Toronto Zine Library

www.torontozinelibrary.org

292 Brunswick Avenue (second floor of the Tranzac Club)

I went and visited the Toronto Zine Library while I was in Toronto over the summer. It was cool to see another zine library, as I don't think I'd been in one since I left Halifax last year (get it together Vancouver!).

To be honest, it was so long ago I barely remember much of it, though I did get to go to Zine Dream in the Tranzac Club (in the same building). It was a kind of neat event, but it was filled with people selling art prints and expensive art zines and stuff I'm not that into. I'm not opposed to people making that sort of thing, I'm just not that interested in buying/reading them.

I did get to meet the creator of Gender Fuck What, which was neat. I got their new zine though, so look out for a review of that at some point on 365 Zines a Year. I also got some rad zines about zine libraries, and I'll have a list about those on zinelibraries.info soon(ish).

Toronto Public Library: Sanderson Branch

Sanderson Branch

327 Bathurst Street

So I went to so many libraries while I was in Toronto that I can't remember where all of them even where (it was like a month ago!). It just took me like ten minutes of clicking around on Google maps ant the Toronto Public Library to even find this one.

Inside they had these cute little window seats. Sure they could be more comfortable (I didn't actually sit in them so I don't know how they felt), but they seem like pretty nice places to read a book.

Toronto Public Library: Riverdale Branch

Riverdale Branch

370 Broadview Ave.

I think this building looks much more library-like than the last one. Which I guess raises the question "what should a library look like?".

I've been reading some articles about the new, fancy, incredibly expensive (188 million pounds) library which just opened in Birmingham in England. Of course while I'm sure this library is cool, it's also being opened at a time when the hours and staff at other libraries in Birmingham are being cut back and I wonder if it's the best way to use that money.

Then there are the issues surrounding library design. How do you design a building to last when you have no idea what libraries will even be used for in a decade? (Okay, they'll still probably be used for borrowing books.) 

In regards to design the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library recently got rid of their reference desks and replaced them with roving reference librarians who will come find you if you phone or tweet at them. How modern! I'm curious to see how it'll be received. Personally I totally hate it. When I was in the library recently I discovered that the zine section had been moved. I asked at the downstairs information desk (which is still there!) and was told it was on the third floor. After wandering around on the third floor I couldn't find it, and I also couldn't find any librarians. So I left. I don't particularly want to phone somebody and wait for them to show up when all I want is for them to point me in the right direction.

Of course, I pretty much only ask for help when I can't find something (which most of the time is because it's been stolen), and by asking for help to find it I'm indirectly letting the library know it's been stolen.

And hey, speaking of missing books, remember when I complained about all the X-Men comics being stolen from the library? At the time there were 145 results for X-Men when you limited the search to comic books. Now there are only 19 (five of which _still_ aren't actually comics, and may not even be about the X-Men)! What happened? Did they actually delete all those books that were missing? No, it seems they've just moved them over to the "books" section. I do not understand why they have done this.

Toronto Public Library: St. James Town

St. James Town Branch
495 Sherbourne Street

This was actually the closest branch to where I was staying in Toronto, but I walked passed it multiple times before I even realized it was a library. No doubt at least in part because the entrance way was away from the road I walked on, and inside past people playing table tennis. Though, while you can't really see it in this photo, it does say "library" in a large font behind those windows, so maybe I'm just dumb.

When I realized it was a library I heard a bunch of kids up high somewhere, and I had high hopes that I'd be able to get up onto the roof easily. Alas, it turned out to just be a daycare that had roof access.

So in my last post I said that Toronto had 98 branches (!!!), this is because in 1998 Toronto amalgamated with a bunch of other cities. This meant that the library systems were also combined, and seven different systems (Etobicoke, North York, York, East York, Scarborough, Metro Toronto, and Toronto) became one. These systems had between one and thirty three branches and I can't imagine the nightmare that must have resulted in trying to combine all of their systems.

Toronto Public Library: Runnymede Branch

Runnymede Branch

2178 Bloor Street West

So I went to a lot of public libraries. A lot. I mean, there are 98 different branches, and by some metrics is the largest library system in the world. So of course in most of the libraries all I did was use the internet. Only 30 minutes allowed on a guest pass? Bah!

I liked these carvings outside the library. And then I discovered that the architecture of this building is famous or something. I had no idea there even was a Canadian style of architecture.

Nationally recognized for its distinctively Canadian style Runnymede Branch was designed by John M. Lyle one of this country's most distinguished 20th-century architects. In the 1920s a surging sense of national pride inspired Lyle to create a uniquely Canadian architecture that blended European styles with Canadian themes and ornamentation. Runnymede Branch was his second attempt at such a design. The building is constructed of variegated red and yellow Credit Valley stone and combines Georgian French and early Quebec styles the latter in its steeply pitched hipped roof. Lyle used Canadian aboriginal motifs for much of the decoration including totem poles at the main entrance and arrowheads in the iron railing above. Carvings of native plants and animals also embellish the building. In 1989 the Runnymede Branch was featured on the first in a series of postage stamps celebrating Canadian architecture. The building was most recently restored and enlarged in 2005.

