The Blackader-Lauterman Library of Architecture and Art is the University's parent library for the School of Architecture, the School of Urban Planning, and the Department of Art History. The Library originated in the early 1920's with an endowment from the family of the late Gordon Home Blackader, B.Arch. 1906.

Currently the Library holdings comprise close to 94,000 volumes, 2,500 rare volumes now housed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, and 320 journal subscriptions. As a result of the evolving curriculum, specialized collections have grown particularly strong in architectural history and design since the Middle Ages, Canadian architecture, urban design, planning and housing, as well as housing in the developing world. The Library collection is growing at an annual rate of 2,000 volumes. Since 1988, the Library has been fortunate to receive a number of important government grants awarded to specialized research collections. In 1993, the Blackader-Lauterman Library was privileged to receive a $250,000 eight-year collection subsidy from the R. Howard Webster Foundation for the purpose of further strengthening the research component of the collection.

The Library has one of the finest university-based rare book collections in Canada, with a particular strength in Renaissance architectural treatises and iconography. M.Arch. and Ph.D. candidates registered in the Architectural History and Theory Program use the rare materials as their primary working collection in the Architectural History seminar which is taught directly in the Rare Books and Special Collections Division.

The Library supports a strong program of bibliographic instruction at both undergraduate and graduate level, and offers tours, workshops and specialized bibliographic seminars throughout the year. About 10,000 reference questions are handled annually by the staff. Over the years, the library staff authored or collaborated on a number of specialized publications designed to improve access to material in the library and the architectural archives (CAC). These include Sources in Iconography (1994), Moshe Safdie Buildings and Projects (1996), Supervised Research Projects in Urban Planning 1949-1997 (1997). More recently, new technologies have been employed by the Library to make accessible art and architectural information in the electronic form. The Blackader website provides the gateway to a number of these.

Recently completed in the online full text, fully searchable version of The Canadian Architect and Builder, 1888-1908, in three phases, an initiative undertaken with grants by the Young Canada Works in Science and Technology, Canadian Library Association, and the Industry Canada Digital Collections Program. Another site is the Industrial Architecture of Montreal: a digital online resource.

Marilyn Berger, Head of the Blackader-Lauterman Library, represents the Library on the CREPUQ Art Libraries Sub-committee. Both the Library and the CAC staff are active members of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), and they were involved in planning for the Society's annual conference held in Montreal in March 1995.

There is a core staff of research librarians within the Blackader-Lauterman Library, in addition to students trained to work in the library during the academic year. Additional students and researchers are trained to work on the John Bland Canadian Architecture Collection.