Canadian Library History Blog

After 1980, library mechanization in Ontario's public libraries gave way to more rapid changes in automation, i.e., the systematic control of repetitive library operations by electronic equipment and programs which reduced the need for human involvement. Computers and management information software began to make possible the term “knowledge workers.” Public libraries started using computers to circulate books, track patron overdues, and provide instant information on the status of books. North York offered the New York Times in an online format. By November 1977, the complete text of Toronto’s Globe and Mail was being published online, “Info Globe,” which became immediately available for online searching and retrieval by library subscribers. For some time, the University of Toronto Library Automated System (UTLAS) provided libraries across Canada with a computerized system providing catalogue copy for books and a database of holdings that could be used for resource sharing and c...

French language display in Algonquin region, 1969 The new 1966 Public Libraries Act formed the structure for rapid, and conflicting, developments into the mid-1980s when this act was greatly modified. This was an era of continuous change in local government at a period of time when municipal regional government replaced older county structures. Expanded provincial jurisdiction over municipalities in Ontario became common. As well, federal/provincial centennial financing--$38.7 million net cost in Ontario--became available to assist the largest construction program since the Carnegie grant era. Almost seventy public library buildings were renovated or constructed in Ontario on a cost-shared basis with municipalities. The 1966 Act modernized local board structures and funding. As well, the Act introduced quasi-independent regional library systems governed by trustees in an effort to equalize services and coordinate planning across cities, towns, older counties and districts in O...

The idea of the modern public library as an energetic influence promoting its services to the entire community arrived in Ontario after most Carnegie buildings had been built. Of course, the public service ethic had existed before 1920, but the value of stewardship--the library as guardian or storehouse of treasures--had loomed larger for decades. As the service value progressed into the 1950s, the public library served as a place for collecting the best books and for making them useful to as many children and adults as possible. The library became a more accessible community resource and an active force: books were conveniently arranged on “open” shelves, collections catalogued, and the librarian became a guide or intermediary to assist patrons. The modern library was an appealing idea (one not wholly accepted in some of Ontario’s hundreds of municipalities) that successfully prevailed despite the austerities of the Great Depression and the Second World War. The Interwar Years, 1918–...