|
National Library News |
Tom Tytor,
Research and Information Services
 Quebec Chronicle. [Quebec: s.n., 1890]. |
Sandra Burrows, the National Library’s newspaper specialist, presented the November SAVOIR FAIRE seminar. Following a brief introduction in which she outlined the development of the National Library’s newspaper collection – a collection that started with the transfer of the print newspapers formerly housed in the Library of Parliament and the Public Archives of Canada – her discourse concentrated on the nation-wide initiatives to preserve and promote Canada’s newspaper heritage. In 1982, the National Library of Canada, in consultation with libraries and archives across Canada, adopted the Decentralized Program for Canadian Newspapers as a framework for national and provincial/territorial responsibilities with regard to the collection, preservation and accessibility of Canadian newspapers.
Notwithstanding the participation of various Canadian newspaper publishers at the first National Newspaper Colloquium in 1985, they are not among the most active players in cooperative preservation. This is in contrast to preservation developments in Great Britain, where the national program, NEWSPLAN, has received funding from the major newspaper publishers, as well as from government. Through the United States Newspaper Plan, a cooperative initiative spearheaded by the Library of Congress and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, states receive support for collecting and preserving papers as part of their archival mandate.
Using the Internet, Sandra Burrows accessed the sites of several archives and legislative libraries in order to demonstrate diverse provincial/territorial developments relating to Canadian newspapers. In addition, she displayed a number of Web sites of provincial genealogical organizations. Two of the National Library’s electronic resource guides were singled out for their research value: Canadian Newspapers on Microform Held by the National Library at <http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/services/news/cnie.htm> and the Checklist of Indexes to Canadian Newspapers Held by the National Library at <http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/services/checklist/intro-e.htm>. A new resource guide to special editions of Canadian newspapers (events and holidays) has recently been launched at <http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/newspapers/newspapers.html>.
Several examples of original issues from the Library’s collection of Native and ethnic newspapers and various first, last and special historical issues were circulated among the seminar audience. They included an Estonian-Canadian newspaper, Vaba Eestlane/Free Estonian; an Inuit newspaper, Suvaguq; a special gold-rush number of the Dawson Daily News; a Christmas issue of the Quebec Chronicle, 1890; a sample of a student newspaper, The Varsity War Supplement, July 1915; a Parliamentary Press Gallery issue; a pre-1867 specimen from The Royal Herald (Charlottetown) and an unusual example of the first issue of the Regina Leader that had been reproduced on flour cloth.
From the questions that followed the seminar, it was clear that the large audience was eager to benefit from Ms. Burrows’s experience and expertise regarding Canadian newspapers.
The next SAVOIR FAIRE seminar, "Some Thoughts on History and Identity", by Olive Dickason, will take place on March 21.
Details concerning the Decentralized Program for Canadian Newspapers have appeared previously in the following articles in the National Library News:
"Update on the Decentralized Program for Canadian Newspapers (DPCN)", vol. 29, no. 10 (October 1997);
"Decentralized Program for Canadian Newspapers (DPCN): East Coast Updates", vol. 29, no. 6 (June 1998);
"Decentralized Program for Canadian Newspapers (DPCN): Western and Northern Canada Updates", vol. 31, no. 2 (February 1999).
The particulars were also published in
Serials Librarian, vol. 26, no. 3/4 (1995).
Information relating to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Round Table on Newspapers is accessible on the Internet at <http://www.ifla.org/VII/rt13/rtnew.htm>.