The preservation collection of Canadiana: A national heritage collection at 50

Abstract

On January 1st, 1953, the National Library of Canada came into being. Established by the Parliament of Canada, the National Library was charged with the stewardship of the country's published heritage. Specific responsibilities included compiling a bibliography of books published in Canada and preserving the published heritage of the nation for the benefit of its citizens. The principal means by which the Library would acquire Canadian books was legal deposit whereby publishers were obliged, at their own expense, to send two copies of their publications to the Library within 1 week of publication. In addition, the Library could enter into agreements and exchanges to acquire material from governments and agencies both within the country and abroad. From this general mandate to build a heritage collection for the nation evolved the concept of a specifically designated preservation collection. In February 1988, the National Library created the Preservation Collection of Canadiana as a means of safeguarding the domestic published heritage. The goal, simply stated, was to preserve one copy of all original material published in the country. This paper considers the daunting task of creating such a preservation collection.