Toronto Public Library (TPL) is a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

system in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2023 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other public library system internationally, making it the largest neighbourhood-based library system in the world. Within North America, it also had the highest circulation and visitors when compared to other large urban systems. Established as the library of the

Mechanics' Institute Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts (especially in the Australian colonies), were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult edu ...

in 1830, the Toronto Public Library now consists of 100 branch libraries and has over 26 million items in its collection.

History

The first subscription library service to open in the city was on 9 December 1810, at

Elmsley House Elmsley is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alex Elmsley (1929–2006), British Magician and Computer programmer * James H. Elmsley (1895–1921), Canadian Major General, Commander of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force ...

. During the

Burning of York Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...

in April 1813, several American officers under Commodore Issac Chauncey's command looted books from the library. Discovering his officers were in possession of the stolen books after they returned to

Sackets Harbor Sackets Harbor (earlier spelled Sacketts Harbor) is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States, on Lake Ontario. The population was 1,450 at the 2010 census. The village was named after land developer and owner Augustus Sackett, who f ...

, Chauncey ordered the looted books returned to

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

. The stolen books were returned in two crates, although by the time they arrived, the library had already closed. The books were auctioned off in 1822. Central Library 1884

In 1830, a library was established in the York Mechanics' Institute. In 1882, the provincial legislature, under Premier

Oliver Mowat Sir Oliver Mowat (July 22, 1820 – April 19, 1903) was a Canadians, Canadian lawyer, politician, and Ontario Liberal Party leader. He served for nearly 24 years as the third premier of Ontario. He was the eighth lieutenant governor of Ontario ...

, passed ''The Free Libraries Act, 1882''. A public campaign for a free library in Toronto preceded a referendum on the question, held on 1 January 1883, in which Torontonians voted in favour of creating a city library. Alderman

John Hallam John William Francis Hallam (28 October 1941 – 14 November 2006) was a character actor from Northern Ireland, who frequently played hard men or military types. Early life John Hallam was born, the son of a superintendent at the Port o ...

, whom historian Barbara Myrvold describes as having an "almost idolatrous regard for books", was a principal booster for the new library. In 1884, the Mechanic's Institute's collection became the Toronto Public Library. James Bain was the first chief librarian and he supplemented the collection with $15,000 worth of books purchased on a trip to England in late 1883. Between 1907 and 1916, ten libraries were built with funds from the

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

Trust. Several of these Carnegie libraries continue to be used by the public library; one, the original Central Reference Library, is now the

Koffler Student Centre The Koffler Student Centre is the main student centre at the University of Toronto's St. George campus, located at 214 College Street. The centre houses a number of different student services, including the main campus bookstore, career centre, ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

Henry Cummings Campbell Henry Cummings Campbell BA BLS MA (April 22, 1919 - July 31, 2009) was a Canadian educator and librarian, and Chief Librarian of the Toronto Public Library. Career Henry C. Campbell worked as a producer at the National Film Board of Canada under ...

was Chief Librarian of the Toronto Public Library from 1956 to 1978, and the first Chief Librarian to hold a professional library degree. He is credited with having contributed to the expansion of the library and its adaptation to an increasingly dynamic and multicultural city. TorontoReferenceLibrary8

During the amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto in 1998, the individual library systems of all the Metro municipalities and of Metro itself were merged into the Toronto system: *

East York East York is a district and former municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The borough was dissolved ...

Public Library, established 1967, 5 branches *

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...

Public Library, established 1950, 13 branches *

North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

Public Library, established 1955, 19 branches *

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

Public Library, established 1955, 19 branches *

Public Library, established 1967, 6 branches *

Metropolitan Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...

Public Library, established 1967, 1 branch * The

old Toronto Old Toronto is the part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that corresponds to the boundaries of the City of Toronto prior to 1998. It was incorporated as a city in 1834, after being known as the town of York, and being part of York County. Toronto ...

Public Library, established 1883, 33 branches This made the Toronto Public Library the largest library system in North America, serving a population of 2.3 million people with 98 branches at the time. In 2004, a new library was opened in the St. James Town neighbourhood of Toronto, bringing the total number of branches to 99. In 2014, the city's 100th library was constructed and opened in

Scarborough City Centre Scarborough City Centre is a commercial district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the central business district for the Scarborough, Toronto, former city of Scarborough, which Amalgamation of Toronto, amalgamated with Toronto in 1998. Scarbo ...

. The Toronto Public Library ended late fines on borrowed items in 2022, saying that late fines "aren't effective in encouraging the return of materials and represent a barrier to library use." On 27 October 2023, a

ransomware Ransomware is a type of malware that Encryption, encrypts the victim's personal data until a ransom is paid. Difficult-to-trace Digital currency, digital currencies such as paysafecard or Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, cryptocurrencies are com ...

attack was detected which brought down various online services, including the TPL website. While the library remained open with wireless internet available, public computers and services on its website were offline. Confidential information of some staff members was exposed in the breach.

Governance

The Toronto Public Library is governed by a board appointed by

Toronto City Council Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The Toronto City Council 2022–2026, current term began on Nove ...

