Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Encyclopedia
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. Its mission, defined by law B-2.2, An Act respecting the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, is "to assemble, preserve permanently and disseminate Quebec's published documentary heritage together with any related document of cultural interest, and documents relating to Quebec that are published outside Quebec", as well as "to offer democratic access to Quebec's national documentary heritage, culture and knowledge and to act as catalyst in relation to Quebec documentary institutions, thus contributing to the personal development of citizens". BAnQ receives approximately C$80 million in annual financing and is obliged by law to offer free, universal access to all its collections.
BAnQ is the result of a merger between the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec (BnQ), the Archives nationales du Québec (AnQ), and the Grande bibliothèque du Québec
Grande Bibliothèque du Québec
The Grande Bibliothèque du Québec was a public corporation of the province of Quebec, Canada. It came to existence in 1998 and merged with Bibliothèque nationale du Québec in 2002. Its purpose was to plan the creation of the Grande Bibliothèque....
(GBQ) which was completed in 2006. BAnQ now unites public services of conservation and accessibility to the archives and publications. The organisation oversees eleven centres in nine cities.
Collection
The library's collection includes legal deposit copies of all works printed in Quebec, concerning Quebec, or written or contributed to by an author from Quebec.History
It was created on 12 August 1967 thanks to the collections and assets of the Saint-Sulpice LibrarySaint-Sulpice Library
The Saint-Sulpice Library is an historic building located at 1700 Saint Denis Street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was designated a Historic Monument of Quebec in 1988....
, which was originally incorporated in 1910. The general collection of reference works continued to be located in the historic Beaux-Arts building of the old Saint-Sulpice Library, erected in 1915 on Saint Denis Street
Saint Denis Street
Saint Denis Street is a major north-south thoroughfare in Montreal, Quebec.The street itself extends from the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel on Saint Paul Street in Old Montreal to the bank of the Rivière des Prairies at the north end of the island...
, in the centre of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. However, most of the 240,000 books in the general collection were transferred in 1997 to a new head office and preservation centre in the premises of a disused factory, on Rue Holt, in the Rosemont neighbourhood of Montreal. An additional collection of over 55,000 government publications were mostly hosted on Rue de l'Esplanade, across from Mont-Royal Park
Mount Royal
Mount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians...
.
Most of those documents, along with all of the central branch of Montreal public library
Bibliothèque de Montréal
The Montreal Public Libraries Network is the public library system on the Island of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. It is the largest French language public library system in North America. It also has items in English and other languages...
's collections, following an agreement between those institutions, have been relocated in the new Grande Bibliothèque
Grande Bibliothèque
The Grande Bibliothèque is a very large public library in Downtown Montreal, Quebec. Its collection is part of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec , Quebec's national library.Membership in the library is free to all residents of Quebec...
, which was officially opened April 20, 2005 and opened to the general public the following Saturday, April 30, 2005. This new 33,000 m² library, a 90.6 million dollar project, contains over 4 million volumes, including the former collection of the Bibliothèque centrale de Montréal. Its works are divided between the Collection nationale, which are available for reference, and the Collection universelle de prêt et de référence of general works, which include both circulation and reference works.
The rest of the BnQ's buildings were closed upon the opening of the GB, except for the preservation centre which houses the special collections and private archives (also available for consultation).
Among other BAnQ tasks since 1979 is to assign ISBN prefixes in first group identifier "2" to all French-language publishers in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and all non-English publishers in Quebec. As a successful incentive towards the use of ISBN, the government of Quebec has removed provincial sales tax
Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....
from all monographs bearing an ISBN since 1991. BAnQ has also published a monthly bibliography since 1969, as well as an extensive 26-volume bibliography covering the period between 1821 and 1967, when legal deposit was established. The library catalog
Library catalog
A library catalog is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations...
ue, IRIS, has been available online since 1994.
Personalities
The President and Executive Director of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is Dr. Guy Berthiaume, expert on classical Antiquity and former Vice-president - Research at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He is assisted by five executive directors:- Benoit Ferland, preservation
- Hélène Roussel, library services
- François Montreuil, information technologies and telecommunications
- Louise Boutin, administrative and internal services
- Carol Couture, archives