b. 12 Dec. 1911, Toronto, ON; d. 1 Aug. 2009, Victoria, BC

Martha Shepard c.1970 Credit National Library News.

BA 1935 (Queen's University)
BLS 1936 (University of Toronto)
Certificate in Microphotography (Columbia University)

1936–1938 Cataloguer, Toronto Public Library
1938–1950 Reference Librarian, Toronto Public Library
1950–1971 Director, Canadian Bibliographic Centre and Director of Reference Branch, National Library of Canada

Shepard, Martha. (1938). The first things of Toronto; a guide to where accounts of them may be found. Toronto: n.p. [submitted for the degree of BLS].

Shepard, Martha (1943). It’s All a Matter of Reduction [Microfilm]. Ontario Library Review 27, no. 1: 8–14.

Shepard, Martha (1955). A Tour of Canada’s National Library. Food for Thought 5, no. 6: 5–9.

Shepard, Martha. (1959). Union Catalogue of the National Library of Canada. Why? How? And What now? Annals of Library Science 6 (June): 56–59.

Shepard, Martha (1960). Hands across the Border. American Library Association Bulletin 54, no. 4: 275–275.

Shepard, Martha (1962). Reference Division, National Library of Canada. Canadian Library 18, no. 4: 159–161.

Shepard, Martha. (1965). You say you requested? RQ 5 (Winter): 38–40.

Shepard, Martha. (1968). Interlibrary loan developments Canada. RQ 7 (Spring): 121–125.

Shepard, Martha. (1970). The Union Catalogues in the National Library the present condition. Ottawa: National Library of Canada.

Shepard, Martha (1971). “Presidential Address.” In Proceedings of the Canadian Library Association 26th Annual Conference, Vancouver, B.C., June 19–26, 1971, pp. 1–2. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association.

Bibliographical Society of Canada, President 1966–68
Canadian Library Association, President 1970–71

While at Toronto Public Library she was an editor of the Canadian Catalogue of Books. From 1946–1971 she was an adviser to the CLA newspaper microfilming project. 1950: first librarian hired by W. Kaye Lamb to help establish the National Library of Canada. She was responsible for planning and organizing the Canadian Union Catalogue and visited libraries across the country to microfilm their catalogue cards using a 16 mm camera. This formed the nucleus of what is now the AMICUS database. From 1966-1968 she was President, Bibliographical Society of Canada and in 1970-1971 President, Canadian Library Association. 1971: Upon her retirement she was described as one of Canada's most distinguished librarians as well as charming and gracious. Her firm, far-seeing leadership and strong sense of professionalism were noted.

Canadian Library Journal. News & notes. 29 (3), May-June 1972
Local librarian is CLA President. Ottawa Citizen, June 18, 1970.
Martha Shepard plans retirement Quill & Quire . 37 (9), July 23, 1971.
National Library News, October-December 1971.
Victoria Times-Colonist. Obituary. August 13, 2009.