Collection 1 - G7/G8 Research Collection

Actively collected by the G7 Research Group since the 1988 Toronto Summit (with additional material from all earlier summits as well), the collection serves, in the absence of an official secretariat of the summits, as a repository of the collective memory of that important global institution, accompanied by descriptive and analytical works of members of the Research Group and other scholars and practitioners.

The material that comprises this collection was donated to the library by Dr. Kirton, founder of the G7 Research Group, in annual accruals following each summit.

The G7/G8 Research Collection is a unique resource consisting of materials (print, realia, and other media) collected from the summits of the major industrialized, democratic countries, ministerial meetings, and from individual summit countries; and descriptive and analytical material produced by the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto. The majority of the material dates from 1988 onward, but a significant amount was collected from the earlier summits. The content is primarily textual records related to the political and economic relations of and between member countries

Further accruals are expected following each successive summit.

A previous system of arrangement was imposed upon the material, whereby the records of each summit were arranged into the following categories:

• major summit documents (communiqués, declarations, and other reports)
• minor summit documents (schedules, media information)
• documents from individual summit countries (briefings and speeches, background documents, press releases)
• documents of bilateral meetings
• materials from non-G7/G8 groups (governments, civil society and others)
• “The Other Economic Summit” (TOES)
• transcripts of wire services
• country files and issue files (for example, macroeconomics, North/South issues, environment, trade, reform of the United Nations and of international financial institutions, transnational crime, global information society)
• work of the G7 Research Group (analytical studies, reports)
• writings about the G7/G8 (books and articles)
• realia, including promotional material and press kits issued by the host countries

In restructuring the description of this collection, the archivist has made every effort to retain as much of the original category structure as possible while conforming to a logical hierarchy of arrangement. This is especially reflected in the naming of files.

Records from summits not listed in this finding aid are available for consultation. Please contact the library for access.

• Arabic
• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Russian
• Spanish