadian Library 25.2 (September-October): 140–148.

Associations/Committees:
1937–1940 President, Ontario Historical Society
1945-1946 President, Ontario Library Association
1954-1955 President, Canadian Historical Association
1956-1959 Treasurer, Canadian Library Association
1956-1959 Chairman, Governor General’s Award Board
Member of the Canadian Historic Sites and Monuments Board and Ontario Conservation Review Board

Honours:
1949 Fellow of Royal Society of Canada
1963 Honorary Fellow of Huron College
1968 Cruikshank Medal, Ontario Historical Society
1970 Order of British Empire
1977 Award of Merit, Alumni Association, University of Western Ontario
1991 James J. Talman Award established by the Ontario Association of Archivists (now Archives Association of Ontario)

Accomplishments:
James J. Talman was an outstanding scholar-librarian whose career began during the Great Depression. It was, he said, a time when there were more positions for librarians than historians. Dr. Talman was a successful Canadian university library administrator in the postwar period. During his 23-year tenure, 1947-70, the Lawson library was expanded twice, new libraries were opened for law (1961), business (1962), health sciences (1965), education (the ‘flying-saucer library’ at Althouse College, 1966), and the natural sciences (1966). In the same period, the University’s holdings grew from 172,000 volumes to 1,500,000 and the library budget from $40,000 to $3,200,000. Dr. Talman was instrumental in expanding Western’s Regional Collection housing the history of southwest Ontario and it was later named in his honour. Construction of the D. B. Weldon Library (opened in 1972) was planned and underway before his retirement in 1970. In conjunction with his wife, Ruth Helen (Davis) Talman, he wrote Western 1878-1953; Being the History of the Origins and Development of the University of Western Ontario during its First Seventy-five Years (1953).

Sources:
“James John Talman, 1904-1993.” In Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada, 2000, 6th Series, vol. 11: 153-156. Ottawa: Royal Society, 2001.
“James John Talman, 1904-1993.” Ontario History 86.1 (March 1994): 1-8.
Stevenson, Hugh A. (1974). “James John Talman: historian and librarian.” In Aspects of nineteenth-century Ontario edited by Armstrong, Stevenson, and Wilson: 3-18. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Biography: Fred Landon (1880-1969)

Fred Landon was a journalist, librarian, a historian-teacher-administrator at the Western University, and an author. After graduating from Western in 1906, he worked at the London Free Press before attaining the post of chief librarian at the London Public Library in 1916. At LPL he established a local history collection and earned a Masters degree at Western in 1919. Then he became the university’s chief librarian in 1923, a position he held until 1947. During this time, he oversaw the development of the new Lawson Library; as well, he taught in the History Department until 1950. He was President of the Ontario Historical Society, 1926-28, and, in 1948-49, he was President of the newly formed Bibliographical Society of Canada. A branch of the London Public Library on Wortley Road was named in his honour on September 8th 1955. Landon’s portrait is taken from Western’s 1941 Occidentalia yearbook, p. 117. My biography appeared originally at the Ex Libris Association website in 2017.

Fred Landon

Born November 5, 1880, London, ON; Died August 1, 1969, London, ON

Education:
1906 BA University of Western Ontario
1919 MA University of Western Ontario

Positions:
1907-1916 Reporter and editor, London Free Press
1916-1923 Chief Librarian, London Public Library
1916-1923 Lecturer in History and English, Western University
1923-1947 Librarian of the University and Associate Professor, Department of History
1946-1950 Vice-President, University of Western Ontario
1947-1950 Dean Graduate Studies, University of Western Ontario

Publications:
Fred Landon published hundreds of articles, news stories, reviews, and books. A comprehensive listing was compiled by Hilary Bates, “A Bibliography of Fred Landon,” Ontario History, 62.1 (March 1970): 5-16.

Selected Books
Middleton, Jesse and Fred Landon (1927-1928). The Province of Ontario: a history, 1615-1927. Toronto: Dominion Pub. Co. (5 vols.)
Landon, Fred (1941). Western Ontario and the American frontier. Toronto: Ryerson Press.
Landon, Fred (1944). Lake Huron. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Landon, Fred (1960). An exile from Canada to Van Diemen's Land: being the story of Elijah Woodman … 1837-38. Toronto: Longmans, Green.
Landon, Fred (2009). Ontario’s African-Canadian heritage: collected writings by Fred Landon, 1918-1967 edited by Karolyn Smardz Frost, et. al. Toronto: Natural Heritage Books.

