HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Ottawa Public Library (OPL; ) is the
library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
system of
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada. The library was founded in 1906 with a donation from the Carnegie Foundation.


Services

* Information and reference services * Access to full text databases * Community information * Reader's advisory services * Programs for children, youth and adults * Delivery to homebound individuals * Interlibrary loan


Information technology

The library originally provided
Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...
computers to use with some preloaded applications such as Office 2000 and
WordPerfect WordPerfect (WP) is a word processing application, now owned by Alludo, with a long history on multiple personal computer platforms. At the height of its popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s, it was the market leader of word processors, disp ...
. In January 2005, it upgraded three branches to
Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...
. The rest received that operating system by April of that year. In March 2014,
Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...
was rolled out and the software was upgraded to
Office 2007 Microsoft Office 2007 (codenamed Office 12) is an office suite for Windows, developed and published by Microsoft. It was officially revealed on March 9, 2006 and was the 12th version of Microsoft Office. It was released to manufacturing on Novemb ...
, but WordPerfect is now absent. Children accounts are filtered, while adults have the option of choosing unfiltered or filtered Internet access. Later, they added Wi-Fi hotspots at their branches. It is also possible to obtain free downloadable e-books, Zinio magazines, audiobooks and MP3 music from the library.


Origin of the OPL

Prior to the twentieth century, Ottawa had a few reading rooms in hotel lobbies, and also some small fee-based libraries for working men such as the Bytown Mechanics' Institute, but no truly free place in which anyone could read. The city's active Local Council of Women took up the cause of a free library for all. The first definite step taken for founding a Free Public Library was that of the Ottawa women in the early part of 1895. To attain this end, the Committee obtained the co-operation of the ''Evening Journal''. The proprietor generously placed his paper at the disposal of the ladies for a ''Woman's Issue.'' Mary McKay Scott was Managing Editor. The paper was issued April 13, 1895, and a profit of $500.00 realized. To secure municipal assistance, a by-law was submitted in January, 1896. The by-law was defeated. They announced, just before the election of 1896, that the mansion of George Perley, a local
lumber baron A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...
, was donated in his will as a home for the library. However, the city voted down the motion to build a library, as well as another motion to build a firehall; the city just didn't have any money to spare for "luxuries". Only in 1901, when letters were mailed to
Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...
. Carnegie replied that he would offer $100,000 to the city to build the library if they provided a site and a pledge of $7,500 a year to maintain it. They eventually agreed in January 1903, and within a few years the library was built and open to the public. The day after its official opening, in 1906, the original Carnegie library opened several hours later than expected, because the mass of people who had come to the opening day left the entire library in complete disarray, and had walked off with many items.


