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William Bliss Carman was a poet and editor born on April 15, 1861 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. A descendant of United Empire Loyalists, Carman attended the Fredericton Collegiate School and the University of New Brunswick. He developed a love of classical literature while attending Fredericton Collegiate, where he was introduced to the poetry of Rossetti and Swinburne by headmaster George Robert Parkin. His own first published poem appeared in the University of New Brunswick Monthly in 1879.

Carman served as editor of the New York Independent, Current Literature, Cosmopolitan, The Chap-Book and The Atlantic Monthly. His first book of poetry, Low Tide on Grand Pre, was published in 1893, followed by Songs of Vagabondia in 1894. In total he published over 25 collections of poetry.

During the 1920s Carman was a member of The Song Fishermen, a Halifax-based literary and social set that included Charles G.D. Roberts (Carman’s cousin), Andrew Merkel, Robert Norwood, Evelyn Tufts, Stewart MacAuley, Kenneth Leslie, and Ethel Butler. He was named Canada’s Poet Laureate on October 28, 1921. He died in 1929 in New Canaan, Connecticut, where he had moved to be near Mary Perry King, one of his greatest literary influences.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) was formed in 1963 by merging the National Union of Public Employees and the National Union of Public Service Employees. CUPE is now Canada’s largest union. With over 600,000 members across Canada, CUPE represents workers in health care, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social services, public utilities, transportation, emergency services and airlines.

CUPE is a strong and democratic union that is committed to improving the quality of life for workers in Canada. Women and men working together to form local unions built CUPE. They did so to have a stronger voice – a collective voice – in their workplace and in society as a whole. Together they have won the right to negotiate their wages and working conditions; to stop arbitrary action by employers; and to speak out without fear of reprisal. In 1967, CUPE made labour history when the members elected Grace Hartman as national secretary-treasurer. She was the first woman to hold a top position within a Canadian union. In the same year, CUPE made its first pay equity breakthrough when female members working for the city of London, Ontario won an end to wage discrimination enshrined in separate wage schedules for men and women.

Prior to July 1970 the University Archives existed only as a small collection of manuscripts (including some of the early records of the Board of Governors) in the Special Collections department of the University Library. While these records were available to researchers, they had not been properly catalogued.

In July 1970 the first University Archivist, Dr. Charles Armour, was appointed and was placed in charge of the Archives as part of the Special Collections department. The Archivist's responsibilities included acquiring and organizing the extensive university records, which were scattered throughout the many administrative and faculty offices on campus. In addition, the Archivist was to set up a new Theatre Archives and a Business Archives; to catalogue the private manuscripts which had been donated to the University, and to solicit papers from former Dalhousie administrative and Academic staff. Within a year a Music Archives was added.

In the early 1970s the Archives moved to its current location on the fifth floor of the Killam Library, and in the fall of 1975 the Archives became a separate department within the University Library. New collections were added over the next few years including the Nova Scotia Labour History Archives, a Medical Archives section, a collection of papers of Citizen Action Groups, and an expanded collection of Canadian and British shipping records. The Archives' collection of private manuscripts also grew to include the papers of both Dalhousie and local individuals, including professors, historians, and writers. In addition to the above archival collections the Archives has also acquired an extensive collection of Dalhousie memorabilia, a large collection of theatre and music programmes, business brochures and catalogues (including an excellent collection of Eaton's and Simpson's catalogues from 1894 onward), and copies of Dunn and Bradstreet's business ratings (1882-1950). The Archives has also compiled extensive reference files related to its major acquisitions areas, a huge collection of photographs relating to both Dalhousie and Nova Scotia, and numerous video and audio tapes.

In October 2000, Michael Moosberger was appointed the second University Archivist of Dalhousie University. Since that time the Archives has made a number of acquisitions, including the literary papers of Donna Morrissey, theatre company records from Two Planks and a Passion, Jest in Time, Upstart, and records from the Eye Level Gallery and the Centre for Art Tapes, two of Canada's oldest artist-run centres.

Dalhousie Library and Information Alumni Association was founded in early 1974, being approved by the school's alumni and accepted as a legitimate entity by the Dalhousie Alumni Association. Its founding members included school director Norman Horrocks, John Murchie, who was appointed chairfellow, Elaine Rillie as chairfellow, and Bernie Coyl as secretary.

The Associated Alumni meet on a regular basis and sponsor social gatherings and professional workshops to advance the interests of the library profession, particularly education for librarianship; to promote the best interests of the Dalhousie School of Information Management; and to promote the professional objectives and interests of its individual members.