Selected Articles
Landon, Fred (1917). “The library and local material.” Ontario Library Review 1.3 (February): 61-62.
Landon, Fred (1918). “J. Davis Barnett's gift to Western University.” Ontario Library Review 3.1 (August): 16.
Landon, Fred (1921). “A city library’s work.” Ontario Library Review 6.1&2 (August-November): 10-13.
Landon, Fred (1924). “Adult education - University of Western Ontario.” Ontario Library Review 9.2 (November): 34-35.
Landon, Fred (1927). “The Toronto Conference–II: Canadian Library Association.” Library Journal 52: 749–750.
Landon, Fred (1930). “Public libraries and the extension activities of universities.” Ontario Library Review 15.1 (August): 6-8.
Landon, Fred (1935). “Lawson Memorial Library.” Ontario Library Review 19.3 (August): 118–120.
Landon, Fred (1939). “Lawson Memorial Library, beautiful building, is enduring monument.” Ontario Library Review 23.1 (February): 9–10.
Landon, Fred (1945). “The library at the University of Western Ontario.” College & Research Libraries 6.2 (March): 133–141.

Associations/Committees:
1918-1920 President, London & Middlesex Historical Society
1926-1927 President, Ontario Library Association
1926-1928 President, Ontario Historical Society
1941-1942 President, Canadian Historical Association
1948-1949 President, Bibliographical Society of Canada
1950-1958 Chair, Historical Sites and Monuments Board of Canada

Honours:
1929 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
1945 Awarded J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal, Royal Society of Canada
1950 D.Litt. (University of Western Ontario)
1950 LL.D (McMaster University)
1955 London Public Library branch on Wortley Road is renamed Fred Landon Branch Library
1967 Awarded Cruikshank Gold Medal, Ontario Historical Society

Comments:
Fred Landon excelled at many careers during his lifetime: he was a public and university librarian, journalist, editor, historian, teacher, administrator, and active leader in professional and scholarly associations. He is best known for his academic contributions to the history of Ontario, especially its southwestern region. At London Public Library, he began to assemble local history materials that form part of the present day Ivey Family London Room. Fred Landon was instrumental in persuading James Davis Barnett to donate his 40,000-volume library to the Western University in 1923. Under his administrative tenure at Western, the Lawson Library opened in 1934. Fred Landon was an articulate lecturer and colleagues found him to be an efficient administrator. The libraries at Western were small in size, just more than 20,000 volumes, when Landon assumed control in 1923; when he stepped down in 1946 there were almost 170,000 volumes.

Sources:
Armstrong, Fredrick H. (1970). “Fred Landon, 1880-1969.” Ontario History 62.1 (March): 1-4.
Skidmore, Patricia. (1992). “Mind and manuscript: the work of historian-teacher Fred Landon, 1881-1969.” Ex Libris News no. 12 (Fall): 10-21.
Banks, Margaret A. (1989). The libraries at Western 1970 to 1987 with summaries of their earlier history and a 1988 postscript. London: University of Western Ontario.
Giles, Suzette (2015). “Libraries named after librarians.” ELAN: Ex Libris Association Newsletter no. 58 (Fall): 7-8.

Biography: Gerhard Richard Lomer (1882–1970)

Gerhard Lomer was born in Montreal in 1882: he was the son of Adolph and Ellen Lomer a well-to-business family. In his youth, he spent time in the United States where he made a number of contacts that would further his literary career as an editor for two major American publishing series, the  “Warner Library of the World's Best Literature” and “Chronicles Of America.” However, his main contribution came in the field of librarianship at McGill University where he introduced Canada’s first full-time one-year graduate library program in 1927 that was accredited by the American Library Association in 1931. My biography first appeared at the Ex Libris Association site in 2017. Lomer’s portrait appeared in the January 1920 issue of the Canadian Bookman.

Gerhard Richard Lomer
Born on March 6, 1882, Montreal, QC; died on January 14, 1970, Ottawa, ON

Education:
1903 BA (McGill)
1904 MA (McGill)
1910 PhD (Columbia)
1910 Doctors Diploma in Education, Columbia Teacher’s College
1936 Fellow of Library Association (UK)

Positions:
1904-1906 Instructor in English, McGill University
1907-1908 Lecturer in Education, Montreal Normal School
1909-1912 Instructor in Education, University of Wisconsin
1912-1917 Instructor in English, Columbia University School of Journalism
1918-1920 Assistant editor of two series, “Chronicles of America” and “Warner’s Library of the World’s Best Literature”
1920-1947 University Librarian, McGill
1927-1949 Director and Professor of Library Administration, McGill Library School
1959-1970 Assistant Director of Library School and Professor, University of Ottawa
 

Publications (major works):
Articles:
Lomer, G.R. (1906). “Education as university study.” McGill University Magazine 5 (May): 322-345.
Lomer, G.R. (1930). “The university library: 1920-1930.” McGill News 11 (4, September): 7–11.
Lomer, G.R. (1937). “The Quebec Library Association.” Ontario Library Review 21 (1): 10–11.
Lomer, G.R. (1942). “The Redpath Library: half a century, 1892-1942.” McGill News 24 (1, Autumn): 9–13.
Lomer, G.R. (1946). “Background of the Canadian L.[ibrary] A.[ssociation].” Library Journal 71 (September): 1107–1110.
Lomer, G.R. (1949). “Some occupational diseases of the librarian.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 6 (1): 2–11.
Lomer, G.R. (1957). “The Quebec Library Association: the first ten years.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 14 (3): 103-106.
Lomer, G.R. (1966). “Alice One Hundred.” Canadian Library 23 (2): 80-85.
Lomer, G.R. (1968). “1946—the prospect [for CLA].” In Librarianship in Canada, 1946-1967: essays in honour of Elizabeth Homer Morton, ed. by Bruce B. Peel, pp. 20-21. Victoria: Canadian Library Association.

