| Contents | Previous article | Next article |

National Library News

October 1995, vol. 27, no. 10

From Library to Studio

by Iris Winston, Staff Writer

Michael Hood and
National Librarian
Marianne Scott.

The Chief of the Selection and Acquisition Division for most of his 20-year career at the National Library of Canada, he retired on June 16, and now intends to pursue a full-time career as an artist.

"Art has been my avocation all my life," he says. "I now intend it to become my vocation."

He is well on the way: a show of his abstract paintings is set for an Ottawa venue this fall. It will include a number of new works as well as works that he has completed over the last 15 years.

It was his long-standing interest in art and art history that drew him to his career as a librarian, he says. "I grew up in Hamilton and had the very fine library there at my disposal. I spent much of my time borrowing books on art and artists. The more time I spent at the library, the more the idea of becoming a librarian appealed to me."

Describing himself as "essentially a book person" throughout a career devoted to collection development, Hood worked in the fine arts and music areas of the Edmonton Public Library before becoming collections coordinator and head of cataloguing at the library of Concordia University. He came to the National Library in 1975. "I've had a good career here," he says. "I have particularly enjoyed dealing with collections and my contacts with publishers, library agents and booksellers, nationally and internationally."

Other highlights have been co-authoring a two-volume resources survey on visual arts in Canada, being advisor to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) committee for special research collections over the past 10 years, and being a member of the advisory committee to Reed Reference Publishing in the U.S. "The very best, however, was being part of the good times when collections were growing," he says. "But, sadly, times have changed. When you have devoted a career to building collections, it is discouraging to see so much deselection and downsizing. It is not pleasant to take collections apart, particularly collections that you have helped to build."

His retirement will enable him to create and build up another collection -- that of his own artworks.