The archive might not have ended up in Canada.
Worldwide interest in McLuhan has undergone a renaissance since 2000, accentuated by a rising tempo of research and publications about his life and work, including dozens of conferences and events in 2011 to mark the centennial of his birth. Though his name is synonymous with the 1960s, the emergence and spread of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the 1990s revealed the enduring relevance of his insights into the transformative effect of media. His provocative and disruptive ideas, from the “global village” to “hot” and “cool” media, ushered in new disciplines of inquiry in communications theory and media ecology. McLuhan’s groundbreaking insights in books like The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) and Understanding Media (1964) revolutionized our understanding of how media, from the printing press to electronic media, have shaped the world today. Guy Berthiaume, the Librarian and Archivist of Canada, remarked, “This recognition from UNESCO is very fitting, because while we are very proud that this great thinker was Canadian, his enduring legacy also unquestionably extends to all of humanity.” The inclusion of Marshall McLuhan is a signal honour for LAC, and for Canada. The Memory of the World Register ranges from historical treasures like the Magna Carta and the Bayeux Tapestry, to the papers of Hans Christian Andersen, Louis Pasteur and Winston Churchill, among others. Founded in 1992 to promote and protect the world’s documentary heritage through preservation and access, the Memory of the World Programme includes in its register only those documentary collections that meet its strict criteria of “world significance and outstanding universal value.” note2 LAC and the University of Toronto Libraries, which holds McLuhan’s personal library, made the joint submission to the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. The McLuhan archive and library is one of only six Canadian entries in the prestigious UNESCO register, and the first documentary heritage to be inscribed from LAC’s collection. Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) was a Professor of English at the University of Toronto but is best known as a cultural theorist and public intellectual. The McLuhan archive at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has now attracted another form of international attention: UNESCO recognized its global significance in 2017 by inscribing his personal archive and library in the Memory of the World Register! They are drawn by the desire to understand the inspiration and ideas of the Canadian “prophet” of the digital age who foretold the impact of electronic media and coined phrases like “the global village,” “the medium is the message,” and “surfing” for information. The Marshall McLuhan archive attracts researchers from around the world to the reading room of Library and Archives Canada. Credit: Université de Montréal, Division de la gestion des documents et des archives.
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