University of Toronto Libraries, Canada

The University of Toronto (U of T) Libraries system in the province of Ontario is the largest academic library in Canada and the most significant in North America after Harvard and Yale Universities. The U of T Libraries system comprises 44 libraries on three university campuses. It possesses over 12 million printed books in more than 300 languages. It also offers access to over 150,000 journal titles, millions of electronic resources and nearly 30,000 linear metres of archival material. U of T Libraries acquires over 150,000 new printed books annually. It collects books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, databases, maps, drawings and manuscripts. U of T Libraries has a staff of around 500 employees.

Mission statement

Its website states that the mission of the U of T Libraries is

to foster the search for knowledge and understanding in the University and the wider community. To this end, we shall provide innovative services and comprehensive access to information founded upon our developing resources as one of the leading research libraries in the world…

Statement of Service Values

• We are responsive to our user communities
• We listen and treat each other with respect
• We are committed to delivery of services in a helpful and courteous manner
• We are committed to providing accessible and reliable services which are instructive, accurate and timely
• We are committed to acquiring, organizing, preserving and enhancing the value of our resources
• We are committed to delivering information using the most effective technologies available
• We are committed to maintaining, with both the University and our users, a clean, attractive and secure library environment
• We are committed to working together as a team, sharing information and expertise
• We share a commitment to learning in order to enhance our capabilities to provide good service

A new strategic plan is being developed for the Libraries that will be announced later this year. The previous plan, which ended this year, had the following key priorities:

• We will grow our world class collections, expanding our strengths in both traditional and emerging directions in scholarship.
• We will enhance our physical spaces to facilitate ground-breaking research, teaching and learning.
• We will provide innovative services that inspire the generation of ideas and prepare scholars for an information-centric world.
• We will strengthen our relationships with our many stakeholders, and engage dynamically with the community of researchers both locally and abroad.
• We will achieve these tasks through careful stewardship of our resources and the expert knowledge of our excellent staff.

In an online welcome, Chief Librarian Larry P. Alford informs readers:

A wide variety of study space is also available for your use at our 44 libraries. We have been revitalizing our buildings to create modern new spaces that are conducive to both quiet individual study and collaborative group work. Indeed, the libraries have become a vibrant hub where students, faculty and researchers meet to interact with librarians and expert staff, use collections and collaborate. As many as 18,000 people visit Robarts Library alone on a busy day, and with so many digital books, articles, primary source materials, data sets and more accessible from wherever you are working, online visits to the U of T Libraries now number in the millions each year. Whether you are a new student writing your first paper, a faculty member using digitized primary sources to look across the centuries in new and different ways, a graduate student exploring open access scholarly publishing options, or a visiting scholar drawn here by our extraordinary special collections, our librarians and information specialists are ready to connect you with the materials you need and lend their expertise to help you leverage new technologies to their full advantage. You can chat with a librarian in real-time via our Ask Chat with a Librarian instant messaging service, or phone, e-mail, or visit us in person. I hope the Libraries’ rich collections, inspiring spaces and innovative services will help you achieve your academic goals and enrich your campus experience. As always, I welcome your ideas and comments.

Mr. Alford has been Chief Librarian at the University of Toronto since 2011. Among other library cooperative activities, he served as a trustee of OCLC, Inc. from 2002 to 2014, and as its chair from 2007 to 2012.  Based in Ohio, USA, OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) is a nonprofit organization providing computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing and preservation services to over 40,000 libraries in more than 80 countries and territories.  Ajarn Akekarin Yolrabil, Director of the Thammasat University Library, currently serves among the Alternate Delegates to the Asia Pacific Regional Council, OCLC and as one of the 2018-19 Global and Regional Council members.

Mr. Alford earned bachelor of arts and master of library and information science (MLS) degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. In a 2013 interview, Mr. Alford discusses the biggest challenges facing the U of T Libraries:

One of the challenges that all libraries face is making sure that students are wise and savvy users of information resources. We think search engines have simplified access to information, but in many ways technology has made finding information more complex. People don’t know what is hidden to search engines, or what complex databases are not included in the library’s standard discovery tools, or what articles are peer-reviewed and behind pay walls. Secondly, the digitization of vast amounts of information provides a new opportunity for the expansion of human knowledge. Researchers can look at trends through newspaper articles or other publications across centuries. They can analyze data to look for connections across different disciplines or within one discipline. This is an area where librarians need to work with faculty and graduate students as facilitators… This year, we started a pilot project called “personal librarians” to make sure that first-year students have the name and email of a person who can help them use the library. It’s been so successful that we’d like to find the resources to extend it to every first year student and then to every undergraduate and ultimately every graduate student and faculty member.

Balancing traditional printed books with ebooks is another concern for today and the future, as Mr. Alford explains:

While I think printed books will continue to be an important part of how people learn and convey information, electronic books are going to become increasingly important. U of T Libraries already has more than a million electronic books, and over the next five years I suspect we will see the number of printed books we acquire decline significantly… In many ways, but broadly speaking, digital information collapses the amount of research that can be done into a much shorter period of time. At my previous institution, I worked with a student who did an honours paper using some 18th-century collections we had online. The research he did in a semester would have taken a faculty member 20 years ago much of her career to do. This holds huge potential for the advancement of human knowledge… Libraries are still very much about acquiring materials and preserving them, regardless of the format, so that they are still accessible hundreds of years from now. Many of the blogs and websites that led to the Arab Spring are now gone; they just disappeared. And yet pamphlets distributed in Paris by various factions during the French Revolution still exist, stored in libraries. We in libraries must begin to acquire and preserve the “pamphlets” of the 21st century – blogs, websites and other digital commentary on the events of our time.

Among library innovations last year, the problem graduate students were having in finding adequate childcare was addressed. A family friendly study space in the Robarts Library, University of Toronto, was established in collaboration with the University’s Family Care Office. This permits parents who are enrolled as students at the university to care for their children while also doing research:

The Family Study Space, Canada’s first such facility in an academic library, opened for use on March 15. Located on the ninth floor of Robarts Library, the space is for current students, faculty members, visiting scholars, and staff at the University of Toronto with children 12 years old or under. The Family Study Space has a capacity for up to 20 adults and children and includes workstations, collaborative work space, a children’s play area with furniture and toys, a large screen TV/monitor, and nearby access to washrooms with comfortable nursing and baby changing facilities. The idea for this space came from community feedback asking the Library to create a Family Study Space in the Libraries, already common in European university libraries. By establishing the Family Study Space in the Libraries, we hope to reduce some of the obstacles for our community members with children to accessing physical collections, spaces, and in-person services.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)