b. 20 Aug. 1912, Spring Hill, NS; d. 21 June 1981, Vancouver, BC

1932 BA (Acadia University)
1933 MA (University of Toronto)
1939 BLS (Columbia University), Carnegie Fellow
1959 MLS (University of Chicago)

1933–1940 Research Librarian, Public Archives of Nova Scotia
1940–1946 Acting Director, Nova Scotia Regional Library Commission and Director, Atlantic Command Library
1946–1963 Supervisor, Regional Libraries of Saskatchewan
1963–1978 Associate Professor, University of British Columbia School of Librarianship

Gilroy, Marion (1933). The Loyalist experiment in New Brunswick. MA thesis, University of Toronto.

Gilroy, Marion (1933). “The partition of Nova Scotia,1784.” Canadian Historical Review. 14 (4): 375.

Gilroy, Marion (1936). “Customs fees in Nova Scotia.” Canadian Historical Review. 7(1): 9–22.

Gilroy, Marion (1936). “Our Need of Library Service.” Dalhousie Review 16 (3): 351–61.

Gilroy, Marion (1937). “Regional Libraries for Nova Scotia?” Maritime Library Association Bulletin 2 (3): 3–4.

Gilroy, Marion (1937). “Libraries for Nova Scotia.” Nova Scotia Journal of Education 8: 213–17.

Gilroy, Marion (1937). Loyalists and land settlement in Nova Scotia. A list compiled by Marion Gilroy under the direction of D.C. Harvey. Halifax: Published by the authority of the Board of Public Archives of Nova Scotia.

Gilroy, Marion, comp. (1938a) A catalogue of maps, plans and charts in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. Compiled under the direction of D.C. Harvey, Archivist. Halifax, N.S.

Gilroy, Marion. (1938b). “The imperial customs establishment in Nova Scotia, 1825–1855.“ Canadian Historical Review. 19 (3):277–291.

Gilroy, Marion (1951). “Saskatchewan's first regional library.” Ontario Library Review 35 (1): 87–88.

Gilroy, Marion (1952). “Taking the books to the people.” Canadian Library Association Bulletin 9 (2, pt. 1) : 39–43.

Gilroy, Marion (1952). “A New Prairie Crop; New Library Activity in Northern Saskatchewan.” Food for Thought 12 (7): 5–10.

Gilroy, Marion (1956). “Nora Bateson.” Food for Thought 16 (6): 242–44.

Gilroy, Marion (1960). “Down and Up North.” Food for Thought 20 (6): 276–81, 290.

Gilroy, Marion (1960). “With Parka and Sleeping Bag.” American Library Association 54 (4): 294–99.

Gilroy, Marion (1960). Library co-operation in Britain, 1950–1958. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association.

Gilroy, Marion (1963). Libraries in the Western Part of the Island of Montreal: Present and Proposed; a Report for the West Island Regional Library Council. Montreal: s..n.

Gilroy, Marion (1964). “Cat’s Cradles to Tractors; Books and Libraries for the Northwest Territories.” Canadian Geographical Journal 69 (6): 198–201.

Gilroy, Marion (1966). “Sights and Insights: Jokkmok to Yerevan. British Columbia Library Quarterly 29 (April): 8-13.

Gilroy, Marion and Samuel Rothestein, eds. (1970). As we remember it: interviews with pioneering librarians of British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia School of Librarianship with the cooperation and assistance of the Library Development Commission of British Columbia.

Gilroy, Marion (1968). “Regional Libraries in Retrospect, 1927-1967.” In Librarianship in Canada, 1946–1967; Essays in Honour of Elizabeth Homer Morton ed. by Bruce Baden Peel, 58–72. Victoria: Canadian Library Association.

Gilroy, Marion (1979). Pioneers! O pioneers: the genesis of regional libraries. [Regina]: Saskatchewan Library Association.

Maritime Library Association; President, 1941–45
Saskatchewan Library Association, President, 1948–49
Canadian Library Association; President, 1951–52

Marion Gilroy “performed surveys of library needs across Canada, in regions as diverse Montreal Island and the Northwest Territories. She also hosted many radio and television broadcasts and had a stint as a movie star in the National Film Board production Books for Beaver River.” During her teaching at UBC she taught courses in public libraries, school libraries, readers services and book selection. In later years she traveled to exotic places including Russia and the Canadian North.
— Celebrating Women’s Achievements.

Chan, May (2004). Marion Gilroy fonds. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Archives . (last revised October 2011). Accessed March 27, 2014.
Library and Archives Canada. Celebrating Women’s achievements. Marion Gilroy. Accessed December 5, 2023.
ELA biography compiled by Lorne Bruce