Published with the support of the Canadian High Commission in London, this is the third edition of a guide first issued in 1979. Forming a companion volume to Canadian Studies in the UK (Timpson et al., 1996) its purpose is to provide information on significant collections of material relevant to Canadian studies to be found in UK and Irish libraries, archives and museums, and to indicate the location of specialised research collections. Accordingly some 500 national, university and special libraries, government departments, companies, and other institutions and organisations with an identifiable interest in Canada were surveyed. The paradox was that, although courses in Canadian studies have multiplied since the publication of the second edition in 1983, two major collections of Canadiana came under a serious threat of dispersal. Fortunately both survived intact. The Royal Commonwealth Society Library found a secure home in Cambridge University Library whilst Canada House Library, established early in the post‐war period to support the work of the High Commission, and to provide a reliable public information source, travelled a short distance across Central London in 1994 to the main Senate House Library of the University of London. Your reviewer has pleasant memories of fruitful work in both these libraries when engaged on various projects over a long period of years.
All told, 177 institutions with Canadiana collections are registered. This seems a small return from a survey encompassing almost three times as many. Apart from indicating that a few libraries which appeared in the previous edition were excluded, at their own request, either on the grounds that their Canadiana collections were insufficient to warrant inclusion, or else because it was not possible for them to allow access to external readers, there is no explanation for the obvious discrepancy in numbers. This is not to decry the guide’s value: the information it contains, and the clarity with which it is presented, combine to make it an indispensable reference tool for students and researchers. Institutions are entered A‐Z by the town or city in which they are located. Each entry provides full contact information, descriptions of the nature and purpose of its library, its Canadiana collections, and details of its holdings. Library size is categorised in five broad, lettered bands, A to E. In the case of library type E, one holding over a million items like, for example, the National Library of Scotland, the entries can run to five or more pages. The index includes references for names of institutions, subjects, Canadian provinces and regions, and for special collections of archives, manuscripts, and maps, etc.
Its headquarters located in Scotland, the British Association for Canadian Studies is no doubt aware of the imminent devolution of power to Edinburgh and, as if to underline its loyalty to the cause, has firmly Scotticised the name of the chief executive of the British Library. Is this simply a confusion with the construction firm that played a prominent role in the building of the St Pancras library, or is it a sinister portent of the cultural imperialism the rest of the UK can expect in the coming months?
