An acclaimed novelist has been named the new National Librarian of Canada. Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps appointed Roch Carrier to the $140,000-a-year post July 5. Carrier, who was president of the Canadian Council for the Arts from 1994 to 1997, will replace Marianne Scott, who is retiring this fall from the position she has held since 1984.
Copps also announced that she has asked journalist Laurier Lapierre to advise her on the creation of an advisory board to oversee the National Library and National Archives, a key recommendation of a report submitted last year by former Liberal Member of Parliament and historian John English.
Noting that the Canadian Library Association has been on record since 1983 as calling for a professional librarian in the position, CLA President Loraine McQueen said the group “is now turning our attention to how we can work with Mr. Carrier to further and support the development of library programs in Canada.”
Posted July 12, 1999.