Books:
Lomer, G.R. (1910). The concept of method. New York: Teacher’s College, Columbia University [Lomer’s original Ph.D dissertation].
Lomer, G.R. and Margaret E. Ashmun (1914). The study and practice of writing English. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. [2nd ed. in 1917].
Lomer, G.R. (c.1920). The Library of McGill. Montreal: McGill Centennial Endowment Campaign.
Lomer, Gerhard R. and Margaret S. MacKay (1924), eds. A catalogue of scientific periodicals in Canadian libraries. Montreal: McGill University and the Honorary Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
Lomer, G.R. (1927). Library administration: lecture and study outlines. Montreal: McGill University Library School.
Lomer, G.R. (1932). Report on a proposed three-year demonstration of library service for Prince Edward Island. Montreal: McGill University Library.
Lomer, G.R. (1954). Stephen Leacock: a check-list and index of his writings. Ottawa: National Library of Canada.

Associations/Committees:
President, Quebec Library Association, 1932-1933
Member, Canadian Library Council, Inc., 1943-1946
Membership in national and provincial library associations: charter member of Canadian Library Association and Quebec Library Association
Member of American Library Association: various committees in 1930s such as Suggested Code of Ethics Statement (1930), Carnegie Grants-in-Aid; and host city for ALA Montreal Conference, 1934. Elected as Council member and later Executive Board member, 1946-1947.

Accomplishments:
Gerhard Lomer was already an accomplished educator, teacher, and scholar before he became McGill's University Librarian and Director of the Library School in 1920. He was a worthy successor to Charles Gould, having established a successful academic career and taught courses at the McGill summer library school. Although his career as an administrator was clouded by unrelenting financial austerity during the Great Depression and the Second World War, Lomer oversaw the steady growth of McGill’s collections. However, his main contribution to Canadian librarianship was progressive leadership in graduate library education at McGill. With the financial support of the Carnegie Corporation, which contributed $139,000 over the period 1927-40, Lomer established Canada’s first ALA accredited one-year Bachelor of Library Science program (1931) and organized summer courses in Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, and Alberta to address demand for positions. By the time of his retirement as library school director in 1949, McGill’s reputation was firmly established. In retirement, Lomer continued to contribute to library education as assistant director and teacher at the University of Ottawa.

Sources:
Burgoyne, St. George (1920). “McGill’s new librarian.” Canadian Bookman 2 (January): 11.
Brown, Jack E. (1947). “Dr. Lomer’s retirement from the Redpath Library.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 4 (October): 23-24.
Lomer, G.R. (1960). List of publications. Ottawa: n.p. [bibliography of his writings to May 1960].
Jenkins, Kathleen (1970). “Gerhard Richard Lomer.” Canadian Library Journal 27 (1): 130.
McNally, Peter F. (1988). “Scholar librarians: Gould, Lomer and Pennington.” Fontanus 1: 95–104 [pdf dowload].

Biography: Elizabeth Dafoe (1900–1960)

For a quarter of century, from the mid-1930s to 1960, Elizabeth Dafoe was a central figure in the development of the University of Manitoba library in Winnipeg. No less important was her influence in Manitoba and at the national level. Her efforts were noteworthy and resulted in her selection to represent western Canadian and academic interests in the wartime Canadian Library Council which led to the successful formation of the Canadian Library Association in 1946. Dafoe’s pan-Canadian interests included the formation of regional libraries, a topic she promoted in wartime publications, and  the creation of a National Library in Ottawa. She was President of the Canadian Library Association in 1948-49> From 1953-1960, she was a member of the National Library Advisory Council.