George Mackie Library

Wow so, it turns out doing multiple research projects simultaneously is really time and energy consumptive. That combined with some traveling resulted in my sadly long delay in posting again. But now I have some spare time so ….

The second library I visited on my birthday was actually not a VPL branch. I didn't particularly want to do anything to celebrate my birthday this year but a friend suggested we bus all the way out an hour and a half to Delta just to have donuts at Krispy Kreme. This was such a ridiculous and stupid idea that of course I said yes, on the condition that we visited a local public library. So we snagged a few more friends and trekked out for donuts and a visit to the library.

The George Mackie Library is part of the Fraser Valley Regional Library system which is actually the largest library system in BC with 25 branches (compared to VPL's 22 branches) and nearly 700,000 people in its service area (Vancouver currently has just over 600,000 people). You can tell that the George Mackie Library (8440 112th Street, Delta, BC) has a bit of money behind it cause it was a really nice library. There was a large children area with a huge stuffed moose and some itty bitty cushy chairs that I sat in. A friend snapped a picture of me crunched up into one of these chairs, but you all will not be seeing that picture. Instead, here is a picture of the fireplace and plush chairs in another area.

Everything was clearly laid out and there were lots of signs up, all having the same color scheme and design which made them quite attractive. Several walls had neat topical displays such as “Interesting People” and “Travel the World” all with books well-spaced and faced to clearly display the covers to patrons. The youth books and books-on-cd were intermixed on the shelves, which I really like, especially in smaller collections. They also had a cart by the reference desk that held items recently returned but not yet shelved. What I liked about this was that it wasn’t just a mysterious cart of books left sitting somewhere in the library but instead  was clearly labeled, books were kept neatly on the cart, and patrons could have some fun with seeing what books interested other people and might interest them too. This idea in particular really grabs me for some reason.

The shelves were very neat and had a lot of faced items so they looked appealing and uncluttered (this library was anything but cluttered!). Hilariously, I discovered that behind many of the neatly shelved books were white boxes. I’m not sure if the boxes are used as guides to help place items at the right depth on the shelf or what, but I kept randomly finding them behind sections of books.

Metal shelves attached to the ends of the main stacks held more books with their covers displayed for patrons to select. I asked a librarian whether or not the catalogue would tell a patron if a book they search for was on the shelf in its regular spot or on one of these end displays. She told me the catalogue wouldn't say that, which seems unfortunate. I guess if the patron asked for assistance in locating an item that wasn't where it was supposed to be on the shelf, the librarians would likely know where to look. But still, it would be nice if the catalogue was capable of giving the patron that information.

They had “Grab and Go” bags of books, each labeled with a genre or age group, in several areas around the library. The bags were loosely sealed (“no peeking” say the instructions) and inside was 5-6 books in that genre. Each bag had a slip tucked in it with barcodes so the checkout desk could just snag that list and check all the items out to the patron without revealing the mystery goodies inside. It’s a nice take on the date with a mystery book ideal which blends with a kind of reader’s advisory aspect too.

My very favorite part of all might have been the display in the window that peered back into the library work area. A whole bunch of bookmarks or all kinds were hung off strings by clips with a sign that said “Did you lose your book mark?” Sadly someone was working right behind the display so I didn't disrupt them by taking a picture.

--Anna

Ryerson University Library

 

Ryerson University Library

350 Victoria Street

 

I visited this library pretty much immediately after the U of T library. It was slightly better!

They also couldn't grant me a guest account (sigh), but there were some computers that I could use without logging on. They only had Internet Explorer (and an old version I think), and they had a terrible resolution, but at least I could use them to check my email.

One of the librarians there said that they thought York University gave out guest accounts, but I'm not sure how accurate that is, or who the guest accounts are given to (just to students from other universities?). I never went to check it out, as York is faaarrr away from where I was staying.

University of Toronto Robarts Library

 

University of Toronto: Robarts Library

130 St. George St.

While I was in Toronto I went to a lot of different libraries, so be prepared for several weeks of pretty similar posts about using the internet. But first! A tale of not using the internet.

At the main U of T library I asked if I could get a guest account to use the computers. I am a graduate student, albeit at another library, but this apparently doesn't matter as I was told "no". But there were some computers open to the public and I could get an account for one of those.

I got an account, trekked upstairs and discovered that of the four computers available for public use, one was broken, and the other three were occupied. There appeared to be no way to sign up for a time slot, no way to know how long someone had been on a computer (or what the time limit was), and at least one other person waiting, so I left. Disappointing. Apparently you can't even get into the stacks without a library card. Lame.