[4] The Centre was situated at 154 Waller at the University of Ottawa, and was initially part of the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages.

However, it established itself as an autonomous unit of the Faculty of Arts and acquired its first official director, Raymond LeBlanc, in 1970.

[10] Raymond LeBlanc: 1970-1980, 1990–1994, 1995-1998 Philip C. Hauptman: 1980-1986 Marjorie B. Wesche: 1986-1990 Robert Courchêne: 1994-1995 (interim), 1998–2002, 2005-2007 (interim) Marie-Claude Tréville: 2003-2005 Richard Clément: 2007-2017 Larry Vandergrift: January to June 2011 (interim) Marie-Josée Hamel: January to June 2015 (interim) Jérémie Séror: July 2017 to August 2023 Elena Valenzuela: Since July 2023 [11] Jérémie Séror: Director and Associate Dean Monika Jezak: Assistant Director, Administration Beverly Baker: Director, Language Assessment Marie-Claude Dansereau: Second Language Teaching Program Coordinator Marie-Josée Hamel: Director, Graduate Studies Parvin Movassat: Director, Undergraduate Studies Program Nikolay Slavkov: Director of the Canadian Center for Studies and Research on Bilingualism and Language Planning (CCERBAL) OLBI offers a wide range of courses in English and French as second languages or as foreign languages to University of Ottawa students, faculty, staff, as well as to others outside the University.

Course topics range from reading and writing to listening and speaking, and are offered from the beginner level.

Special accompanying FLS and ESL courses cover vocabulary used in certain University of Ottawa classes from the student's chosen field of study.

In geographic terms, about 85% of Immersion students are from Ontario, 5% from Quebec, 5% from British Columbia, and 5% from other Canadian provinces and territories and other regions of the world.

The CCERBAL also serves as an advisory body on language policy and social cohesion in Canada and internationally.

Its services are available to the academic community, to governments, and to non-governmental organizations with interest and responsibilities in the field of bilingualism, broadly defined.

[5] It holds a large collection of helpful materials and resources for language teachers and learners, scholars, and the general public.