HISTORY
The start of the Centre coincided with the establishment of the Recreation program at Acadia and the creation of a separate government department responsible for Recreation in the province of Nova Scotia. It was a partnership between Acadia University and the Province that lasted nearly a quarter of a century, and played a central role in the development of the recreation profession within Nova Scotia. The Centre, located on the Acadia campus, was recognized nationally as a leader in recreation resource development and dissemination.
The establishment of the Nova Scotia Department of Recreation in 1973, heralded the beginning of development of a comprehensive system of recreation programs and services within the province. Many such offerings were developed and delivered by recreation professionals who were educated at Acadia University in the newly established degree in Physical Education and Recreation. Dr Robert Watts, a member of the Acadia faculty, had made a proposal to the government in 1971, to establish a centre that would collect and house recreation and leisure related material for use by the Acadia Recreation students as well as professionals throughout the province. At that time, with the field being so new, access to reliable resource information was quite limited.
The establishment of the Nova Scotia Department of Recreation in 1973, heralded the beginning of development of a comprehensive system of recreation programs and services within the province. Many such offerings were developed and delivered by recreation professionals who were educated at Acadia University in the newly established degree in Physical Education and Recreation. Dr Robert Watts, a member of the Acadia faculty, had made a proposal to the government in 1971, to establish a centre that would collect and house recreation and leisure related material for use by the Acadia Recreation students as well as professionals throughout the province. At that time, with the field being so new, access to reliable resource information was quite limited.
In April, 1973 a comprehensive proposal was developed to establish the Centre of Leisure Studies at Acadia. The rationale was that the Centre would help address the growing societal issue of increased idleness being brought about by shorter work weeks, early retirements, longer vacations, and generally more discretionary time. The Centre would help address these challenges by identifying the best way to mobilize human and material resources, and becoming a focal point for the innovative and comprehensive study of leisure.
Five objectives were identified:
- collect resource materials, create of an efficient documentation and retrieval system, and disseminate pertinent information
- engage in practical research such as master plans and feasibility studies
- provide professional development through clinics, workshops, seminars, and conferences
- serve as a catalyst for school-community program development
- coordinate the use of Acadia facilities for use by external recreation groups.
Once the N.S. Department of Recreation was established, the Director of Operations James Bayer, in particular, saw the value of such a Centre and the government agreed to partner with Acadia. On July 31st,1973, it was indicated to Acadia that a start up grant of $15,000 was being provided by the Government to establish the Centre of Leisure Studies. In the meantime, a University Senate committee chaired by Dr. Eric Hansen, was formed to consider the establishment of a School of Recreation and Physical Education, as opposed to a Department, and to establish the Centre of Leisure Studies. The committee recommended that the School be established as well as the Centre, and that the School would administer the Centre. Concern was expressed that the proposal for services seemed quite limited given the potential for such a Centre but that increased services would require increased funding and that a balance needed to be found between the two. It was also recommended that additional external funding be sought to support the Centre.
Acadia President Dr J.M.R. Perkin, responded to the Government’s offer of funding stating that unless there could be a guarantee of ongoing funding, that the university alone could not commit to cover the annual operating costs. In September 1974, the province committed a further $20,000 for the continued establishment of the Centre. The province also indicated that this should be possibly looked at as a National Centre, and not one unique to the Province. As such, they were going to make a request to the federal government for financial assistance. Garnet Brown, the Minister of Recreation for Nova Scotia contacted Marc Lalonde, Federal Minister of Health and Welfare, seeking financial assistance to develop the computerized data bank in order that it could become a national centre, accessible through computer terminals anywhere in the country. The response from the Federal Minister was that the National Advisory Council on Fitness and Amateur Sport had previously looked at such an initiative and had determined that given the magnitude and expense of the task, when compared to the prospective usage of such a computerized database, it did not warrant the expenditure of funds. The province did provide additional funding however to Acadia to continue the work of the Centre and development of the computerized database.
The Centre was to become "a focal point for the innovative and comprehensive study of leisure”. In addition to collecting materials, the Centre was to develop a computer-based retrieval system, something that was quite revolutionary in the early 1970s. The Centre was also mandated to develop bibliographies, newsletters, and abstracts as a means of making the materials more known and accessible for practitioners.
The Centre began operation in June, 1974 housed in a former athletic dressing room in the Acadia gymnasium complex. Much of the initial material collected by the Centre’s founder, Dr. Bob Watts, came from his home country, the USA, because that is where much of the resource information was being produced at the time. Bob had plenty of contacts but few funds and so he had to be resourceful in getting the collection started. Dr. Roger Mannell became Director of the Centre in 1975, to work on the three established priorities: collect information on leadership, management, and administration related to the recreation and leisure field; develop a computerized storage and retrieval system; and to gather information on all and any other areas of the field, and in particular outdoor recreation, rural recreation, leisure counselling, and community school programs. Doris Ross served at Centre documentalist and Debbie Vidito was the secretary. Once Jim Bayer left the government to become the head of Physical Education and Recreation at Acadia in 1975, funding for the Centre became more stabilized. A Management Board was established consisting of two government representatives and two university representatives.
