BAnQ to add corporate sponsorship logos
The Grande bibliothèque has made a corporate partnership with a finance company and will soon start featuring its logos in the lobby and elsewhere.
Must remember to renew my municipal library subscription, now that I think of it.
Robert 13:28 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
At one point, we had central public library that belonged to the “city”. It ran out of space/resources, and instead of expanding/soliciting various levels of government for money, we combined resources with the province.
What’s left of the old city library system is the borough libraries. The decentralized branches each give their own membership cards, and though they do share a collection, they have the distinct disadvantage of not being directly related to a strong central branch. You need 2 cards to get books at both the Grande bibliotheque and your local Montreal library. You also cannot order Grande bibliothèque books at a local branch either (tell me if I’m mistaken here).
The Grande Bibliothèque plays a similar role to a civic central branch library, but its mission is closer to that of the National Library and Archives of Canada, which keeps record of Canadian publications, literature, etc. Such institutions have great value, but one that is somewhat less open to local citizens than the “civic library” model that exists in most large North American cities.
City libraries, university libraries, and state library/archives all have their place, but I think they are best separated.
Kate 13:40 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
The old main city library on Sherbrooke was really nice. I went there for one of the book sales they held before closing, and they were still giving a lot of shelf space to books that were totally dead – way outdated computer manuals, technical texts and outdated science books, lots of books on Catholic views of things that nobody wants any more. If they’d sent somebody sensible in with a dumpster we could still be using that building as a library.
Anyway, yeah. Do you happen to know whether, if I get a card at a borough library, it works in all of them? It’s not made clear on the city’s website.
Robert 13:43 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
Not sure but I think so. I had a Plateau one before, and the card was clearly marked with borough’s name. Their website has a system-wide search engine, so I presume you could go to say CdN with my card and take out books, then return them to the Plateau branch, for instance.
Robert 13:54 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
By the way, Toronto’s main branch alone has 3-4 times the collection of the Grande Bibliotheque.
Ian 14:10 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
You can not use your “local” library card at all Montreal libraries. Except the Grande Bibliotheque, stupidly.
Robert 14:19 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
Yeah see that’s a mess.
Ian 14:46 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
There’s also an interlibrary loan service, so if there’s a book you want in a different location they can send it to your local library. Not available at all libraries, unfortunately. http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=4397,6398001&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&id=4
Kate 14:59 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
What about wi-fi? I’m really more concerned about the convenience of stopping by any library and using the wi-fi than borrowing books. If I have a library card, can I loaf in any city library on my laptop?
Also, am I constrained to using the library in my borough? I live in Villeray (east of the Main) but for some reason the city has ordained that a street and a half of Villeray fall within Park Ex, so legally I live in Park Ex. Do I have to hike over and sign up to use only the Park Ex library? The Mile End (RICHLER) library is so much nicer.
Kate 19:21 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
Oh, and Robert, this Coolopolis story might explain why we’re still playing catch-up on libraries. Briefly, when other cities were getting Carnegie-funded libraries around the turn of the last century, the offer was turned down by Montreal’s Catholic archbishop, who vehemently did not want his flock reading books.
Poutine Pundit 19:53 on 2012/09/18 Permalink
The logos were already in the lobby when I went a week ago.
Kate 00:45 on 2012/09/19 Permalink
I sort of hate it. I know I should be glad the library’s found another source of funding, but I wonder if that kind of thing doesn’t cheapen the whole venture. If you have a corporate sponsor, and someone publishes a book criticizing them, then what? A library ought to be free of obligations, and taking money creates obligations – how could it not?
Robert J 14:21 on 2012/09/19 Permalink
Yeah. I had heard about that as well.
C_Erb 16:25 on 2012/09/19 Permalink
@Kate: Parc-Ex and Villeray are two neighbourhoods in the same borough so that wouldn’t be a problem (all the borough libraries in the city are connected so it wouldn’t matter if it was a different borough anyway. My card is from the Sud-Ouest because I got it at a library in Ville-Émard, which they still gave to me despite my Parc-Ex address).
Also, the city doesn’t really have any hard borders for neighbourhoods within boroughs. I suspect you’re getting the borough borders from the map that came with the recycling bags sent out in our borough a couple weeks ago. Those borders only exist within the solid waste collection realm of existence to split up a very large borough into 4 sections. Those borders don’t really mean anything otherwise.
Kate 16:41 on 2012/09/19 Permalink
The borders make a difference during municipal elections. Villeray-Park Ex-St-Michel has a borough mayor and then one councillor each for Park Ex, Villeray, Saint-Michel and François-Perrault, the last named being the southern part of the old town of Saint-Michel with the octagonal street and the metro. My vote goes to Park Ex whereas the people across the street vote in Villeray.
I should hasten to add that I have no problem with Park Ex and wouldn’t be ashamed of living there – if I did! The natural eastern boundary of Park Ex is the tracks. It’s just bizarre that the city displaces the boundary to the middle of a street in Villeray.
I’ll pop over to the Park Ex library sometime soon and see about a card. I used to have one in the Plateau but didn’t update it when I moved up here a few years ago.