John Davis Barnett

Dr. John Davis Barnett
John Davis Barnett
Born	28 December 1848 London or Liverpool, England
Died	London, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Railway Engineer, Librarian, Curator
Known for	Contributions to the Canadian library community

John Davis Barnett (1848-1926) was an early Canadian curator-librarian. Barnett collected the materials to create one of the significant early personal Ontario libraries and was a vocal proponent of education through the use of freely available printed materials. He is a renowned collector writing extensively on the ideas of inter-library loans, classification scheme trends, the national library for Canada movement, collections development, scientific management theory and his own personal reference theory. Involved with books from an early age he collected widely and worked throughout his life to ensure that knowledge was available to all. His personal donation of some 40,000 volumes to the University of Western Ontario, his work as a lecturer at the first provincial library school and his commitment to the first Ontario library institute make him a notable Canadian librarian from the beginning of the confederation era right through to the period between the two world wars.

John Davis Barnett, son of George Barnett, was born in 1848 or 1849. Sources have him born in Liverpool, England or London, England. At the age of 17 he emigrated to Montreal, Canada.

Barnett studied civil engineering and design under J. Armstrong at Wolverhampton, London and Swindon, England. John’s father, George Barnett had worked in the railroads and made arrangements for his son to study and work in the railroads. In 1919, Barnett was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws, University of Western Ontario.

In 1866 when Barnett emigrated to Canada he became an apprentice in the Grand Trunk Railroad shops in Montreal. With experience in draughting, he quickly moved to the draughting room advancing steadily through the posts in the mechanical side of railroad work. He contributed widely to the engineering journals of North America. His posts included:

John Davis Barnett collected what became a research library with special emphasis on literature, history and science and technology. The Barnett literary collection concentrated on Shakespeariana, literary criticism and classical literature with some foreign works. Monographs, magazines, bulletins, clippings and prints were collected contributing to the collection's diverse nature. In history, Barnett collected a large section on Canadian history, with other large sections of American history. The War of 1812 and the Rebellion of 1837 were of special interest. Government publications are also included in this section. European, African and Asiatic history were also represented. In the science and technology section, Barnett collected everything he could find on railroads and the development of the Canadian railroads.