The Grande Bibliothèque () is a public library in Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its collection is part of (BAnQ), Quebec's national library.
Membership in the library is free to all residents of Quebec. It has some 10,000 users per day and a record of 3 million users in 2009—double the projected figure of 1.5 million for that year. In 2011, it attracted 2.7 million visitors, and was the most frequented public library in both North America and the Francophonie.
Collection
upright|thumb|The main entrance hall of the GB.
upright|thumb|The central volume of the GB, with the shelves of the Collection universelle.
The collection consists of some 4 million works, including 1.14 million books, 1.2 million other documents, and 1.66 million microfiches. The majority of the works are in French; about 30% are in English, and a dozen other languages are also represented. The library has some 80 kilometres of shelf space.
These works are divided into two collections. The or Québec heritage collection, with about one million works, consists of copies of all works given to the BNQ for legal deposit, that is every book published in the province since 1968 as well as some 35,000 books published elsewhere that are pertaining to the subject of Quebec or whose at least one co-author is originally from the province. Documents by or about French Canadians, French Americans or Aboriginal peoples of the province are also included in this last number. This is supplemented by the Saint-Sulpice collection of some 78,000 works, some dating back to the 1760s and including books from the personal libraries of such figures as Louis-Joseph Papineau and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine. The Collection nationale is available for on-site reference.
The , a collection of about three million works on all subjects, includes the collection of the , purchased from the City of Montreal for the project, as well as new acquisitions. Except for reference works, these works are available for loan. Written works are catalogued by the Dewey Decimal System.
Besides written works, there is also a large multimedia collection including 70,000 music CDs, 5,000 music scores, 16,000 films on DVD and Blu-ray, and 500 software programs, available for loan. The library's adapted book service holds more than 50,000 documents for the visually impaired, including Braille and audiobooks.
See also
- Bibliothèque de Montréal
- List of national libraries
- Literature of Quebec