Selected serials from Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

Lakhanpal is collection development librarian at the University of Saskatchewan Library in Saskatoon. About a hundred years ago the territory now known as Saskatchewan was a part of Canada's Northwest Territories, which extended from the Great Lakes to British Columbia and from the United States border to the Arctic Ocean. Around 1900 the government of the Dominion of Canada decided to open this territory to people from other parts of Canada and the United States. Free agricultural lands and homesteads were offered to newcomers from eastern Canada, the United States, and even from the British Isles, Europe, and China. The result was a multicultural mosaic of newcomers, natives, French trappers, and the Metis. In 1905 approximately one-third of the Northwest Territories became a province in the Dominion of Canada and was named Saskatchewan, a name derived from an anglicized version of a Cree word meaning swiftly flowing river. At the time Regina and Saskatoon were the major cities; Regina became the capital, and Saskatoon became the home of the province's university. The legislative assembly of the province passed the act establishing the University of Saskatchewan on 3 April 1907. The first classes in arts and science began on 28 September 1909, when seventy students were registered. The people of Saskatchewan have always had a great regard for history and have therefore developed a strong tradition of local histories that document the many changes that have taken place in the society, the landscape, and the institutions and present the contributions of pioneers in the fields of religion, agriculture, education, and exploration. Serial publications have no doubt been a natural outgrowth of this desire to document the history of the province.