As reported in Librarianship.ca:
OCLC Research has released Maple Leaves: Discovering Canada Through the Published Record, a look at Canada’s contribution to literature, music, film, and other forms of published documentary heritage as represented in OCLC library collections around the world.
The report’s findings include:
- Janette Oke is the most popular Canadian author, and Anne of Green Gables is the most popular literary work by a Canadian author, where popularity is measured by library holdings.
- Canadians have made and continue to make significant impact across a wide range of musical genres, from the classical piano of Glenn Gould, to the jazz piano of Oscar Peterson; from the film scores of Howard Shore, to the children’s albums of Raffi; from classic singers and songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, to contemporary artists like Diana Krall and Michael Bublé.
- While many Canadian authors and other creators enjoy peak interest among contemporaneous consumers of their work, popular interest persists in the work of some classic Canadian authors and musicians like Lucy Maud Montgomery and Oscar Peterson.
- The Canadian presence in the published record is diffused across library collections around the world.
- The Canadian presence in the published record includes thousands of publications in the languages of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation.
- Canadians have established a strong presence in the realm of comic books and graphic novels, from the classic work of Hal Foster and Joe Shuster to the contemporary contributions of Jeff Lemire.