Ottawa Public Library
| Type | Public Library system in Ottawa |
|---|---|
| Established | 1906 |
| Branches | 33 |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | business directories, phone books, maps, government publications, books, periodicals, genealogy, local history, |
| Size | 2.3 million items |
| Website | Ottawa Public Library |
Coordinates: 45°25′12″N 75°41′43″W / 45.42000°N 75.69528°W
The Ottawa Public Library (OPL) is the library system of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and is the largest bilingual library (English and French) in North America. The library was founded in 1906 with a donation from the Carnegie Foundation.
The library originally provided Windows 95 computers to use with some preloaded applications such as Office 2000 and WordPerfect. In January 2005, it upgraded three branches to Windows XP. The rest received that operating system by April of that year. In March 2014, Windows 7 was rolled out and the software was upgraded to Office 2007, but WordPerfect is now absent.. Children accounts are filtered, while adults have the option of choosing unfiltered or filtered Internet access.
Later, they added Wi-Fi hotspots at their branches.
It is also possible to obtain free downloadable e-books, Zinio magazines, audiobooks and MP3 music from the library.
Prior to the twentieth century, Ottawa had a few reading rooms in hotel lobbies, and also some small fee-based libraries for working men such as the Bytown Mechanics' Institute, but no truly free place in which anyone could read. The city's active Local Council of Women took up the cause of a free library for all. They announced, just before the election of 1896, that the mansion of George Perley, a local lumber baron, was donated in his will as a home for the library. However, the city voted down the motion to build a library, as well as another motion to build a firehall; the city just didn't have any money to spare for "luxuries".
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