Guy Berthiaume (born 1950) is Librarian and Archivist of Canada Emeritus. A Canadian historian specialized in the study of Classical Antiquity, he served as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec from June 22, 2009 to June 21, 2014, and, from June 23, 2014 to August 29, 2019, he served as Librarian and Archivist of Canada.
Biography
A native of Montreal, he earned a doctorate from Université Paris VIII in 1976, following an M.A. degree from Université Laval (1973) and a B.A from UQAM (1972). His doctoral thesis, written under the supervision of Marcel Detienne, was published in 1982 under the title Les rôles du mágeiros. Étude sur la boucherie, la cuisine et le sacrifice dans la Grèce ancienne (Leiden and Montreal).
Starting in 1976, the first 20 years of his professional life were dedicated to research administration. After five years at Université de Montréal, he joined the Fonds FCAC (which eventually became the Fonds FCAR), a non-profit organization created by the Government of Québec in 1981. He founded the Scholarships department and subsequently headed the Research Support and Dissemination department.
In 1984, he joined Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) as Assistant Director, Research Services, a position he held until 1987 when he became Assistant to the Vice-Rector, Academic. During this period, Guy Berthiaume sat as a Member of the Executive Committee of the Canadian Association of University Research Administrators (CAURA), an association he chaired from 1989-1990. In 1989, he was named Vice-President of the UQAM Foundation, the university’s fundraising arm. Under his leadership, the Foundation raised more than 31 million dollars over the next seven years.
In 1996, he became a professor with UQAM’s History Department. He devoted the next two years to teaching Classical Antiquity. After spending a year at the helm of UQAM’s Office of Partnerships (1999), he was appointed in 2000 to serve as Director of the Canadian Students’ House at the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris. Over the next two years, he organized the festivities for the 75th anniversary of the House (October 2001) and edited the proceedings of a colloquium held on September 10, 2001 (La Cité internationale universitaire de Paris. 75 ans d'évolutions, Paris, 2002).
In 2002, he was recruited by Université de Montréal to become Vice-Rector and Chief of Staff to the Rector. In March 2003, he was appointed Vice-Rector, Development and Public Affairs, a position he continued to hold following the appointment of a new rector, in June 2005, with the title of Vice-Rector, Development and Alumni Relations.
August 2008 marked his return to Université du Québec à Montréal where he held the position of Vice-Rector, Research and Creation. In this capacity, he was responsible for the development of scientific and artistic activities at UQAM, as well as for international relations.
From June 22, 2009 to June 21, 2014, he was Chair and CEO of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. This institution includes a major public library–the Grande Bibliothèque–,a preservation centre, and nine archives centres: Gatineau, Montréal, Québec, Rimouski, Rouyn-Noranda, Saguenay, Sept-Îles, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières, and a service point in Gaspé.
He became Librarian and Archivist of Canada on June 23, 2014 and retired on August 29, 2019.
From 2010 to 2014 he served as Secretary General of the Réseau francophone numérique (RFN), an organization that includes 22 heritage institutions from member countries of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (see: www.rfnum.org). Since May 2015, he has been sitting on the Executive Committee of RFN, as the representative of Library and Archives Canada.
Guy Berthiaume is a Knight in the Ordre des Palmes académiques of the French Republic (2006). He received the Dan Chase Award from the Canadian Association of University Research Administrators in 2000 and the medal of the Centre Jacques Cartier in 2007. He acted as a Trudeau Foundation Mentor in 2010-2011. In May 2012, he received the Prix Reconnaissance from UQAM and in December of the same year, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.