Aubrey, Irene E., 1928- : Irene Elizabeth Aubrey. Librarian. Born in 1928 in Ottawa, Ontario, Irene Aubrey received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Ottawa University in 1951. From 1951 to 1960, she worked at the Ottawa Public Library and was in charge of the development of the Children Literature collection for a new branch, as well as general collections for adults in both French and English. From 1960 to 1962, she was a fellow at the Maison Hachette (publishing house) in Paris and also took courses at the Sorbonne. She returned to work at the Ottawa Public Library from 1962 to 1965. She moved to Montreal in 1966. In 1966-1967, she was hired by the West-Island Regional Library Service as a counsellor in Children Literature. From 1967 to 1975, she worked at the Westmount Public Library where she had to develop the French Children Literature collection as part of her mandate. In 1975, she returned to Ottawa when she was recruited by the National Library of Canada to fill the newly created position of councillor in Children Literature. In 1979, she became the Head of the new Canadian Literature Service. Irene Aubrey was an ardent promotor of Canadian children's book and, more specifically, of the work of Canadian illustrators of children's books. She was a key player in the creation in 1976 of IBBY-Canada, the canadian section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). Her efforts included the acquisition of major Children's fonds by the National Library of Canada such as the Ginette Anfousse fonds, the Eric Beddows fonds, the Ann Blades fonds, the Elizabeth Cleaver fonds, the Dayal Kaur Khalsa fonds, and the Marie-Louise Gay fonds.
From 1976 to 1994, the National Library of Canada published a series of annoted catalogues and lists compiled by Irene Aubrey that aimed at identifying all the books for children published in Canada : Pictures to share : illustration in Canadian children's books : annoted catalogue (1976, re-edited in 1979 and 1987) ; Notable Canadian children's books : 1975 supplement (1977) ; Canadian children's books: a treasury of pictuers (1976, re-edit in 1977) ; Sources d'information sur les livres canadiens-français pour enfants (1977, re-edited in 1978 and 1979) ; Animal world in Canadian books for children and young people (1978, re-edited in 1983) ; Notable Canadian children's books : 1976 and 1977 supplements (1979) ; Sports and games in Canadian children's books (1982) ; Canadian children's books for Christmas : a selection of titles (1983) ; Mystery and adventure in Canadian books for children and young people (1983) ; Sources of French Canadian children's and young people's books (1984) ; Notable Canadian children's books : cumulative edition 1975-1979 (1985) ; Notable Canadian children's books : 1980-1984 cumulative edition (1989). The National Library of Canada also published other catalogues compiled by Irene Aubrey in collaboration with others : with Louise McDiarmid and Lorrie Andersen, Storytellers' rendezvous: Canadian stories to tell to children (1979) and Storytellers' encore: more Canadian stories to tell to children (1984) ; and with Louise McDiarmid, Share a tale : Canadian stories to tell to children and young adults (1995).
