It is with great sadness that we note the sudden passing on September 17, 2020 of Ernie Ingles, BSC-SbC President from 1989 to 1991 and the 1996 Marie Tremaine Medal recipient. Although in ill health for a number of years, his health was recently much improved and in a letter to the BSC-SbC in July he optimistically reported, “ life is good” and mentioned that he was looking forward to our 2021 annual meeting in Edmonton.
Over a long and distinguished career, Ernie Ingles left his mark in almost every aspect of academic librarianship. As a rare book librarian at the University of Calgary, as the University Librarian at the University of Regina and as the Vice-Provost, University Librarian and Director of the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta, Ernie Ingles made major contributions to the research capacity and service effectiveness of our academic institutions. He willingly shared his organizational and leadership skills with over twenty professional organizations, mentored future librarians at his Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute, published fifty-seven articles, made nearly 200 conference presentations and was the force behind the establishment of resources consortiums, networks and user groups throughout the Prairies.
As bibliographers and book historians we owe a deep debt of gratitude to Ernie Ingles for his insightful and inspiring bibliographical work; in particular, in his extraordinary work as the founding Director of the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproduction /Institut Canadien de Microreproductions Historiques (now Canadiana.org). The monumental task of identifying, collecting, filming and making available Canada’s pre-1900 print heritage would have daunted many. Generations of present and future Canadian scholars are fortunate that Ernie Ingles took up the challenge. In addition to his work at CIHM, Ernie Ingles published a number of respected bibliographies – Canada for Clio Press in 1990; The Bibliography of Canadian Bibliographies with Gordon Adshead in 1994 and the third edition of Peel’s Bibliography of the Canadian prairies to 1953 with Merrill Distad in 2003.
We may have lost one of our most passionate and articulate advocates for the preservation and sharing of our textual heritage but Ernie Ingles has left us an impressive legacy to build upon.
— Karen Smith
President, The Bibliographical Society of Canada/la Société bibliographique du Canada (BSC-SbC)