The Workshop on Instruction in Library Use was founded in 1970 by McGill Librarian John Hobbins.
William Workman was born on May 1, 1807, in Ballymacash, County Antrim, Ireland.
He was a merchant, businessman, mayor of Montreal, and philanthropist. From 1827 to 1829, he worked for the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, and, in 1829, he moved to Canada with his family. He began to work for the newspapers, Canadian Courant and Montreal Advertiser. In 1830, he joined his brothers Benjamin and Thomas in Canada's largest tool and hardware wholesale business of John Frothingham. By 1836, the Workmans had become full partners, and William remained in the partnership until his retirement in 1859. In 1842, he built an impressive mansion in Montreal's Golden Square Mile, which he named "Mount Prospect". He was one of the founders of the Montreal City and District Savings Bank in 1846 and became the bank's first president, 1846-1862, and a director, 1861-1872. Workman was Mayor of Montreal from 1868 to 1871 and invested heavily in railways (Champlain and St. Lawrence railway), shipping (Canadian Ocean Steam Navigation Company), real estate, and charity. He helped establish the Montreal Protestant House of Industry and Refuge in 1864 and served as its president from 1874 to 1877. He was also president of the St. Patrick’s Society of Montreal.
In 1831, he married Elizabeth (Eliza) Bethell (1805–1885). He died on February 23, 1878, in Montreal, Quebec.
Benjamin Workman was a Montreal physician and druggist. Born into a large family in Lisburn, Ireland, in 1793, he emigrated in 1819 and settled in Montreal. He was a student at the Faculty of Medicine at McGill in 1852 and worked as a chemist and druggist. He served as editor of the Canadian Courant, which he acquired from Nahum Mower in 1829. He served as secretary of the Christian Unitarian Society of Montreal. In 1856 he became assistant medical superintendent to his brother Joseph at the Lunatic Asylum in Toronto, where he worked until 1875.