Present day OPL

The Main Library is located in
Downtown Ottawa Downtown Ottawa is the central area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as the Central Business District and contains Ottawa's financial district. It is bordered by the Ottawa River to the north, the Rideau Canal to the east, ...
at the corner of Metcalfe Street and Laurier Avenue West, at the same spot as the original Carnegie library, although nothing remains of the original building but a stained glass window. Several of the Corinthian columns from the old Carnegie library survive in the Rockeries in Rockcliffe Park, a rock garden maintained by the National Capital Commission. The library now has thirty-three branches spread throughout urban and rural Ottawa. Before the City of Ottawa's
amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan ama ...
in 2001, which resulted in the merging of eleven separate municipal library systems, the Ottawa Public Library itself only had eight libraries, including Sunnyside, Rideau, and Rosemount. Today, the library is divided into district branches Nepean Centrepointe,
Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...
and Greenboro, community branches such as Sunnyside, Ruth E. Dickinson and Carlingwood and several rural branches. Patrons throughout the new city have greatly benefited from the 2001 merger as they can now easily order almost items from another branch, and return books to any branch in the city. Ordering items via the library website for pickup at a local branch has been very popular, with over 5 million visitors to the website in 2007. The new system is very centralized, which has meant a loss of decision-making power in many ways, including the choice of books for purchase and the old, local ways of running the smaller libraries. Patrons can however suggest items for the library to purchase. The current CEO of OPL is Sonia Bebbington as of October 31, 2022. The OPL is governed by a board of nine part-time members appointed by the City of Ottawa, five city councillors and four members of the public. The Library is funded mainly by the city through local tax revenues. Some revenue also comes from the province, and traditional library sources of fees, fines, and fundraising. The library system has 2.3 million items, 91.7% percent of which are books. The library also has a large audio-visual collection including
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
s, CDs, and downloadable books and music. Since Ottawa has a significant francophone population, a large portion of the collection is in French, with some branches such as Vanier working almost exclusively in French. Smaller collections offer a wide array of other languages, notably Chinese,
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
, and
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
. According to the latest Ontario library statistics, only the Toronto Public Library has larger holdings. The library hosts a full range of programming for both adults and children, with children's programming being extremely popular. There are also 359 public internet stations and 79 electronic databases. The Library's two
bookmobile A bookmobile, or mobile library, is a vehicle designed for use as a library. They have been known by many names throughout history, including traveling library, library wagon, book wagon, book truck, library-on-wheels, and book auto service. Boo ...
s, which operated out of the Sunnyside branch for almost 50 years, stop at regularly scheduled places throughout the city in an effort to reach areas without library branches. Many of these neighborhoods are poorer, more remote, or simply too far from a branch. During a funding crisis in 2004, the older bookmobile was nearly decommissioned, but it was kept in service with a second, new bookmobile added in 2005. The Bookmobile headquarters was moved to the new Greenboro District Library in June 2006. The large new Greenboro District Library, built in the city's rapidly growing South end, opened on June 7, 2006, replacing the Blossom Park Branch established by the former
City of Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...
.


New central library

In recent years, numerous cities such as Vancouver, Seattle and Salt Lake City, have had great success in constructing new central libraries as part of downtown revitalization efforts. These urban landmarks have created new civic spaces that both create community and are key component of an information society. Accordingly, there is pressure for Ottawa to have a great design and follow other Canadian cities such as Calgary and Halifax, who have erected new libraries in recent years. There was an offer to the City Council from a developer for a partnership to build in the still-mostly-empty Lebreton Flats. The joint OPL-LAC Joint Facility (Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives of Canada) will be located at 555 Albert Street at the edge of LeBreton Flats.


City of Ottawa Central Archives and Ottawa Public Library Materials Centre

The City of Ottawa Central Archives and Ottawa Public Library Materials Centre is located at 100 Tallwood Dr. The
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...
(LEED) building was designed by Shoalts and Zaback Architects, and Barry J. Hobin and Associates Architects. The building features a variety of energy-saving technologies and renewable resources. The Archives includes a public reference room, exhibition gallery, conservation laboratory, and art vaults. The Library Materials Centre, features an Automated Materials Handling System, which helps sort and deliver the library materials to all 33 branches and the Bookmobile. The central archives and library materiels center was included amongst other architecturally interesting and historically significant buildings in
Doors Open Ottawa Doors Open Ottawa is an annual event held in the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, that gives the public access to many of the city's unique and historically significant buildings. Among the buildings included are government offices, museums, radio ...
, held June 2 and 3, 2012.


See also

* Ask Ontario * Bytown Mechanics' Institute * List of Carnegie libraries in Canada *
List of public libraries in Ontario This is a list of Public library, public libraries in Ontario. Ontario public libraries are created by municipal by-laws and governed by public library boards. The Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture (Ontario), Ministry of Tourism and Culture h ...
*
List of national and state libraries A national library is established by the government of a nation to serve as the pre-eminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, they rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valua ...


References


External links

* {{Authority control Municipal government of Ottawa Public libraries in Ontario Carnegie libraries in Canada Libraries established in 1906 Libraries in Ottawa 1906 establishments in Ontario