Grande Bibliothèque
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2011) |
Grande Bibliothèque | |
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General information | |
Type | Public library |
Location | 475 De Maisonneuve Boulevard east Montreal, Quebec H2L 5C4 |
Coordinates | 45°30′56″N 73°33′45″W / 45.5156°N 73.5624°W |
Construction started | 2001 |
Opened | 30 April 2005 |
Cost | $90.6 million |
Owner | Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 5 |
Floor area | 33,000 m2 (360,000 sq ft) |
Design and construction | |
Architecture firm | Patkau Architects Croft-Pelletier/Gilles Guité |
Website | |
banq.qc.ca |
Grande Bibliothèque | |
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Established | October 2002 |
Architect(s) | Marie-Chantal Croft, Patkau Architects |
Collection | |
Items collected | books, e-books, music, cds, periodicals, maps, genealogical archives, business directories, local history, |
Size | 4 million items |
The Grande Bibliothèque is a public library in Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its collection is part of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Quebec's national library.
Membership in the library is free to all residents of Quebec. It has some 10,000 users per day and a record of 3 million users in 2009—double the projected figure of 1.5 million for that year.[1] In 2011, it attracted 2.7 million visitors, and was the most frequented public library in both North America and the Francophonie.[2]
Collection
The Grande Bibliothèque's collection consists of some 4 million works, including 1.14 million books, 1.2 million other documents, and 1.66 million
These works are divided into two collections. The Collection nationale or Québec heritage collection, with about one million works, consists of copies of all works given to the BNQ for
The Collection universelle de prêt et de référence, 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 DVD and Blu-ray, and 500 software programs, available for loan.[6] The library's adapted book service holds more than 50,000 documents for the visually impaired, including Braille and audiobooks.[6]
Services
The library has 1300 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 Québec, and a language laboratory.
In addition to its collections, reading rooms, and audio-visual facilities, the Grande Bibliothèque also contains exhibition spaces, conference rooms, theatres, and auditoriums.
Building
The Grande Bibliothèque, which had been a pet project of former Québec premier Lucien Bouchard, was designed by Patkau Architects from Vancouver and Croft-Pelletier/Gilles Guité from Quebec City.
Construction on the new 33,000 m² library, a
The contemporary-styled 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. In the first three weeks of July 2005, three more of these plates shattered, an average of one breakage per week. Metal barricades and canopies were used to secure the areas until the problem was corrected.
The national and universal collections are each housed in one of two chambres de bois ("wooden rooms"), a reference to
In accordance with the Québec 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 landscape art each year; currently containing Jardin punk and Jardin de la forêt urbaine by Roger Gaudreau.
The Grande Bibliothèque is located at 475
See also
- Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
- Bibliothèque de Montréal
- List of national libraries
- Literature of Quebec
References
- ^ Guthrie, Jennifer. "La Grande Bibliothèque a 5 ans." Métro (Montréal), April 29, 2010, p. 10.
- ^ "GRANDE BIBLIOTHÈQUE: La plus fréquentée de la Francophonie". Agence QMI. 2012-11-02. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Grande Bibliothèque. "The multilingual collection". BAnQ.
- ^ "Édition relative au Québec". BAnQ (in French).
- ^ Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. "La Collection nationale". BAnQ.
- ^ OCLC 277203534.
- ^ Guy, Chantal. "Le plus grand succès de la Francophonie." La Presse, October 16, 2009.
External links
- Official Website (in French, with English summary)
- Grande Bibliothèque du Québec on Images Montréal Website