Capital Campaign 2013-2018 Photo: Bernard Fougères BAnQ, pillar of our culture and memory for the 21th century
BANQ SOUHAITE S ASSOCIER À DES PARTENAIRES QUI L AIDERONT À SOUTENIR DES PROJETS FAVORISANT UN ANCRAGE ACCRU AU SEIN DE LA COMMUNAUTÉ Photo: Bernard Fougères
THE REASONS BEHIND BAnQ S FIRST CAPITAL CAMPAIGN Philanthropy in Québec is still in its infancy. In the public library system, it is almost non-existent in contrast to the rest of Canada where communities often rely on strong ties with these cultural institutions. In addition to its core government funding, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) wishes to associate with partners who will help it support projects fostering deeper anchorage within the community, projects that meet social and cultural needs, both current and future. MORE THAN A LIBRARY! BAnQ wants to do more and better with the support of new partners. Since it opened its doors in April 2005, the Grande Bibliothèque has proven to be an undeniable success: it is the most visited public library in North America and the French-speaking world. To this day, over 23 million visitors have crossed its threshold, which amounts to almost 3 million visitors each year. More than just a place where one can access or borrow materials, the Grande Bibliothèque provides state-of-the-art facilities as well as a wide range of cultural activities intended for all segments of the population, in particular children and cultural communities. A good many services are available across Québec, and some installations, such as exhibitions, tour BAnQ s Québec-wide network. BAnQ has found new ways to take root within the Québec community thanks to its drive and groundbreaking initiatives. Photo: Christian Blais The transformational merits of this first campaign will greatly contribute to the implementation of BAnQ s 2013-2016 Strategic Plan. In keeping with BAnQ s mission and values, the plan identifies new challenges while singling out two crucial issues: access to culture for all and key support for the knowledge society. 3
BAnQA SNAPSHOT OF BAnQ BAnQ is an institution created under an Act of the government of Québec. It is managed by a seventeen-member Board of Directors. Its foundation seeks to make BAnQ s activities attractive to new partners and invite them to support new achievements or strengthen their commitment to its key missions. Photo : Pierre Perrault BAnQ CONSISTS OF THREE COMPONENTS: BAnQ Rosemont La Petite-Patrie, where legal deposit is processed The Grande Bibliothèque, erected above the major hub of the Montreal subway system (Berri-UQAM) Ten archives facilities located across Québec BAnQ ALSO REPRESENTS: 3 million visitors annually 6 million hits on its website per year 30,000 e-books, downloadable from remote locations 10 million digitized items, viewable online Over 150 cultural activities per year at the Grande Bibliothèque Over 40 cultural activities and events per year in various regions Photo : Alain Michon Photo : Bernard Fougères 4 Photo: Pierre Perrault
OUR MISSIONMission The mission of BAnQ is four-pronged: Offer democratic access to culture and knowledge Collect, preserve and promote Québec and Québec-related heritage materials Provide the services of a major public library Manage a Québec-wide network of dynamic archives-holdings centres OUR VALUES Loyalty to Québec s heritage by looking into the most innovative ways to preserve and promote it Civic commitment through decentralized services and activities in Québec s various regions Sharing agreements within our community and with like-minded institutions on a national and international level Excellence and passion demonstrated through our staff s professional expertise BAnQ knows how to be daring. Contributing to its projects means making a commitment to an innovative and internationally recognized institution. Values At once national library, national archives and public library of a metropolitan city, BAnQ has established itself in recent years as a remarkable institution in the library and archives community. An object of study and reflection abroad, its one-of-a-kind model is so attuned to the needs of our time that it is starting to set an example. DID YOU KNOW? Our Grande Bibliothèque is more visited than Paris Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand and the main branch of the New York Public Library. 5
Vision OUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE BAnQ is a great institution whose expertise is unique and essential. BAnQ is an institution internationally renowned for the quality of its collections and services as well as for its openness and innovative spirit. Its Strategic Plan presents a daring vision for the future and meets crucial needs. It targets relevant options and puts forward effective means of action. As BAnQ builds on its assets and takes stock of its national and international positioning, it will focus its efforts on five challenges over the next five years: Further DEMOCRATIZE access to culture and knowledge 1 At the heart of our mission, the pursuit of this objective requires ongoing improvements to our way of doing things. We want to make our resources more readily accessible through means that are attractive to the population, whether they be activities intended for specific groups school groups, regional communities or cultural groups exhibitions, or other projects highlighting our treasures. We must also keep abreast of the latest innovations and constantly expand our collections to cover the field of knowledge as broadly as possible and remain at the forefront of scientific and cultural information. ADAPT to the digital age 2 This represents quite a challenge due to the abundance of materials that need to be digitized, the multiplicity of their original supports, and the rapid evolution of technology. We have chosen to promote preservation as a practice with accessible results. This requires speeding up the digitization process and asserting our leadership by contributing to the standardization of best practices. For instance, we have to rethink legal deposit in light of the increasing virtualization of contents. Photo: Pierre Perrault 6
ASSERT civic commitment 3 BAnQ wants to position itself as a Third Place, a complement to the home and workplace, physically and virtually. We must strengthen our presence as a place of open social integration for youth, immigrant communities, persons with disabilities and people learning new technologies. We have an important role to play to support literacy. ACT by sharing expertise 4 Over the next few years, we will continue to carry out our logic of decentralized collaboration. We want to strengthen our professional links in Montréal, Québec, Canada, and the French-speaking world. We will focus our international exchanges on innovative practices and the challenges of the digital world, and we will step up our ties with academia and cultural communities. BAnQ has made decisions for the future. Its guidelines are clear, its projects rallying and inclusive. CONSOLIDATE our institutional fundamentals 5 BAnQ is a great institution whose expertise is unique and essential. If we want to continue to build on our assets and continue to innovate, we must bank on competence, passion for knowledge, and our staff s adaptability. Furthermore, we must implement leading-edge technological infrastructures. To achieve our objectives, it has also become necessary to secure the growth of our own-source revenues, in keeping with our public-service mission. Photo: Bernard Fougères 7
475, boulevard De Maisonneuve Est, Montréal (Québec) H2L 5C4 Phone: 514 873-1101, ext. 3250 Fax: 514 864-3818 Email: fondation@banq.qc.ca Produced by Direction des communications et des relations publiques, BAnQ, March 2014