The Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) / Conseil des Bibliothèques Urbaines du Canada was formally incorporated in 2008. For more than 20 years CULC/CBUC has met, and worked under different names to better library service in Canada’s populated urban areas.

To work collaboratively to build vibrant urban communities by strengthening the capacity of Canada’s urban libraries.

• Research: Create, analyze, and disseminate information that will further the mission of the organization.
• Capacity Building: Strengthen the capacity of urban libraries to anticipate and respond to the needs of the community.
• Knowledge Transfer and Exchange: Strengthen our ability to transfer knowledge, share information with CULC/CBUC, and to advance the urban agenda.
• Organizational Resiliency: Focus on capacity builing initiatives in order to strengthen the resources required for the organization to meet its mandate.

CULC/CBUC is committed to the strengthening of vibrant urban communities through building the capacity of Canada’s urban libraries. Our members collectively serve more than 7.5 million active users who annually make more than 384 million uses of our 522 locations virtual services. In 2010 we loaned in excess of 185,000,000 items, and had more than 350,000 uses in person and online.  CULC/CBUC member libraries expended over $90 million on collections including $11 million on digital resources.  More than 12,000 library workers are employed by CULC/CBUC member libraries.

More than 55% of all Canadians are served by a CULC/CBUC member library. The activity in CULC/CBUC libraries comprises more than 80% of Canada’s public library activity.