thought it would be nice to blow the dust off this most significant of threads.
nice to mr. robot harper do something for the city:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...-gets-3-million-federal-boost/article1327716/
Toronto Reference Library gets $3-million federal boost
Prime Minister provides stimulus funding for one of the ‘world's great public libraries'
Money to go toward second phase of expansion
Brodie Fenlon
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Prime Minister Stephen Harper could have easily been eclipsed by his photo-op surroundings were it not for a cordon of black curtains and blue signs promoting “Canada's economic action plan.â€
There to announce a $3-million stimulus grant, the PM stood in the centre of a new 16,800-square-foot, natural light-filled “salon†designed by Moriyama & Teshima Architects, replete with sleek wood-slat panelling, high-definition televisions, two outdoor terraces, full catering kitchens and a wall-mounted garden.
In Toronto, they call it the library.
The Toronto Reference Library, to be precise, the heart of a 99-branch public system that has become the world's busiest on a per-capita basis, with 16 million visitors each year, another 21 million virtual visits, and an annual circulation of 30 million items.
Only the Hong Kong library system, serving three times the population, is busier.
“The Toronto Public Library ranks with the world's great public libraries, and yet it's different and personal for every user who walks in or clicks in,†said Wendy Newman, a senior fellow at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information.
Despite daily predictions of the death of print, Toronto's library system has thrived in the digital age, finding its niche where technology, people and conversation intersect.
It has helped that Toronto is a “city of readers,†with a healthy newspaper market and strong bookstore sector, said head librarian Jane Pyper.
The TPL has also catered to the city's surging population of immigrants, who find in its branches a safe place for their children, free access to technology, job-search resources in their own language, even a bit of quiet from what is often a full household, Ms. Pyper said.
But the TPL has also been quick to embrace technological change, from its online reservations and self-service checkout to the addition of e-books. By year's end, all branches will have wireless Internet access and double the bandwidth.
“There's a phenomenon where information goes digital and at the same time people come together,†Ms. Pyper said. “Information begets conversation which begets learning which begets more information.â€
First-class architectural renovations, like the addition Mr. Harper visited, have also been warmly received by the public.
“Those libraries have the ‘wow' factor,†Ms. Newman said. “What the Toronto Public Library does is square great design with use.â€
Matthew Church, chair of the library board, traces the TPL's success to the 1998 amalgamation of the six Toronto municipalities and Metro Toronto, which forced the merger of seven library boards. “It was a real opportunity that was seized to actually look at what a library is and does,†he said.
The forced marriage resulted in a single catalogue, which boosted circulation immediately, Ms. Pyper said. It also gave the TPL a robust inventory of established branches.
Above all else, Ms. Newman said, the library's services and strategic plans are “deeply rooted in community.†In the end, she said, €œit really is about the people.â€
