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National Library News |
 © Yves Beaulieu 1995 |
In accepting this new responsibility entrusted to me by the Honorable Sheila Copps, I am like an experienced boxer before a match – afraid, but not ashamed of it because I am ready!
At the moment, it is impossible for me not to think of Jorge Luis Borges, a great writer who was director of the Argentine National Library. I read his works a long time ago when I was a student. This was many years before the discovery of cyberspace. I still believe that Borges, in his reflections on the library, had already foreseen the development of technology. I read Borges without knowing that one day I would be asked to manage my own country’s library. Like Borges’s stories, life is full of these mysterious coincidences.
First, I must thank Marianne Scott who deserves a great deal of respect from everybody for having guided the National Library through the still uncharted waters of the information era.
Our responsibility is to continue this voyage: explore, invent and conquer! The National Library is composed of competent and devoted professionals who carry out our institution’s national mandate. My role will be to help them build the future.
Many associations, institutions and professionals wish to be partners in this Library of tomorrow that we must create today. Since the news of my appointment, their letters, reports and telephone calls have surrounded me like a comforting tide, comforting yet worrisome! I saw this swelling wave of good will and felt it come over me when I was alone in my small office, trying to finish tasks which I had started. I apologize for my silence. Now, having assumed my position, I will contact, one by one, all these people outside the National Library who want me to succeed and want to participate in OUR success.
The National Library of Canada must play a more decisive role in the information world. It must reinforce its presence in the regions. It must be more accessible and more visible. It must be present on the international scene with meaningful actions and well defined projects. It must become an indispensable institution for all Canadians.
At this moment when it is so important to the existence of our country to define, defend and express our national identity, the National Library of Canada has a major responsibility and I will work so that it will receive the means by which to fulfill that responsibility.
We will continue to find new ways to provide better service. We will strive to suppress regional and social disparities regarding access to information. I also want to focus on the collection, conservation and cataloguing functions to ensure that these areas have adequate human and financial resources.
With enthusiasm, I will ask the employees of the National Library, the university community, authors, publishers, librarians, professional associations, persons working in new media and government information agencies to contribute to finding the best ways to preserve our collective memory in order to make it accessible. In this time of globalization, one cannot be closed in by a tribal business attitude.
I have not yet said anything about technology. Libraries can, without a doubt, contribute to the improvement of the quality of life by assisting with the diffusion of ideas and accumulated human experience. I recognize that life has prepared me well for these challenges. With your collaboration, I will apply myself to this task...
Roch Carrier
National Librarian