Arc has a history! 5 m of textual records from 1969 to 1994. The Arc Reading Series began in 1969 and continued until 1994. The magazine was founded in 1978 at Carleton University by Michael Gnarowski, Tom Henighan, and Christopher Levenson. With several issues under its belt, Arc left the shelter of Carleton University, and diversified its means of sustenance as a nationally distributed journal of poetry and poetry criticism. The story, as you can see, continues.

Ottawa,  Ontario,  Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/literaryarchives/027011-200.008-e.html

“The Canadian Poetry Archive features selected poems from over 100 early English- and French-language Canadian poets. Digitized from public domain anthologies found in the National Library of Canada’s rich literature collection, the poems represent some of Canada’s most notable poetry from the 19th and early 20th centuries.”

Now under the aegis of Library and Archives Canada, the Canadian Poetry Archive celebrated the First-ever World Poetry Day on March 21, 2000.

Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa,  Ontario,  Canada
http://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/canvers/index-e.html

“Library and Archives Canada (comprising the former National Library of Canada and the National Archives of Canada) collects and preserves Canada’s documentary heritage, and makes it accessible to all Canadians. This heritage includes publications, archival records, sound and audio-visual materials, photographs, artworks, and electronic documents such as websites.”

Check out the list of poets on the Canadian Poetry Archive, the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, the virtual exhibition on Canadian Writers, and the Literary Archives.

located in Ottawa,  Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/index-e.html

“OneZeroZero was conceived in 1999 as a Coach House Books Millennium Project funded by the Canada Council. It continued in 2002 with assistance from the Federal Department of Industry’s Canada’s Digital Collections. Subsequently it was taken under the wing of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art and will continue to grow.”

“OZZ is an attempt to chart the history of English Canadian small press publishing between 1945 and the present. Its aim is to provide students of Canadian literature with a clear path through the increasingly dense thickets of modern and postmodern writing (mostly poetry) since the end of World War II. It will also essay a sort of cartography of the English Canadian small press, to provide an uncomplicated navigation tool for educators, students and the merely curious through the crowded land- and sea-scapes of unofficial cultural production and non-corporate publishing in English Canada.”

Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art,  Canada
http://www.ccca.ca/history/ozz/index.html

The Ottawa Public Library celebrated its 100 year anniversary in November 2006.

Check out the library’s Digital Audio Catalogue where you can “download popular audio books 24/7 to your PC at home, in the office or from anywhere in the world.” Some poetry classics to be found in the Digital Audio Catalogue if you dig.

Ottawa,  Ontario,  Canada
http://www.biblioottawalibrary.ca/index_e.html

“The Itinerant Poetry Librarian travels the world with a library of ‘Lost and Forgotten’ poetry, installing the library & librarian and recording the sounds, poems and poetry of the cities, peoples and countries she meets.”

Date: Started in UK, toured Europe, currently based in USA. See weblog for cities and dates.
International
http://www.itinerantpoetrylibrarian.blogspot.com/

“The Australian Poetry Resources Internet Library project (which John Tranter started in 2004 with this prototype Internet site) has been funded with a four-year major Linkage Grant from the Australian Research Council. Professor Elizabeth Webby and Creagh Cole, from the University of Sydney, in association with CAL (the Copyright Agency Limited), will head a team of researchers to build a permanent and wide-ranging library of resources on the Internet….”

“As it grows, the Australian Poetry Resources Internet Library project will provide original texts and basic background information on thousands of Australian poets selected by an advisory committee made up of writers, academic scholars, reviewers, librarians and publishers.”

Other offerings: Bookstores in Australia | Survey Articles Contents (with surveys of Australian poetry scene at various times)

Australia
http://www.austlit.com/a/index.html

“The Poetry Cubicle’s founding aims are to explore, interpret, document, preserve and archive ‘poetry’ in its myriad, and hybrid, forms, expressions and states, and to provide access to such artistic expressions through the physical and digital realms to as wide an audience as possible.”

See also The itinerant Poetry Librarian weblog.

Norwich,  U.K. (England)
http://www.thepoetrycubicle.org.uk/indexTPC.html

“The most comprehensive and accessible collection of poetry from 1912 in Britain…. The library contains 90,000 items and is growing all the time.”

The Poetry Library is also home to www.poetrymagazines.org.uk a “free access site to the full-text digital library of 20th and 21st century UK poetry magazines from the Poetry Library collection.”

London,  U.K. (England)
http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/

“The Scottish Poetry Library is the place for poetry in Scotland, for the regular reader, the serious student or the casual browser…. Since its foundation in 1984 it has amassed a remarkable collection of written works, as well as tapes and videos. The emphasis is on contemporary poetry written in Scotland, in Scots, Gaelic and English, but historic Scottish poetry and contemporary works from almost every part of the world feature too.”

Together with Arc, the Scottish Poetry Library has co-hosted the Scotland Canada Exchange:

• www.spl.org.uk/scotland_canada/index.html
• www.arcpoetry.ca/greatscots/

Edinburgh,  U.K. (Scotland)
http://www.spl.org.uk/

“The Library hosts international readings, featuring poets from the Nordic countries, Central and Eastern Europe, France and Germany over the last three years. It also works in partnership with European cultural institutes and with Literature Across Frontiers, to hold in-depth translation workshops and associated public readings.”

U.K. (Scotland)
http://www.spl.org.uk/international/translation.html

“The Naropa University Archives continues work on its nationally recognized Writing and Poetics Collections. Digital reformatting and access activities continue on the Audio Collection, called ‘one of the three most important literary audio collections in America’ by the New York Times. Work is also progressing to expand the archival programs to include film and photo collections…. Archives staff have currently digitized two thousand hours of audio recordings from activities at the Kerouac School.”

See Internet Archive

Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado,  United States
http://www.naropa.edu/archive/index.cfm

“Poets House is a literary center and poetry archive—a collection and meeting place that invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry…. At the heart of the organization is our 45,000 volume poetry collection.”

New York, NY,  United States
http://www.poetshouse.org/

“The Poetry Center since 1954 has hosted what is likely the longest continuously running poetry reading series in the United States. The Poetry Center’s American Poetry Archives houses original audio and video recordings dating from 1954 to the present, which are available for public access. The Poetry Center reading series presents dozens of public programs throughout the academic year, both on the SFSU campus and at various other sites in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

San Francisco State University,  United States
http://www.sfsu.edu/~poetry