Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
1.5.2
Newsjunkie.net is a resource guide for journalists. We show who's behind the news, and provide tools to help navigate the modern business of information.
Use of Data
1.5.2
1.5.2
The Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BAnQ) is a Quebec government agency that functions as the province's national library, national archives, and major public library. Headquartered at the Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal's Quartier Latin, BAnQ manages Quebec's legal deposit system, preserves the province's documentary heritage, and provides free and open public access to its collections across twelve facilities throughout Quebec.
BAnQ's institutional roots extend to 2 September 1920, when the Archives Nationales du Québec (ANQ) were founded with Pierre-Georges Roy as Quebec's first Head Archivist. The ANQ's mandate was to process historical materials, including public archives and government records, and to collect documents pertaining to Quebec's history. A separate lineage traces to the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec (BNQ), established by a 1967 Act of the National Assembly.
In 2001, the Quebec government passed legislation merging the BNQ with the Grande Bibliothèque du Québec (GBQ), a newly constructed facility in downtown Montreal. The Grande Bibliothèque building was constructed between 2001 and 2004 and formally inaugurated on 29 April 2005. On 31 January 2006, Bill 69 came into force, merging the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec and the Archives nNtionales du Québec to create the present Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BAnQ).
BAnQ holds one of the largest French-language collections in the Americas. Its holdings encompass the legal deposit collection of all works published in Quebec or concerning Quebec, as well as private and public archives spanning the history of New France to the present. The archival collections include more than 48.5 km of textual documents, approximately 900,000 maps and plans, over 12.8 million photographs and images, and more than 50,000 hours of film, video, and audio recordings.
The institution also preserves newspaper and periodical collections of significant depth, historical photographs, postcards, and a substantial genealogical collection. In 2012, BAnQ undertook systematic web archiving of Quebec-based websites, and legal deposit for digital publications was introduced in 2022.
BAnQ holds extensive newspaper and periodical archives, including microfilm collections covering major Quebec newspapers across multiple decades. Its Revues d'un autre siècle collection contains approximately 7,000 photographs and illustrations from three periodicals published between 1870 and 1907. The Radiocorriere collection and historical audiovisual holdings document Quebec's media history. The institution maintains the Advitam archival search tool, enabling researchers to navigate the collections from New France to the present day.
BAnQ operates twelve facilities open to the public, including three Montreal locations (Grande Bibliothèque, BAnQ Vieux-Montréal, and BAnQ Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie) and nine regional archival centres across Quebec. The Grande Bibliothèque offers free and open access to its circulating and reference collections. Special and heritage collections are available for on-site consultation. BAnQ also maintains extensive digital collections accessible online through BAnQ numérique and the Advitam archival search platform.