November / December 2001 Vol. 33, no. 6

Happy Anniversary

Gwynneth Evans, National and International Programs

Happy birthday and congratulations to the Friends of the National Library of Canada. The 10th anniversary of an association born in the early ’90s is indeed a time for celebration. During this time, Canada faced a downturn in the economy and a period of adjustment to a networked, globalized world. In 1991, a group of committed citizens agreed to promote and encourage public interest and support for one of the country’s significant heritage institutions, the National Library of Canada.

The founding Board met first in March 1991 and launched its publicity campaign at a gala reading by Robertson Davies on November 4, 1991, where he read from Murther and Walking Spirits to a packed audience.

The Board and the members of the Friends have represented many of the Library’s constituencies; while many come from the National Capital Region, there have always been members from other parts of Canada. Their activities have included the development of important events like public readings and lectures by eminent Canadians, an on-site boutique, guided tours during the summer, volunteer work in the special collections, and hospitality at the Governor General’s Literary Award Winners Reading and other public events.

Since 1995, the Friends have also undertaken major activities such as the annual used book sale and auction, events for which many individuals dedicate numerous hours of physically and mentally taxing voluntary time. These two fall events are considered major fund-raising activities.

The Friends’ constant focus has been to increase the size and stature of the Canadiana collections, as the following list prepared by Claude Le Moine and Liana Van der Bellen attests. This cultural focus has led the association to host literary bus tours of the Ottawa area and visits to Washington and Boston to meet groups from other national cultural institutions. The genesis of the concept of the Lowy Council to promote interest in and support for the rich collection of Hebraica and Judaica given to the Library by Mr. Jacob M. Lowy in 1977 may also be traced to the Friends.

The 10th anniversary is a time to acknowledge, thank and celebrate the varied achievements of the Board, staff and members of the Friends, in the context of the International Year of Volunteers. We are grateful for Georgia Ellis’s work in establishing the Friends; she has acted as executive director since September 1990. Her assistant, Cathée Rochon, has lent her support for the same length of time (with two periods of leave for child care).

They, along with a number of very faithful Board members and volunteers, have made possible the accomplishments noted so briefly in this article. And it is to Liana Van der Bellen, former chief of Rare Books and archivist of the National Library’s publications, that we owe so much of the documentary history of the Friends. Without this evidence, it would be much more difficult to capture the past and to prepare for the future.

As the National Library of Canada strives to increase its relevance and visibility to citizens across Canada through service to all Canadians, it salutes the contribution of the Friends and counts on the association for its continued promotion and encouragement of public interest and support. Thank you and best wishes.

Information on the Friends can be found at www.nlc-bnc.ca/friends/.