About this Exhibit
Celebrating the Kelly Library’s 50 Years: Spaces, Community, Collections, and Innovation

IN 1969 THE JOHN M. KELLY LIBRARY had just opened its doors, drawing the College’s print collections into a modern space for a modern time. The brutalist architecture still looms, but the inside is warm and welcoming – a space for learning and growth. There are expert staff, exemplary faculty, and enquiring students – a shared community of inspiration and creation. We have three floors of resources, analogue and digital, on shelves and screens – a collection to draw local and international knowledge seekers. Here are compelling exchanges, original research, quiet study, and splendid studios – an environment to support innovation in our community and our services.
Exhibit
- January to December 2019
Curated by
- Jessica Barr
- Constance Lewin
- Noel McFerran
Designed by
- Sheila Eaton
Exhibit Highlights
Opening with the Canadian Fine Press Exhibition and the launch of “A Tetrad,” the Kelly Library’s 50th Anniversary Celebration wrapped up with lectures by Anthony de Sa and Sheril Hook, along with a special award of appreciation for the Friends of the Kelly Library.
Our 50th Anniversary Themes
The Kelly Library at 50: A Retrospective of Our Future
Spaces, community, collections, and innovation shape our future as they shaped our past.
Community
Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and all those looking for a place to study, socialize, or relax: this is our library community, the reason we are here
Collections
Books, journals, photographs, manuscripts, and all manner of digital and analogue resources: these are our collections, capturing your interest and igniting your imagination.
Innovation
Developing new services to support our community, preserving our collections, and drawing on the present to create our future: this is innovation, piloting the library forward into the next 50 years.