Grande Bibliothèque du Québec

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The 33,000 square metre Grande Bibliothèque du Québec building in Montreal. The sculpture in the forecourt is Espace fractal by Jean-Pierre Morin.

The Grande Bibliothèque du Québec (English: Great Library of Quebec/Grand Library of Quebec, GBQ) is a very large public library in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its collection is part of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Quebec's national library.

Membership in the library is free to all residents of Quebec.

[edit] Collection

The main entrance hall of the GBQ.

The central volume of the GBQ, with the shelves of the Collection universelle.

The GBQ's collection consists of some 4,000,000 works, including 1,140,000 books, 1,200,000 other documents, and 1,660,000 microfiches. The majority of the works are in French; about 30% are in English, and a dozen other languages are also represented.

These works are divided into two collections. The Collection nationale or Quebec heritage collection, with about one million works, consists of copies of all works given to the BNQ for legal deposit since 1968. This is supplemented by the Saint-Sulpice collection of some 78,000 works, some dating back to the 1760s and including books from the personal libraries of such figures as Louis-Joseph Papineau and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine. The Collection nationale is available for on-site reference.

The Collection universelle, a collection of about three million works on all subjects, includes the collection of the Bibliothèque centrale de Montréal, purchased from the city of Montreal for the project, as well as new acquisitions. Except for reference works, these works are available for loan. Written works are catalogued by the Dewey Decimal System.

Besides written works, there is also a large multimedia collection including 70,000 music CDs, 5,000 music scores, 16,000 films on VHS or DVD, and 500 software programs, available for loan. The library's adapted book service holds more than 50,000 documents for the visually impaired, including Braille and audio books.

[edit] Services

The library has 1,300 reading armchairs, 850 study seats and carrels, and 350 computer stations.

The basement contains a children's library with special audio-visual equipment, the Espace jeunes.

Its extensive multimedia facilities include 44 audio stations and 50 video stations, as well as multimedia computer terminals and two music rooms with facilities for composing electronic music.

Other specialized services include a job and career centre, a business connection centre, a special service centre for newcomers to Quebec, and a language laboratory.

In addition to its collections, reading rooms, and audio-visual facilities, the library also contains exhibition spaces, conference rooms, theatres, and auditoriums.

[edit] Building

The reading room of the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec's Collection nationale.

The south terrace working area between the second and third floors. Laptop computers can access the Internet using a free high-speed WiFi hotspot.

The GBQ, which had been a pet project of former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard, was designed by Patkau Architects from Vancouver, British Columbia and Croft-Pelletier/Gilles Guité from Quebec City.

Construction on the new 33,000 m² library, a $90.6 million CAD project, began in 2001 on the site of the former Palais du commerce. It was officially opened 23 April 2005 in time for the World Book and Copyright Day, during a year in which Montreal held the honorary title of World Book Capital given by UNESCO. The library was opened to the general public the following Saturday, April 30, 2005, and loans began on May 3.

The contemporary-styles five-storey building is clad with U-shaped plates of glass of a type never used before in North America, placed horizontally on the copper uprights that run the whole height of the building.

In June, 2005 three of these plates of glass shattered. The cause of the accidents is under investigation. In the first three weeks of July 2005, three more of these plates shattered, an average of one breakage per week. The library is now cordoned off by metal barricades to prevent people from approaching the glass walls. All street level approaches have covered walkways. The cordoned-off area encroaches onto the sidewalks and makes walking past the building difficult on the Berri Street side. The cordon also encroaches into the right lane of the street behind the building, Savoie Avenue.

The national and universal collections are each housed in one of two chambres de bois ("wooden rooms"), a reference to Anne Hébert's novel Les Chambres de bois. These multi-storey areas are demarcated by walls of wooden slats, either allowing indirect natural light or blocking it according to the conservation needs of the collection. The slats are made of Quebec-grown yellow birch, the provincial tree of Quebec.

In accordance with the Quebec government's policy on integrating art and architecture, the building contains several integrated works of art:

• an exterior sculpture, Espace fractal, by Jean-Pierre Morin;
• a glass mural on the rue Savoie façade, Vous êtes ici, by Dominique Blain;
• a kinetic luminous mural at metro level, Voix sans bruit, by Louise Viger;
• a sculpture garden to the north of the building, divided into plots of which one will be developed with sculpture and landscape art each year; currently containing Jardin punk and Jardin de la forêt urbaine by Roger Gaudreau.

The GBQ is located at 475, boul. De Maisonneuve Est ( 45°30′56.00″N, 73°33′45.00″W) at the corner of rue Berri, in the Quartier Latin adjacent to the UQAM campus, in the borough of Ville-Marie. It is connected by the underground city to Berri-UQAM metro station.

[edit] See also

• Literature of Quebec
• Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
• Bibliothèque de Montréal
• List of national libraries

[edit] External links

• Official Website (in French, with English summary)
• Grande Bibliothèque du Québec on Images Montréal Website