Today, 22 March 2019, marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Library and Archives Canada Act receiving royal assent.
Today is also the anniversary of the birth of Canada's most renowned Dominion Archivist and Keeper of the Public Records Sir Arthur George Doughty, KBE CMG FRSC (22 March 1860 – 1 December 1936). Born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, arriving in Canada in 1886 he served from 1904 until 1935. He is buried with his second wife in Ottawa's Notre Dame Cemetery.
Sadly the Dictionary of Canadian Biography has still yet to publish his biography. There are short articles in Wikipedia and The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Aside from Doughty's significant contributions, his colourful past will be a highlight of Glenn Wright's Pat Horan Memorial Lecture Sex, Lies and Archives: True Stories of Love and Deception at Gene-o-Rama on Friday 5 April.
As it happens this week I visited with a friend who lives near the Rosemount library and uses it several times a week to borrow books and for local programmes. It's a very population dense area with mixed economic conditions. Not everyone is able to travel easily by bus to another branch and for some a half hour journey would be difficult. There are local options that the library has arranged nearby which should help the local patrons in the interim. That will always be a very local branch and is not large especially when you consider the population density in the neighbourhood.
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