History of the Book in Canada Project : The History of the Book in Canada / Histoire du livre et de l'imprimé au Canada (HBiC/HLIC) project was a large interdisciplinary effort of literary scholars, historians, and librarians, who came together to research, write and publish a bilingual, multi-volume history of books and print culture in Canada. It mirrored similar "history of the book" projects in several other countries, except in that it was a bilingual project with volumes appearing simultaneously in English and French, and each having both an English and French editor. The spark for the project came in 1995 and 1996 when exploratory meetings held in Montreal and Halifax among Canadian book scholars showed strong support. An enthusiastic founding conference held at the National Library in 1997 set its direction, with Patricia Fleming (University of Toronto) named Project Director, and Co-General Editor along with Yvan Lamonde (McGill University). They assembled an editorial team and in January 2000 obtained funding as a Major Collaborative Research Initiative from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada of $2.3 million for five years to support the writing and publishing of the three-volume history and the compilation of five book history databases. The training of young scholars was also an important component of HBiC/HLIC.
Fleming and Lalonde partnered with University of Toronto Press and Presses de l'Université de Montréal for publishing in English and French. An editor of electronic resources oversaw the development of the databases. A project manager handled day-to-day administration, communications, and coordinated editorial procedures. In addition to the main project centre at the University of Toronto, six satellite centres were created where the volume editors were located: Simon Fraser University, University of Regina, McGill University, Université de Sherbrooke, Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec, and Dalhousie University. The team at Dalhousie was involved in both the publication of a volume and in creating and hosting research databases compiled on Canadian book history and printing.
The three volumes follow chronological order: volume one, from the beginnings, Native systems of cultural transmission, to 1840; volume two, from 1840 to 1918; and volume three, from 1918 to 1980. For each volume, the project held two conferences, one during the preliminary stages to help identify the major themes and content and one toward the end for authors to discuss and debate completed articles. The first two volumes were published in 2004 and 2005, and the third volume appeared in 2007, all to positive reviews. Each of the volumes has more than 50 individual authors of articles, and the total number of authors is more than 170. Official funding for the project ended 31 March 2006 but the mandate of the project was not completed until the publication of the third volume in 2007.
