In 1848, Joseph-Bruno Guigues, the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa, established the College of Bytown. In 1856, the college was officially entrusted to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and, in 1866, it was renamed the College of Ottawa. The institution would later rewrite its pontifical charter in keeping with the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XI, and also rewrote its civil charter around the same time. Its rewritten civil charter was approved by the Government of Ontario in 1933, when it was officially renamed the University of Ottawa, and its revised pontifical charter was approved by the Holy See in 1934. On July 1, 1965, by an act of the Ontario Legislature, the institution previously known as the University of Ottawa was renamed Saint Paul University, which retained its civil and pontifical charters, while a new corporate body, to be known as the University of Ottawa, was created to inherit the majority of the university's holdings.
The collection contains over 500,000 volumes, 1,000 current periodicals and some 100,000 microforms. History The library began on April 27, 1937, as the library of the University of Ottawa's seminary. The late Father Jean-Léon Allie, O.M.I., was its founder and first Chief Librarian. After occupying that post for more than 40 years, Father Allie continued to devote all his energies to the Library, as Acquisitions Librarian, then as University Librarian Emeritus, until his death on November 26, 1996. Starting with only four books, the library began immediately to grow through generous donations from other religious institutions, as well as through the founder's judicious purchases, to become the largest of its kind in Canada. The excellent quality of the library has long been recognized by scholars in philosophy, medieval studies and theology. As early as 1963, in a survey conducted for the National Conference of Canadian Universities and Colleges, Edwin E. Williams of Harvard University stated: "Ottawa has nationally outstanding collections for philosophy and religious history, with advanced research holdings for work in... medieval studies." The organization of the collection follows that of the Library of Congress, with some adaptations in the fields of theology, church history and canon law.
Partnership
The university is a member of the Association of Colleges and Universities of the Canadian Francophonie, a network of academic institutions of the Canadian Francophonie. It was announced from autumn 2017, that St. Paul's, will begin offering, a joint distance learning, Licentiate in Canon Law and joint civil masters in canon law with St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland.
