THE H. R. BANKS
COLLECTION OF
NOVASCOTIANA:
A Catalogue.
Herbert Robertson Banks
1908 - 1986
The Western Counties Regional Library
Charitable Association
1995
The Herbert Robertson Banks collection, amassed over many years, is a remarkable record of Nova Scotian and Maritime life and culture. Included is fiction, non-fiction and poetry, some of it quite rare, as well as political works, literary criticisms, an outstanding accumulation of materials on art and antiques, and an impressive number of periodicals dealing with Nova Scotia. Mr. Banks also collected small local newspapers, unpublished manuscripts, scholarly papers on Nova Scotia history, and local histories. There is no aspect of Nova Scotia life which is not touched by this remarkable compilation.
The collection was given to the Western Counties Regional Library Charitable Association in 1983 by H.R. Banks and his wife Kathleen. Most items in the collection are available on interlibrary loan to regional, public and university libraries from the Western Counties Regional Library . Some items cannot be sent out because of their fragile nature or their extreme rarity. Researchers may, of course, study most of these on site, at the Western Counties Regional Library, 405 Main Street, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
The Banks collection divides in two parts: the main part, which consists of about 3,000 monographs; and the supplementary part, which holds uncatalogued serials and other ephemeral materials.
Go to the Western Counties Online Catalogue to view the collection.
The uncatalogued materials in the collection include unpublished manuscripts, serials and pamphlets. A fuller description is given under The Supplementary Collection: A Description .
Through the winter of 1996, the Western Counties Regional Library was able to add 400 new items to the Supplementary Collection thanks to project approval from Industry Canada's SchoolNet.
The Supplementary Collection: A Description