Julia Annette Elizabeth Dafoe

Born Oct. 22, 1900, Montreal, QC; Died 25 April, 1960, Winnipeg, MB

Education:
BA 1923 (University of Manitoba)
Library training at New York Public Library and University of Chicago Graduate Library School

Positions:
1925-1932 Circulation and Reference Assistant, University of Manitoba Library
1935-1937 Chief Librarian, Junior Division, University of Manitoba Library
1937-1960 Chief Librarian, University of Manitoba Library

Publications:
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1944). “A National Library.” Food for Thought 4, no. 8: 4–8.
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1945). “Regional Library Service.” Queen’s Quarterly 52, no. 2: 195–205.
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1946). “Your Next Job–Librarian [C.B.C. Broadcast., September 4th, 1945].” Canadian Library Council Bulletin 2, no. 5: 106–7.
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1947). “The First Year: The Canadian Library Association Reports.” Food for Thought 8, no. 2: 9–10, 27.
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1948). “Librarianship as a Career.” Ontario Library Review 32, no. 3: 199–200.
Dafoe, Elizabeth, Freda F. Waldon, and Colin Gibson (1948). “A National Library for Canada.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 5, no. 1: 14–16.
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1948). “What Is a Librarian?” Ontario Library Review 32, no. 1: 19–22.
Dafoe, Elizabeth, Freda F. Waldon, and Colin Gibson. “A National Library for Canada.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 5, no. 1 (July 1948): 14–16.
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1949). “National Library Service.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 6, no. 2: 54–57.
Dafoe, Elizabeth, ed. (1955). Future of bibliography and documentation. By Elizabeth Dafoe and others. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association. (Canadian Library Association. Occasional paper; no. 7)
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1955). “Research Libraries.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 11, no. 6: 319–320.
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1958). “The Library and the Community.” In Proceedings of the Canadian Library Association 13th Annual Meeting, Quebec City, June 13–19, 1958, pp. 7–13. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association.
Dafoe, Elizabeth (1959). “A University Library [Manitoba].” Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada 36, no. 4: 106.

Associations/Committees:
1943-46 President, Manitoba Library Association
1948-49 President, Canadian Library Association
1949-1954 member, American Library Association Council

Honours:
Elizabeth Dafoe Library of the University of Manitoba was named in her honour.

Comments:
“It is our hope for Canadian libraries that they will eventually form part of a nation-wide system. It is my hope that as they develop it will be possible for them to lay less stress on information and more on knowledge, less emphasis on the book of the month and more on the book of the decade, less accentuation on momentary interests and fads and more upon infinite concerns and problems.” — Elizabeth Dafoe, Canadian Library Association conference, 1949.

“Her tireless message of the need for a ‘national library’ and her outspoken ideas helped to define the mandate of the National Library of Canada”. [extract from her biography on Library and Archives Canada. Celebrating Women's Achievements].

“Miss Dafoe was a quiet and gentle person who inspired the utmost devotion in everyone who worked with her. In her years at the university many thousands of students and instructors alike called upon her for assistance. How widely her influence thus made itself felt can never be assessed; but assuredly it was great.” — Winnipeg Free Press editorial, May 9, 1960.

Sources:

Library and Archives Canada. Celebrating Women’s Achievements. Elizabeth Dafoe. [Web page archived, accessed in January 2012].
“Miss Elizabeth Dafoe” Manitoba Library Association Bulletin 8 / 2 & 3 (Sept. 1960), 1.
W.L. Morton (1963) “Elizabeth Dafoe: lover of language, literature and libraries.” Proceedings of the Canadian Library Association, 18th Conference: 8–9.
Manitoba Historical Society. Memorable Manitobans: Julia Annette Elizabeth Dafoe (1900-1960). [accessed Feb. 14, 2016]
“Elizabeth Dafoe,” Canadian Library 17 (Nov. 1960): 171.

My biography first appeared in 2016 on the Ex Libris website. The portrait of Dafoe appeared in the Bulletin of the Canadian Library Association in September 1948.

Biography: Mary Kinley Ingraham (1874—1949)

 Mary Kinley Ingraham was the chief librarian at Acadia University from 1917-1944 at a time when very few females headed academic libraries in North America. Fittingly, her achievements include literary works as well as academic publications. As an acknowledged leader in Maritime librarianship, she was one of the founders of the Maritime Library Association in 1918. Ingraham was also an innovator: under her guidance, Acadia launched a pioneering bookmobile service to three provinces in 1930.

My biography appeared earlier in 2015 in the Ex Libris Association biography website. The image from the Acadia University archives is taken from Tanja Harrison’s article, “The courage to connect: Mary Kinley Ingraham and the development of libraries in the Maritimes” (p. 80).

Mary Kinley Ingraham

Born March 6, 1874, Cape Wolfe (or West Cape), PEI. Died November 19, 1949, Livermore, Maine, USA

Education:
1899 Graduate of Acadia Ladies’ Seminary
1915 BA (Acadia University)
1916 MA (Acadia University)
1917 Summer course (Simmons College School of Library Science, Boston)

Positions:
c.1897-1905 School teacher in Nova Scotia
1911-1913 School teacher in Massachusetts and Georgia, USA
1917-1944 Chief Librarian, Acadia University
1918-1944 Instructor, library science, Acadia University