. The board is composed of eight citizen members, four city councillors and the mayor or his or her designate.

Services

Collections

The library's collection count is over 12 million items.

Special collections

Toronto Public Library's special collections is located in several branches throughout the city. A number of special collections are housed at the Marilyn & Charles Baillie Special Collections Centre in the Toronto Reference Library. Special collections at the reference library includes the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, and the Baldwin Collection of Canadiana. Special collections located at other branches of the Toronto Public Library Merril Collection of Science Fiction, and the

Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books Osborne may refer to: * Osborne (name) Places Australia * Osborne, South Australia (disambiguation), places associated with the suburb in the Adelaide metropolitan area * Osborne, New South Wales, a rural community in the Riverina region Can ...

, located at Lillian H. Smith branch. The Rita Cox Black and Caribbean Heritage Collection is spread throughout four branches of TPL, Malvern, Maria A. Shchuka, Parkdale, York Woods branch.

Bookmobiles

The TPL operates two Bookmobile buses (24' Blue Bird CS), targeting communities who lack easy access to a neighbourhood branch. There are 32 regular Bookmobile stops in Toronto, including one on

Ward's Island Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Island, in New York City.

. The bookmobile concept was previously used in the library systems of the former municipalities of

and

as well as in Toronto as far back as 1948.

Musical instruments

Since April 2016, the Parkdale branch has a collection of musical instruments including guitars, violins, keyboards, percussion instruments, and others that can be borrowed for free with a library card. Since then, the Musical Instrument Lending Libraries have expanded to the Downsview and York Woods branches.

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Adult residents of Toronto can reserve a pass to a number of Toronto attractions with their library cards — one pass each per year to each participating destination. On the first of each month, a limited number of dates become available for the succeeding month (i.e. September passes become available on August 1), and eligible card holders make a reservation for a specific date. The number of visitors who can share a pass varies according to the attraction. Passes for popular sites, such as the

Toronto Zoo The Toronto Zoo is a zoo located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Encompassing , the Toronto Zoo is the largest zoo in Canada averaging around 1.2 million visitors a year. The zoo is divided into seven zoogeographic regions: Indo-Malaya, Africa, A ...

, the ROM (

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

) and the

Ontario Science Centre The Ontario Science Centre (OSC; originally the Centennial Museum of Science and Technology) is a science museum and organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its original location opened to the public in 1969 and was located near the D ...

, are often in very high demand.

Technology

The Toronto Public Library technology services include public access computers and free wireless internet access in all branches. The Library also provides access to

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

s, music, movies, and other electronic collections. All libraries also include at least one black-and-white printer where users are charged $0.15 per page. The Toronto Reference Library holds the only public colour printer in the system. The Toronto Public Library website allows users to reserve materials and have them transferred to the user's preferred branch. The library also operates a Dial-a-Story telephone hotline, which reads stories to children in sixteen languages. The library system uses NFC pads on each book where users only need to place the book on a table and checks out without scanning. Ten branches of the Toronto Public Library also house Digital Innovation Hubs, where patrons can reserve a workstation or equipment and attend workshops to bring new and emerging technology to the community. In 2018, the Fabrication Studio opened at the newly renovated North York Central branch. This space includes sewing machines, a serger, an embroidery machine, a button maker, and a vinyl printer/cutter. They also offer free classes on using the equipment and other fabrication-related topics like knitting and crochet, embroidery, and watercolor painting.

Digital content

Toronto Public Library cardholders can digitally borrow books, music and movies since 2014 by creating an account on the online platform Hoopla. Also, since 2018, the Toronto Public Library has partnered with

Kanopy Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries that offers films, TV shows, educational videos and documentaries. The service is free for end users, but libraries pay fees on a pay-per-view model, from which ...

, a streaming platform with over 30,000 films and documentaries, that lets the library users stream up to eight items per month after registering using their library card. The library'
Digital Archive
provides instant access to historical images—including photographs from the Toronto Star Photograph Archive—postcards, maps, rare digitized books and more. The Toronto Public Library offers

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

, and eMagazine services, including OverDrive eBooks & eAudiobooks, Zinio eMagazines, OneClick Digital eAudiobooks, Safari Tech & Business Books Online, TumbleBook Library, Ebsco eBooks, delivered via the library's website. As of June 2024, the Toronto Public Library's website is blocked in

mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or demogr ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Theatres

3 branches of the library system offer performance theatres available for both non-profit community and commercial usage.

Budget

The Toronto Public Library had an operating budget of $206,880,105 in 2019. The Toronto Public Library had an operating budget of $217,334,410 in 2020. The Toronto Public Library had an operating budget of $221,576,307 in 2021. The Toronto Public Library had an operating budget of $228,305,383 in 2022. The Toronto Public Library had an operating budget of $234,610,258 in 2023. The Toronto Public Library had an operating budget of $252,293,362 in 2024.

Branches

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{Authority control Municipal government of Toronto Public libraries in Ontario Carnegie libraries in Canada 1830 establishments in Upper Canada Libraries established in 1830