Ian E. Wilson (born April 1943) is a former chief Librarian and Archivist of Canada. Appointed in 2004, he had previously (as of July 1999) been National Archivist of Canada. With

Roch Carrier Roch Carrier (born 13 May 1937) is a French Canadian novelist and author of "contes" (a very brief form of the short story). He is among the best known Quebec writers in English Canada. Life He was born in Sainte-Justine, Quebec, and studied a ...

, the then National Librarian, he developed and led the process to link the National Archive and National Library as a unified institution. His distinguished career has included archival and

information management Information management (IM) is the appropriate and optimized capture, storage, retrieval, and use of information. It may be personal information management or organizational. Information management for organizations concerns a cycle of organiz ...

, university teaching and government service. In addition, he has published extensively on history, archives, heritage, and information management and has lectured both nationally and abroad. Wilson retired as head of LAC in April 2009.

Life and work

Born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, he attended the

Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean The Royal Military College Saint-Jean (), commonly referred to as RMC Saint-Jean and CMR, is a Canadian military college and university. It is located on the historical site of Fort Saint-Jean, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, 40 km ...

and obtained a master's degree from Queen's University in 1974. He began his career at Queen's University Archives (1967), later becoming Saskatchewan's Provincial Archivist (1976–86) and Chairman of the Saskatchewan Heritage Advisory Board. He was appointed Archivist of Ontario in 1986, a position he held until 1999. For several years he was also responsible for the Ontario Public Library system. Wilson chaired the Consultative Group on Canadian Archives on behalf of the

Social Sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

and Humanities Research Council. The Group's report, ''Canadian Archives'' - generally known as the "Wilson Report" - was published in 1980 and has been described as "a milestone in the history of archival development in Canada." As a librarian and archivist, he serves on the Service Transformation Advisory Committee of the

Treasury Board of Canada The Treasury Board of Canada () is the Cabinet committee of the Privy Council of Canada which oversees the spending and operation of the Government of Canada and is the principal employer of the core public service. The committee is supported ...

and was appointed their Information Management co-Champion for the Government of Canada in 2002. He is also a member of the

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

. He has taught as an adjunct professor in the Faculties of Information Studies and Graduate Studies of the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. He was responsible for repatriating the Winkworth Collection to Canada in 2008.Canadian Press
"Federal deal to acquire rare Canadiana nearly collapsed: documents"
January 3, 2009

Awards and recognition

He served as President of the Ontario Historical Society (1975–1976) and more recently was President of the Champlain Society from 1995 to 2003, and Vice-President of the International Council on Archives from 2000 to 2004. (Ian E. Wilson, https://www.ica.org/en/ian-e-wilson-0 (2022.01.16) In 2001, he was awarded an

Honorary Doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

of Letters (D. Litt.) from

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

in recognition of his contribution to Canadian archives. In 2002, he became

member of the Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. In 2003, he was elected Fellow of the Society of American Archivists and appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France. In 2009 Wilson became a Fellow of the Association of Canadian Archivists, an honour bestowed upon him at the ACA conference held in Calgary, Alberta. In 2019, Wilson was appointed as an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Ian E. 1943 births Living people Anglophone Quebec people Canadian librarians Officers of the Order of Canada People from Montreal Royal Military College of Canada alumni Librarians and Archivists of Canada