Publications:
Ingraham, M.K. (1921). “Italian and English book collectors of the Renaissance.” Dalhousie Review 1, no. 3: 293-300.
Ingraham, M.K. (1920). Acadia; a play in five acts. Wolfville, NS: Davidson Bros.
Ingraham, M.K. (1921). “Librarianship as a profession.” Canadian Bookman n.s., 3, no. 1: 38-40.
Ingraham, M.K. (1931). “The bookmobiles of Acadia University,” Library Journal 56, 15 January: 62-63.
Ingraham, M.K. (1932). A month of dreams. [poetry] Wolfville, NS.: n.p.
Ingraham, M.K. (1940). “Sixth annual conference of the reorganized Maritime Library Association.” Bulletin of the Maritime Library Association 5, no. 2: 2–6.
Ingraham, M.K. (1947). Seventy-five years: historical sketch of the United Baptist Woman’s Missionary Union in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Kentville, NS: n.p.
Ingraham, M.K. (1949). “My favorite books.” Bulletin of the Maritime Library Association 13, no. 2: 1-2.

Associations/Committees:
1918-1944 Secretary-Treasurer, Maritime Library (Institute) Association

Honours:
1947 DCL, Acadia University

Accomplishments:
Mary Kinley Ingraham was a significant public figure in the development of libraries in the Maritime Provinces after she became chief librarian of the Emmerson Memorial Library at Acadia University in 1917. During her quarter century tenure she improved and expanded circulating holdings, special collections, and library services to students and faculty, even during the Great Depression. Trained initially as teacher, she saw the need to institute formal courses on library education as part of the BA program at Acadia for Maritime library students. As well, she inaugurated a bookmobile service in 1930-31 for rural Maritime readers who were not served by public libraries in three provinces. Later, Acadia operated a travelling library service for communities that continued until WW II. Ingraham was one of the founders and secretary-treasurer of the Maritime Library Association (1918-28) which continued in 1934 as the Maritime Library Institute (1935-40) and became the Atlantic Provinces Library Association in 1957. She contributed many short articles to the Association Bulletin. Ingraham also was active on the literary front, publishing two volumes of verse, plays, a history of the Baptist Women’s Union, and serving as editor for the review journal, “Book Parlance,” 1924-29. Upon her retirement she was made Librarian Emeritus.

Comments:
“The best preparation will not make a librarian out of a man or woman who has not innate fitness for the work. No one should seriously consider librarianship as a profession who does not know himself to have in his approach to books the grave, searching attitude of the scholar.” M.K. Ingraham (1920)
“Acadia University at Wolfville in the land of Evangeline, with Mrs. Mary K. Ingraham as its ‘live librarian,’ has been the most active representative of library progress in relation with the Maritime Library Association….” Mary S. Saxe, Library Journal (1927)
“Librarians who had the pleasure of knowing and working with her were charmed and impressed by her personality. She helped us to know one another better through the Bulletin. She gave us the joy at conventions of hearing minutes and reports—written and read—in her own inimitable style.” Dorothy Cullen (1950)

Sources:
Shaw, Beatrice M. H. (1924). “Maritime Librarian,” Maclean’s Magazine, 15 Nov., 37: 68-70.
Beals, Helen D. (1944). “Mrs. Ingraham Retires” Library Journal 69, 1 December, 1961.
Cullen, Dorothy (1950). “Mrs Mary Kinley Ingraham 1874-1949,” Bulletin of the Maritime Library Association 14, no. 2: 1–2.
Elliott, J.H. (1954). “Pioneers! O Pioneers! 4. Mary Kinley Ingraham.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 10, June, 261.
Harrison, Tanja. (2012). “The courage to connect: Mary Kinley Ingraham and the development of libraries in the Maritimes.” Library & Information History 28, no. 2: 75-102.
Bird, Kym (2005). “In the beauty of holiness, from the womb of the morning: allegory, morality, and politics in Mary Kinley Ingraham’s Acadia,” Theatre Research in Canada 26, no. 1-2: 26-55.
Mary Kinley Ingraham Fonds, Acadia University Archives, Accession No. 1944.0

The Mary Kinley Ingraham biographic entry in Canada's Early Womens Writers provides extensive information on her family and literary career.

CANADIAN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN THE POSTWAR PERIOD, 1945-1960

The general history of college and university library development in Canada has not been examined extensively. There are few studies that synthesize the entire history of Canadian academic libraries and normally two core themes are emphasized—library growth and progressive advances in librarianship. But these two perspectives can be applied to other types of libraries and do not serve to highlight the distinctiveness of academic libraries or librarians. There are some valuable, informative accounts of Canadian libraries in higher education that are commonly regarded as "institutional history." Because the library is positioned within its parent institution, librarians have understandably chronicled library support for the needs and plans of a particular university or college. Individual libraries, such as those at the Universities of Toronto and Alberta, are notable in this regard: Robert Blackburn’s Evolution of the Heart: A History of the University of Toronto Library up to 1981; and Merill Distad’s The University of Alberta Library: The First Hundred Years, 1908-2008. These institutional histories may be considered the foundation for more general histories that explore particular themes and developments. Added to these local studies are are many other contributions as articles, pamphlets, and theses. Many works concentrate on more recent decades after the 1960s when “growth” and “progress” were central features.

