A tribute to Janet Blachford
2017 Friend of the Year
Cecil Rabinovitch
A Word of Welcome from the Chair
There has never been a more exciting time to be involved with great university libraries – and McGill’s is one of the greatest.
A sea change is underway in how libraries are being perceived and used by students, professors and the broader community – fuelled in great part by a wave of technological innovations - that will make them more vital and vibrant than ever before. Libraries are transforming themselves across the globe from being not only great repositories of accumulated knowledge, but also active centres of learning and teaching.
The McGill University Library is considered among the finest in North American, with special recognition of its e-collections as one of the best in Canada and its internationally important Rare Books and Special Collections.
In the eighties a volunteer group of advocates came together as The Friends of the Library to promote and support this great treasure. Our mission has been to nurture community interest in McGill libraries, create awareness of its rich resources and cultivate support for its collections.
To this end we offer a program of three, free, endowed public lectures each year to which we invite distinguished novelists, actors, judges, broadcasters, historians and among others to speak. We also host a series of smaller talks with noted speakers.
I invite you to join Friends of the Library and further, invite another friend or colleague to join with you. I am confident that you will enjoy being part of this group of library aficionados, the programs we offer, and most importantly, the wonderful resource and richness that is the McGill Library.
In the first edition of his dictionary in 1806, Noah Webster defined a friend as, “a dependable companion.” How wonderfully simple and wonderfully complete! The more dependable companions we have to support and sustain the initiatives of McGill’s great Libraries the better. I look forward to having you join The Friends!
Ann Vroom, BA’67
Chair, McGill Friends of the Library
The Friends of the Library is a not-for-profit organization of McGill Library advocates. We raise awareness about the McGill Library’s extraordinary resources.
Our members are McGill alumni, students, staff and faculty as well as a host of other Library and McGill enthusiasts from around North America.
The Friends of the Library Committee invites you to join and become a Friend of the Library! Please visit our Membership page for more information.
The Friends host numerous lectures and special events over the course of the academic year. Please visit our Events page for a listing and to RSVP.