The Dalhousie Women's Club (DWC) was established in 1951 largely through the efforts of Jean Elizabeth Macdonald (née Frazer) and Evelyn Olive Longard (née Nickerson), both of whom were alumnae members of the Board of Governors. The purpose of the club was to promote acquaintance and friendship among the women of Dalhousie University, King's College and affiliated institutions.

Tea parties, dances, fashion shows, guest lectures and field trips provided an opportunity for club members and their families to convene. In addition, the DWC organized a special luncheon each September—referred to as the “Newcomers' Party”—for incoming female faculty members and the wives of male faculty.

During the 1960s the DWC began forming interest groups such as a book club and the “out to lunch” club. The Dalhousie Women's Club ceased operation in 1995.

Killam Memoiral Library was the outcome of a campus development plan in the mid 1960s that acknowledged the need for a new university library, and the timely bequest of Dorothy Killam, who died in 1965 and left Dalhousie $32 million.

Leslie R. Fairn received the architectural contract for the new library, although NSTC professor of architecture Ojars Biskaps is considered the principal design architect, working closely with the new University Librarian, Louis G. Vagianos. The primary decision-maker behind the library's design philosophy, Vagionos had a vision of a library that served Humanities and Social Sciences students and strengthened the quality of education at Dalhousie through a single, continuous operating unit centred around the provision of public services.

Built by Fraser-Brace Maritimes Limited, work on the Killam Memorial Library began in 1966 and was completed in 1971 at a final cost of $7.3 million, 80 per cent of which came from a provincial self-liquidating loan. The library officially opened on 11 March 1971, with a special convocation and a week-long celebration of the arts, including a symposium with Alex Colville, Harold Hamer, John Hobday and Alden Nowlan; an exhibit of nineteenth-century French paintings on loan from the National Gallery; an Isaac Stern violin recital; and a performance by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. During the dedication ceremony, the keys to the library were exchanged five times, from contractor to architect, to the chairman of the Board of Governors, to President Henry Hicks, and finally to Louis Vagianos.

The 230,000 square foot building was designed to eventually accommodate 8000 undergraduate and graduate students, a faculty of 750 and library staff of 130. With a capacity for one million books, it was equipped with conference rooms, reading areas, telex equipment, public typing rooms and a conduit structure wiring each room to the basement's computer centre. The auditorium was named for Archibald McMechan, Dalhousie English professor from 1889-1933 and the university librarian from 1906-1931. An open courtyard was the principle source of light and intended to enhance traffic patterns. The design attempted to be inherently flexible and adaptable to future changes in computer and communications technology. The Killam, as it came to be known, won a 1971 Nova Scotia Association of Architects Design Award.

Finished in pre-cast concrete similar to Dalhousie Arts Centre, the Killam exemplified modern architectural and decorating features. Henry Hicks, a skilled cabinetmaker, pushed for the use of Brazilian rosewood in the interior, while Basil Cooke, a geologist and Dean of Arts and Science, recommended the micaceous slate tiles on the ground-level floors. The fourth and fifth floors initially contained departmental offices and the third floor housed the School of Library and Information Studies. In the early 1970s, the University Archives moved to its location on the fifth floor, where it remains along with Special Collections. When the Macdonald Library closed in 1990, the science collection was moved to the fourth floor.

In 1996, a glass roof enclosed the courtyard, creating an atrium, and the stone floor was restored after years of exposure to the weather. A coffee shop was introduced and the ventilation and lighting systems were replaced. In 2002, the first floor of the library was remodelled to house a Learning Commons with computer workstations, support services, offices and group meeting rooms. Later renovations included two additional Learning Commons, the GIS Centre; a graduate students' centre; the Collider, a multimedia room; and the Academic Technology Services offices. The Killam also houses the Writing Centre; the Centre for Learning and Teaching; and the Office of the Dean of Libraries.

The James Dunn Law Library opened in 1967, occupying the fourth and fifth floors of the newly built Weldon Law Building. The library was funded by the widow of Dalhousie Law School graduate Sir James Dunn. As early as 1969 the Dunn Foundation had initiated funding for the university's first professional law librarian, Professor Eunice W. Beeson, one of Canada's earliest qualified lawyer librarians who is widely credited with establishing the foundation of the modern law school library.

In August 1985, a lightning strike caused an electrical malfunction, igniting a fire that destroyed the library's fifth floor, along with hundreds of books. Despite the losses, the fire was considered a “mixed tragedy" as it spurred the construction of a four-storey addition on the north side of the law building. Completed in 1988, the new library was financed by Lady Beaverbrook, law foundations across Canada, and Dalhousie alumni. The Dunn Law Library now occupies four floors in the Weldon Law Building, offering space for study and research and a collection of over 220,000 volumes.