Of course, the development of academic libraries on a national basis as well as the careers of the “college librarian” or the “university librarian” began before the Sixties. I wrote, in 2016, about the contribution of the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) to the development of Canadian university and college libraries during the Great Depression. This was one instance of a change in philosophy of service. From 1932-35, thirty-four institutions of higher education shared in library grants totaling $214,800 in a national (Canada and Newfoundland) project conducted by a Canadian Advisory Group established by the CCNY. George H. Locke, Toronto Public Library, headed the group which awarded Carnegie financial aid for the improvement of undergraduate print collections. The attempts by Canadian administrators to adapt library collections, organization, and staffing to local circumstances to improve interwar undergraduate library services was an unusual step towards national thinking about the role of college and university libraries. For this post, see The Carnegie Corporation Advisory Group on Canadian College Libraries, 1930-35, posted in 2016 with an accompanying link to my article published in the journal, Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'éducation.

Another period, the postwar (1945-1960), is another seldom referenced period that is of interest. After the Second World War, the expansion of Canadian post-secondary was notable for several modernizing trends: the infusion of federal funds for academic research, the frequent erection of campus buildings, increased enrollments, the establishment of new universities, the independence of previously affiliated small colleges, and the creation of comprehensive research efforts and graduate programs. In this changing environment, the per-eminence of the humanities and undergraduate teaching gave way to scientific and technological research, business and professional orientations, and graduate studies.

Mills Memorial Library, n.d., McMaster University, Hamilton, opened 1951

 Libraries and librarians responded to these challenges in many similar ways. There are many contemporary accounts in relation to library architecture, the acquisition and organization of collections, administrative library structures and staffing, services for faculty and students, and efforts by librarians to realize professional standing, to achieve recognition as “professional librarians.” The architectural redefinition of libraries, the impetus to establish research collections, the maturation of academic librarianship, and the increasing complexity of library operations were prominent features in the postwar period. The gradual evolution of academic libraries toward more uniform organizational purposes and structures on a national basis following World War II can be considered a period of “mid-century modernization” that preceded the more memorable and better documented decades of the 1960s and later.

The postwar history of academic libraries was deeply influenced not just by local conditions and persons but also by broader trends occurring in the nation’s universities and colleges and the library community across North America. Examination of sources for the period mirror general currents in the Canadian post-secondary sector that made library provision of resources, assistance, and information more integral to the work of students and faculty. Of course, the national pace of change from 1945 to 1960 was moderate compared with the succeeding period, the dynamic 1960s that loom large in the history of Canadian libraries. The Sixties ushered in many educational changes, especially the establishment of provincial systems of higher education and vastly improved funding for libraries in higher education. Nonetheless, library development in the 1960s should not be viewed simply as a break with the past but as an outgrowth of many changes already underway. The national pace of change from 1945 to 1960 was moderate compared with the succeeding period, the dynamic 1960s that loom large in the history of Canadian libraries. The Sixties ushered in many educational changes, especially the  establishment of provincial systems of higher education. Library development in the 1960s should not be viewed simply as a break with the past but as an outgrowth of many changes already underway.

More complete information on the postwar era is in my article, “Postwar Canadian Academic Libraries, 1945–60,” at the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship website.

Review—Two 1940s Canadian Theses on Academic Libraries by Dorothy Hamilton and Winifred Snider

Dorothy I. Hamilton, The Libraries of the Universities of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. A Report. (Ann Arbor: Department of Library Science, University of Michigan, 1942). 2, 2, 137 leaves with tables.

Winifred H. Snider, Extramural Library Service in Libraries and Extension Departments of Canadian Universities. MA thesis (New York: Columbia University Library School, 1948). 64 p. with tables.

Until the Second World War, it could be said with a measure of assurance that librarianship in Canada was dominated by interest in public library development. Libraries in higher education were mostly the reserve of an educated minority of Canadians. It was the public library that was known by the popular notion, the "people's university." There were, of course, occasions when academic librarians, such as Stewart Wallace, Gerhard Lomer, and Kaye Lamb, rose to prominence in provincial organizations during the Depression. And, in the early 1930s, the Commission of Enquiry had explored universities to some degree. These episodes, for the most part, were short lived. However, the long slumber of university and college libraries on a national stage was about to change after 1939.

