Canada

Exterior of a contemporary library, a three-story structure with gently curving glass walls. The ground floor is recessed from the upper stories, providing a covered area. In the foreground are flowering shrubs, a Quebec flag flying on a mast and a parking lot on which the letters DMV (for Drummondville) are painted.

Bibliothèque de Drummondville

This award-winning library combines contemporary design with a colourful reference to local industrial heritage.
Interior of a contemporary library. It is a symmetrical room surrounded by a mezzanine and with large work tables in the middle. A person is standing at the back.

Bibliothèque du Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montréal

Combining modern elements with a respect for classical proportions, the design of the Canadian Centre for Architecture reflects its mission as an universal archive of the art.
Exterior of a presbytery converted to a library. It is a low, single story stone building with simple pitched roof. It is surrounded by melting snow and there's a fabric porch covering the front door.

Bibliothèque Luc-Lacourcière, Beaumont

The 18th century presbytery of Beaumont was once a grander building serving as a schoolhouse before being reconstructed as it first stood.
Interior of a library in a converted chapel, wide-angle image of a reading room and librarian's workspace, with low metal shelves and cabinets, tables, and card catalogues. The vaulted ceiling is white with golden details.

Bibliothèque historique du Séminaire de Québec

Spanning four centuries of learning inside a former 19th century chapel, the library of the Québec Seminary is the keeper of a rich encyclopedic collection as old as the city itself.
Interior of a library in a converted Neoclassical chapel. It is a pastel-coloured barrel-vaulted hall filled with small cubicles. An organ fills a gallery at the end of the room. Cross-shaped chandeliers hang from the ceiling.

Dawson College Library, Montréal

Among the first examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in Canada, the former Notre-Dame Congregation chapel in Montréal is now the Dawson college library.
Interior of a classical library with dark wood shelves adorned with intricate black iron railings. plaster busts on consoles and oil portraits. A chandelier hangs from the ceiling.

Nova Scotia Legislative Library, Halifax

Inside the oldest seat of government in Canada, the Nova Scotia Legislative Library is a gem of Victorian craftsmanship.
Interior of a contemporary library. It is a whitewashed rectangular room with a barrel-vault ceiling. The room is occupied by low bookshelves and long tables, where a few students are working. Large houseplants are set on the shelves. Paper cranes hang from cables strung across the room.

Marianopolis College Library, Montréal

This room inside the English-language Marianopolis college in Montréal again welcomes its library after serving as a chapel for a religious congregation.
Exterior of a Brutalist library with a facade of large textured concrete panels between which are narrow vertical slit windows.

Killam Memorial Library, Dalhousie University

Dalhousie university's Killam library is a monolith of knowledge built to inspire stability at a time of rapid change.
Interior of a large neoclassical chapel. The main part of the room is used as a meeting space, with movable chairs, while the front is closed off by a glass wall and contains a library.

Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, Montréal

Long hidden behind drab ceiling tiles, the unveiling of the former chapel at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf in Montréal in 2004 also marked the renaissance of one of the oldest libraries on the continent.
Exterior of a brick modernist library, a symmetrical rectangular building with a bay of concrete-framed windows to the centre.

University of Windsor Leddy Library

At the foot of the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit, the modernist Leddy Library marks the University of Windsor's shift from its roots as a Jesuit college to a public university.
Exterior of a contemporary library at nightfall. Each level is slightly offset from the others, resembling a stack of boxes. The top floor is cantilevered over the plaza below. The library is brightly lit from the inside.

Halifax Central Library

Halifax's living room is a beloved community asset and a striking symbol for a city punching above its weight.
Exterior of a former mall movie multiplex converted into a library. It is a symmetrical brick Postmodern building. A blue sign with the words "Woodlawn Public Library" stands above the entrance. Cars are parked at the front. There is snow on the ground.

Woodlawn Public Library, Dartmouth NS

A former multiplex cinema in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, now serves as library branch and central technical processing for the Halifax Public Libraries.
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