James Bain

Who was James Bain?

James Bain was a Scottish-Canadian bookseller, publisher, and librarian. Born in London, England, his family emigrated to Toronto when he was 6 years old. After completing his education at the Toronto Grammar School, he went to work for his father who was a stationer and bookseller. He was active in the publishing industry both in England and in Canada, joining the firm John Nimmo & Son which later became Nimmo & Bain. He returned to Canada in 1882. After managing the fledgling Canada Publishing Company, Bain was selected in 1883 to become the first chief librarian of the Toronto Public Library. He held this position until 1908.

As chief librarian, he was occupied with building both the library's collection and new branches. Acquiring the library's first collection took some diplomacy on his part, since in the 1880s fiction was controversial. In the campaign to establish a free library, some of the opposition had argued against it on the grounds that taxes shouldn't be used to circulate novels. While the library did acquire novels, the bulk of the collection was more serious.