Two librarians, Dorothy Isabel Hamilton and Winifred Helen Snider, produced studies that provide valuable information on the state of university collections and services during the war and immediate postwar period. Hamilton was first into the field: a native British Columbian, she earned her BA at Alberta in 1929 and then went to the University of Washington for her BSLS in 1931. After working at the university library in Edmonton in the 1930s she was awarded a Carnegie grant for an ALA fellowship in 1941 to complete her AMLS at Michigan on four Canadian western university libraries. Winifred Snider came from a prominent family in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. Like many young women in Ontario, she went to Victoria College, and graduated with a BA in 1923. After holding various positions, she went to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn for a Library Diploma (1928) and worked briefly in the Fraser Valley regional demonstration at Chilliwack, BC, before taking up cataloging at Waterloo College [now Wilfrid Laurier University] in 1932. She left shortly afterward to be the assistant librarian at Mount Allison from 1934-42, taking time to be president of the Maritime Library Association (1940-41). In 1942, she became the university's head librarian until the end of WW II when she resigned to work and study at Columbia University where she earned her MSLS in 1948.

These two theses are valuable records of academic library work in the 1940s. In the first part of her work, Dorothy Hamilton briefly considered how higher education developed at each western university: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. In the second part of her thesis, Hamilton looked at several aspects of library development on each campus prior to WW II:

• the historical development of libraries and their accommodations;
• an examination of library finances, financial standards, and a comparison with eight American universities;
• the legal basis of the library in university acts, and the status of library committees and the head librarian;
• the general management of the library and its staff resources and activities;
• book collections in relation to checklists and special collections;
• services: circulation, user regulations, hours of operation, interloan, reference, and reserve work.

Generally, there was room for improvement. At one point, Hamilton concluded that "Unfortunately, Canadian university administrators do not seem to be aware of the importance of the library in university instruction." (p. 45) Her lengthy exposition of the role of librarians, frugal budgets, and smallish collections helped to fortify this opinion in all areas, but we must remember throughout the Great Depression managerial thinking leaned to making ends meet.

One solution for improvement that Hamilton pointed to was the use of emerging college and university library standards by the American Library Association (ALA), recommended guidelines or principles by American librarians, and new accreditation processes of the North Central Association used in the United States. Hamilton used ALA statistics to compare the four Canadian universities were similar counterparts south of the border (e.g., Arizona, Colgate, Wyoming, Southern Methodist, etc.) rather than the usual parade of the highest ranking American universities with budgets and operations far beyond the expectations of Canadian faculty or librarians. In this regard, British Columbia did fairly well and the other three western libraries were inadequately supported. Hamilton also reviewed book, reference, and periodical collections using checklists for American college libraries developed by the North Central Association which had begun accrediting colleges before WW I. Again, the percentage holdings in relation to these checklists found British Columbia doing reasonably well with the other three universities mostly clustered in the median range or lower range.

Hamilton also explored services and personnel. In many cases, services (e.g., library instruction) were less developed or were reliant on manual procedures (e.g. circulation). Professional librarians, often in short supply, were regarded as "clerks" by most faculty. On balance, western Canadian university libraries in the early 1940s could best be described as being in the developmental stage. Hamilton concluded her analysis with the observation that all the universities required (1) a good central building; (2) a readjustment of the university budget to provide adequate support; and (3) increased staffing with adjustments as to status and salaries to attain at least minimum standards. The contemporary guidelines, of course, were American--it would not be until 1965 that the Guide to Canadian University Library Standards published by the Canadian Library Association appeared. Hamilton's exploration confirmed the need to improve services but her report was seldom referenced. After graduating at Michigan, Dorothy Hamilton returned to Alberta and worked at the library in public service areas, including head of reference, until 1969. She died in Victoria, BC, in 1974.

Winifred Snider's thesis at Columbia was less extensive than Hamilton's work and was descriptive rather than analytical. But she chose a subject, extramural library services, that was national in focus and included university extension departments that mostly organized these services and relied on library support. Snider worked under the general mantra of Reconstruction in the postwar period and aimed to provide information for a national plan of library service to rural Canada to which university libraries could contribute. Since the inception of McGill's McLennan Travelling Libraries to smaller Canadian communities in 1901, university libraries had participated in a sporadic manner to a wide range of adult education activities in rural and remote areas. Extramural Library Service studied thirteen universities that offered a wide variety of extramural public services. A few libraries were active participants, others provided limited support for the work of extension departments. British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Toronto, Queen's, Western, Ottawa, McGill, Laval, Acadia, St. Francis Xavier, Mount Allison, and New Brunswick all participated in Snider's survey. Of these, Manitoba, Acadia, and New Brunswick did not have extension departments.

Essentially, in the immediate the postwar era, two main types of programing had evolved in Canadian universities. One grouping was course related--night classes in urban areas, correspondence courses, regular extension lectures for a short period, and summer schools. Mostly, academic credit was offered for advancement. McGill, Toronto, and Queen's were important in this regard. A second grouping of programs revolved around responses to the interests of users anxious to learn on their own or develop knowledge and skills related to local activities. Snider's definition for "extramural" emphasized this cultural work: she focused on library services to people who were not faculty, students, or staff attending university sessional classes. This perspective involved programming with reading clubs, handicrafts, films, debates, summer camps, music, commerce, entertainments and sports, short conferences and discussions for like-minded groups. In the east, St. Francis Xavier's Department of Extension was nationally recognized for its correspondence courses and lecture program especially on Cape Breton Island where branch libraries were established to support small, organized groups in a cooperative effort. To the west, the University of Alberta extension service was an acknowledged leader supported with a large library managed by its extension department. Also, British Columbia was an important source for provincial adult education and extramural work.

