- December 4, 2024 - Jardin botanique : Favourites
“The Jardin botanique’s [library and multimedia library] accumulate but above all disseminate living knowledge, accessible to everyone. They provide pleasant places to meet the plant world, and they complement the educational mission that the Jardin botanique de Montréal has set for itself. To better appreciate them, we should know more about the treasures they contain.”1
Céline Arseneault was a botanist and librarian for 33 years at the Jardin botanique de Montréal. Before she retired in 2014, she headed numerous projects, including the development and computerization of a classification system for works that is specific to the Jardin library.
This 1985 quotation from Céline Arseneault perfectly sums up the mission that the Jardin botanique de Montréal’s library and multimedia library are still carrying out. Indeed, since 1940, a small team has been meeting the documentation needs of Jardin personnel, students and the general public, while at the same time preserving the visual and textual memory of the institution.
But let’s be honest! However remarkable our collection of books and antiquarian books, journals and archives may be, it remains a (too) well-guarded secret. Not a day goes by that isn’t marked by the question, How do we make our services and our collections better known? We seized the opportunity of this blog post to give you an overview.
The treasures of the library and the multimedia library
What are those famous treasures? That would take a lot of presenting, but here are a few examples. Primarily of European origin, the collection of antiquarian books includes works from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Some of them contain botanical iconographies by illustrators of great talent. These are works of incredible scientific beauty, in which botanical illustrations reproduce plants so that readers can identify them.
The library’s holdings also contain the handwritten directory of plants acquired by the Jardin botanique from 1936 to 1991. After that year, the work was carried out electronically. This 20-volume record testifies to the great generosity of gardens and arboretums around the world. Those donations of plant and seed specimens have enabled the Jardin to build and enrich its plant collections.2-3 And that exchange network operates to this day.
A specialized collection for understanding the plant world
The library offers a collection of documents specializing in botany and horticulture intended for scientists and horticulturists, as well as for the simply curious. It contains resources on taxonomy, useful and edible plants, landscaping, ecological gardening, plant ecology, phytopathology, and so on.
It’s part of the library’s DNA to make available rigorous, scientific information sources while also providing answers to concrete questions. It’s not unusual for a library member to leave after identifying his or her mystery plant or with a headful of ideas for a garden layout project.
A crossroads of knowledge and passions
The library is also a meeting place for people who love birds, insects, history and artistic creation. Botany sits at the crossroads of a number of disciplines, and is adept at arousing passions. Here, knowledge blooms, and is every bit as vivid as the most beautiful Victorin’s gentian.4
The collections of the Jardin’s library and multimedia library can be explored via the online catalogue Millefolium.
The library is open Tuesday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or by appointment. Come discover it!
Notes and references:
- Arseneault, Céline (1985). Les bibliothèques au Jardin botanique de Montréal: Histoire, ressources, utilisations. Bulletin de la SAJIB, 9(4), 1985, 21-27.
- Paquet, Martin (2006). D’hier à aujourd’hui. Quatre-temps, 30(2-3), 12.
- Arseneault, Céline (2013). Livres: Des honneurs bien mérités. Quatre-temps, 37(3), 48.
- In 1923, Gentianopsis virgata ssp. Victorinii, or Victorin’s gentian, was named in honor of Marie-Victorin by the botanist Merritt L. Fernald.
