Cost containment measures designed to save 1.2 million dollars by year-end were recently announced by the Toronto Public Library. Included in these measures is the cancellation of Sunday service at sixteen branches for the remainder of the year. Torontoist feels now may be a good time to visit your local branch and pay any overdue fines.
Illustration by Kevin McBride.
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People who use TPL services should stop destroying and stealing the items that everyone uses. I've seen a lot of scratched and destroyed CDs and DVDs. Pages ripped out of books because someone was too cheap to pay for photocopying at the Toronto Reference Library. And items that are "lost"? People, stop stealing them! They're not for your personal collection. We should all start treating this great institution a lot kinder so it doesn't have to keep on making major cuts like this.
There may not be enough profit in them, but I wonder if we're too far off from the Pepsi/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut National Library.
I mean, they've taken our arena's, our war memorials, they're in our schools...why not?
Take out a book and earn reward points towards a chilupa. I'm sure these corporate types see public libraries as wasted space where they could build a condo instead.
Is it too far off?
Oh, and our market survey shows, and our board members took a vote, it would be more efficient and use less ink in our printers if we took that "r" out of the word, since no one really says it anyway, it shall now be called a "libary".
Unless of course it goes wireless...then we'll call them "Wi-Berries"
Kind of pathetic. I always used to brag to friends here in NY that the TPL puts the vaunted NYPL to shame, especially when it comes to being open on Sundays. So much for that.
I concur with guest #1. My husband works for TPL (and I also did, years ago), so we can both attest to the abuse inflicted on library items by ungrateful, irresponsible library patrons. Were all the libraries in the city to close tomorrow, there would, I'm sure, be quite the hue and cry, wailing and moaning, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Ah well...pave paradise and all that.
Great illustration, btw.
Kevin, your illustrations are fantastic. I look forward to them every week!
Perhaps patrons should be held accountable, or more accountable, for damages and losses to TPL items.
I don't know what the policy is regarding replacing items, but a fee to partially cover replacement costs could be implemented. Alas, it is a sad state of affairs. How long until TPL slips from 2nd most used worldwide? Or, as WannaBinToranna suggests, the library/libary has corporate sponsors?
Thanks, stormsy!
The library already has corporate sponsors.
"Excellent.
Release the hounds, Smithers"
Kevinm: Your sentiments are commendable but it seems like it would be near impossible for the TPL to track who it was that damanged which library materials.
At the least it would take significantly more staff to examine books and note damage inflicted as they are returned. Then staff would have to determine if the damage is more than what would occur with normal use over time. Either way, given the budget situation, that seems like a non-starter.
And, as has been pointed out on Eye's City Hall blog, provincial law stipulates that you can't charge fees of any kind for borrowing library materials. A Fee is only acceptable if it's to compensate for damage beyond what is expected with normal use to a specific item.
The other thing to keep in mind is that by chopping the budget to buy new materials by 14,000 items, that will lead to fewer well-used/damaged materials from being replaced. So in the future it'll be more likely for a library user to get a damaged book rather than one in good condition.
There's Sunday service available now??
The four branches closest to me (Annette, High Park, Runnymede, Swansea) haven't had Sunday service in eons.
Runnymede is a bit of a disaster in terms of customer service. The staff generally move at the speed of a triangle rolling uphill, when they deign to acknowledge one's presence. If you don't reserve your stuff online, and well in advance, you've got no hope of soliciting the staff's attention and assistance.
More money would certainly help, but maybe finding librarians who actually want to be there would be a big plus, too.
Chris, the service you receive at a specific branch has a lot to do with the overall morale of the staff at said branch. I know exactly what you mean about the staff at Runnymede. I've never seen such a miserable group of library workers. I can't even get the staff to look at me, never mind crack a smile as they are checking out my material. I had hoped that the renovation of that library would improve their dispositions, but no suck luck.
Not all branches are like that, trust me. If you ever find yourself near the Oakwood Village Library, look for the big guy with the bushy beard and loud laugh. He loves people!
I rarely comment on websites but this is a truly tragic issue. I am a civil engineer specialising in urban infrastructure. When I was in school, I did a project on the TPL as one of the true successes of Toronto from its inception and one of the only ones since the amalgamation. The cuts to the TTC are unfortunate but maybe, in a draconian sort of way, they are necessary to drive home exactly how desperate it is for funding even after being one of the most efficient and significantly self funded transit systems in the world without approaching world class service. The cuts to the TPL however are worse in my mind because to this point the TPL has been an unmitigated, understated and truly world class success. When I think of what Toronto can be truly proud of, the TPL is at the top of the list. I fear that in a year or two, this will no longer be the case.
Stormsy, I have had pretty good service all over the city - Fairview Mall, East York, even the tiny little hole-in-the-wall that passes for a library at Eglinton Square. But the chaps at Runnymede are rather resolutely dour; it's a shame.
Perhaps Runnymede's lack of courtesy and low morale has an internal cause but since it's affecting public service, it should be pointed out to them. Please show these comments to their branch head, or ask at any branch's circulation desk for a 'comments' form.
As for the first comment on this list, that patrons should stop stealing and ripping pages out, it wouldn't stop the cuts in the new materials budget, but it would be really great if people appreciated how much a book costs a library. It's not just the publisher's price but determining if it's needed, checking if it's in other branches, requesting, ordering, receiving, sending the invoice to the accounting people, paying the invoice, storing, cataloguing, processing, shipping to the branches, unpacking, checking in and shelving.
As for repair: A lot of money and labour is spent by more than one library system to request, copy, send, process and bind photocopies of missing pages into the books. Same to repair books with tears, broken spines, etc. because the user piled several heavy books on top of an open volume or shoved it into a narrow gap on the shelf. Sometimes a book is so damaged it can't be repaired, or the repair would cost more than the item's worth, so it's left as is or tossed out.
Treating the book with care and keeping it intact keeps it in the branch longer and the money could repair another book - perhaps restore a rare and fragile book.