For academic libraries, providing resources for all these types of programs was a challenge. Snider's survey identified six main types of library borrowers--correspondence work, graduates, high school students, private individuals, formal library applicants, and clubs-study groups-community residents. For the most part, especially correspondence courses, there were specific requirements: "packet or package libraries" containing necessary reading and information were distributed to people and groups at a distance. Book lending was an ingredient in library activity, but not the major factor. But for the most part, extension work was not given priority in academic library work. Snider acknowledged her review presented an individualized portrait of institutions on a national stage where policy development presented "a rather primitive state of service" (p. 43). In fact, over the next quarter-century, university travelling and package library services began to wind down as regional public library services improved and students consulted better resourced regional and small public libraries. This likely accounts for the rare references to Snider's thesis because no comprehensive, coordinated Canadian plan of library development for rural Canada was developed in the postwar period.

After Snider completed her graduate work, and with a quarter-century of library work behind her from coast to coast in two countries, she left Columbia to return to Ontario to care for her father after her mother's death. She and her sister, Lillian (a teacher), became fixtures in local community life and heritage to the north of Kitchener. Winifred Snider died in 1994.

THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION ADVISORY GROUP ON CANADIAN COLLEGE LIBRARIES, 1930–35

The history of Canadian university and college libraries remains an understudied subject. To be sure, the "golden age" of rapid expansion of facilities and progressive professional development after 1960 has attracted attention. But, despite decades of interaction between Canada's educated elite (students, administrators, and faculty) and campus libraries and librarians, the period prior to 1960 is mostly the record of individual librarians (usually directors), iconic buildings, and underdeveloped collections. In the general history of all Canadian libraries that emphasizes the public library movement, the Carnegie building program between 1900-25, regional library growth after the 1930s, the postwar formation of the Canadian Library Association (1946) and establishment of the National Library (1953), and the dramatic contrast between library development in Quebec and English-speaking provinces, there seem to be no major events or themes of similar consequence pertaining to libraries in higher education.

In the legacy of Carnegie philanthropy, too, colleges and universities reside outside the usual historiographical library tradition. For example, there was only one Canadian library, Victoria in Toronto, that benefited from Carnegie building grants for university libraries prior to World War I. However, there is one significant period when the Carnegie Corporation of New York contributed significantly to the development of Canadian university and college libraries. During the Great Depression (1932 to 1935), 34 libraries in institutions of higher education shared in book grants totaling $214,800 (approximately $4,000,00 in 2016) as a result of a national (Canada and Newfoundland) examination conducted by an advisory group established by the Corporation. The ways in which the Canadian Advisory Group investigated and inspected potential recipients, evaluated whether they complied with conditions set, and distributed grants typically followed the policies and procedures established by an earlier American Advisory Group funded by the Corporation. Carnegie and university records document how financial aid was awarded and directed to the advancement of undergraduate print collections. Our sources can also be used to study the Canadian group in relation to the role of American philanthropic college library work, attempts by Canadian administrators to adapt library collections and organization to local circumstances, and trends in the improvement of undergraduate library services on a national scale.

You can read my article on this interesting, mostly unknown story and its contribution to the development of Canadian libraries in higher education in the latest fall 2016 issue of Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'éducation. HSE covers all aspects of education, from preschool to university education, informal and formal education, and methodological and historiographical issues.

The Carnegie book program was of short duration. For the first time on a national scale, it drew attention to the need to improve undergraduate library resources and elevate the status of the library in educational institutions. The book grants were tied to the caliber of local library services and looked for a number of effects and results.

•  to awaken university administrators to the potential of a good library;
• to provide books required for collateral reading in connection with the courses and materials faculty designated for their own instructional needs;
• to promote the library more as a service-oriented partner with faculty and less as a passive repository of books;
• to supply books for voluntary student reading and encouragement of their use;
• to employ professionally educated librarians to ensure that acquisitions could be easily accessible through proper cataloguing and classification systems;
• to promote wide-ranging book selection covering all fields of knowledge;
• to educate students in the use of library resources, thereby better integrating holdings with academic programs.

Of course, there were many different results across Canada. In a few cases, universities reorganized their libraries to more effectively serve students. New undergraduate reading areas (sometimes called junior divisions) were established to house new holdings. A few major careers, e.g. Marjorie Sherlock from Alberta, were begun with the book stimulus program. On the whole, for a period prior to the Second World War the Carnegie program fostered library development in different ways and heightened awareness of the library's potential to undertake new directions that had not previously been in evidence. After 1945, many universities and colleges would revisit the library ideas that were planted in the difficult Depression years.