In January, 1976, the Centre published the first bimonthly newsletter entitled the Bulletin which contained abstracts of key recent acquisitions, lists of other acquisitions, and information on upcoming events. The computer retrieval system was initially established by Physical Education Curriculum coordinator Dr. Norm Watts and later refined by Computer Science Professor Dr. Wayne Brehaut. An indexing system needed to be developed in order for materials to be appropriately keyworded. The index contained 43 general headings and hundred of sub headings, and all materials were indexed using the same keywords, be they periodical articles, books, microfiche, research reports, manuals, or brochures.
The Centre quickly outgrew the old locker room space and was relocated in a former medical clinic located on Main Street, just west of the War Memorial Gymnasium Complex near the entrance to the gym parking lot. The building consisted of the Director’s office; a staff work room; a room housing hundreds of document file cases in which individual items were stored, the book collection, and the audio-visual collection; and a reading room with a large table where the periodicals were displayed. The collection was mainly for inhouse use with the exception of books and video tapes which could be signed out on a limited basis.
In 1979, Roger Mannell resigned and was replaced as Director of the Centre and part time lecturer for a two year period by Peter Diffenderfer. He was followed by Sheila Backman who also held the position for two years. In addition to relocating to a larger facility and development the indexing system, two key initiatives were developed in the late 70’s: the establishment of the Acadia Recreation Certificate program and the annual Spring Symposium. Brenda Robertson assumed the role of Director of the Centre in 1983 and served in the role for 12 years. In 1985, the name of the Centre was changed to the Recreation Resource Centre of Nova Scotia (RRCNS), at the request of the province who was the funding partner. It was felt that the name change would attract more practitioners to the Acadia campus to use the resources. A very talented artist by the name of James Calbeck was contracted to do some branding around the new name and he came up with an attractive logo featuring 2 stylistic RRs as well as a mascot who he entitled Dan D. Lion. Dan D, was a distinctive looking “leisure lion” and was featured on all Centre promotional materials including the annual wall calendar which included the dates for many professional development activities occurring throughout the year. The monthly pictures Dan D. engaged in Centre related activities such as conducting research, leading a workshop, or cataloguing resources. The new branding was effective in attracting users to the Centre and making them feel welcome.
During Brenda Robertson’s tenure as Director, the Centre was again relocated to a larger space on campus in order to better accommodate the rapidly expanding resource collection and to house the growing staff compliment. The new facility was a large house located at the top of university avenue, across from Chipman House, where the K.C, Irving Centre stands today. Much of the work of the Centre from the mid 1980s until the mid 90s focused on the development of a broad range of professional development and research related services.
In order to carry out the expanding work load, and with the Centre’s Director position being part time, (paired with a half time appointment in the academic unit with a substantial teaching load), additional staff were required to operate the Centre. There was an administrative assistant position, which was filled by Carol Fletcher. Another position on the staff team was that of documentalist, responsible for the coding of materials, and Jean Brehaut served in that role for a number of years, until 1988 when she moved to BC. During 1988, there were a number of other changes in staff compliment: Lyle Davis joined the staff in 1988 as the Centre’s Research Coordinator serving until his accidental death in 1991 as a result of a climbing accident in Alberta. After this tragic event, Cindy Burke became the Centre Research Coordinator. Sheila Hosick came to the Centre initially to cover the gap left by Jean Brehaut as well as to give leadership in the Workshop series area. Louise Perrin joined the staff team as the administrative assistant that year as well, following the sudden passing of Ellen Beatty. Other short term staff appointments included Charlene Shannon, Debby Smith, and Heather Reid. Each summer, grants were obtained to hire students to assist staff with carrying out a myriad of tasks.
Brenda Robertson resigned as Director of the Centre during the Spring of 1996, to work full time as a professor with the Recreation Management program, and focus on her own program of scholarly research. Alex Wright, Acting Director of the School of Recreation and Physical Education, became the Acting Director of the Centre. That Fall, it was announced that the Provincial Government was withdrawing from its 24 year partnership with Acadia operating the Resource Centre, effective March 31st 1997. The reason cited was that the Province's funds were to be redirected to support the establishment of a National Centre and Data base called the Leisure Information Network (LIN), operating out of Ontario. LIN was in existence for about a decade before it ceased operations in 2017, creating a large void in the access for recreation related resources and information services in Canada.
For nearly a quarter century, the Centre of Leisure Studies/Recreation Resource Centre served as the hub for information dissemination and related services for the recreation field, not only serving the needs of Nova Scotians but other parts of the country as well as a number of other English-speaking countries around the globe. The existence of the Centre on the Acadia campus helped to elevate the reputation of university, with regards to recreation and leisure studies, to that of a leader in the academic world throughout North America. From the perspective of the profession within the province, the Centre not only housed one of the largest specialized resource collections anywhere, it meant that recreation service providers had ready access to some of the best professional development opportunities in the country, and well as to a myriad of research services not available in any other province.