Recently I’ve had such a great experience with the 2024 Best volumes that Biblioasis publishes annually featuring Canadian writers, that a casual chat between Rebecca and me, about how Lauren Groff had edited the 2023 O.Henry Prize Winners’ volume in 2023, inspired me to track down a copy via the Deer Park branch in Toronto. I only recognise a handful of writers so I’m curous to see where this goes. (It’s Rebecca’s #LoveYourLibrary event that’s inspired this post.)
I like the Deer Park branch quite a bit. It’s like my homebranch used to be, with the circulation desk, in the middle-front of the building, in a big rectangle with the kids’ section to one side but not in a separate wing (the branches that separate the children’s section are better for working quietly).
This arrangement highlights the activity, and still energizes the farflung corners where people are watching things on their phones or snoozing. (My homebranch moved the desk to one side: now books are spread across the foyer, which invites browsing, and I do love the immediate sense of bookishness, but I prefer the central desk location.)
They also had a copy of Christine Estima’s The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society, a collection of stories published by House of Anansi, which also published the recently longlisted (for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction) Chrysalis by Anuja Varghese. It caught my eye because of the story “Fairview Mall” (which, coincidentally, includes one of my favourite library branches in Toronto).
Another favourite library branch in Toronto is the Bloor Gladstone branch which is where I found a copy of Alexis DeVeaux’s Yabo, which I’ve wanted to read since I read her biography of Audre Lorde. And Alexie Morin’s Open Your Heart (translated by Aimee Wall) which is on my TBR with two asterisks, although in this moment I can’t remember exactly why.
There’s great browsability at this branch, which is also featured in one of Cary Fagan’s novellas, although the entrance way is more functional than inviting. On the lower floor, there’s a generous children’s section, and the upper floor, has a nice fireplace in the older part of the building.
This upper floor of the library once seemed to be the main floor, because you entered it via a long flight of stairs as soon as you came indoors, and most of the books still occupy the same space, although now it has a second half, with a newer wing the same size as the original older building. Magazines and fiction line most of the outer original walls, and with the fireplace wall (books for teens wrapping around), it’s all a delight to browse, just following the perimeter.
Where there are windows, there’s seating. The newer section houses the non-fiction and the high ceilings and comfortable over-sized chairs create a completely different feel. Outside there’s a plaque with an Anne Michaels quotation, which sometimes I stop to study and contemplate but, often, I brush past it, as so many others seem to do too.
Wang Xiaofang’s The Civil Servant’s Notebook (Trans. Eric Abrahamsen) and Poulom Sanyal’s Colour Me Confounded are ILLs, from other Toronto library branches, in my stack because they connect with projects underway.
Those were actually April library loans, however, although I didn’t get to properly appreciate them until May; my most recent loans are pictured below, inspired by a library reading challenge. If it amuses you, you could try to guess what the categories are (both Irby and Orwell are for the same theme) for the challenge, but there’d be any number of possibilities. (Here’s a link to the title with the Canadian flag, which might be less recognisable for international readers, although she’s got one of the Big Five publishers.)
Maybe I’ll write about these next month, or maybe I’ll be actually be reading the books I’ve borrowed when I borrow them, rather than weeks later!
Ah, I miss libraries! I used to love the New York Public Library system when I lived there and spent a lot of time in the British Library as well as my local library branch in London, but I haven’t been in one for years. I don’t speak the language well enough to read local books here in Serbia, so I stick to ebooks and the small English-language sections of local bookshops. And travelling is the same – I’ve visited some beautiful libraries around the world, but I can’t really take advantage of them as a reader.
Still, I love libraries and am very angry about how they came under attack under the years of “austerity” in Britain. So it’s very good to read about thriving libraries and I liked hearing about the branches you visit. I can certainly believe that you’re a “heavy user” 🙂
I have access to two public libraries (in addition to the college library where I used to work). When my kids were little I went to the one-room public library in the village where the college is located because then I could browse while my kids looked at books in the kid section. Now I usually go to the slightly bigger public library in the small town where we live (4 miles away) because I go alone.
Do you choose a lot of your books by browsing, too, so that your reading selections have changed along with the actual location? (Some people just pick up requested items, never browsing in person.) It’s interesting how outside factors shape our reading habits; we don’t always think about them, we’re just living our lives, but so many elements influence what books we “choose” to read.
I don’t use my local library at all because I have so many books in my house to read that I don’t need to go looking for more – and, because when I read I like to write in my books and I can’t do that with library books. I do “visit” the library online occasionally, for e-audiobooks to listen too when we are driving.
However, when we go to Melbourne, which we do a lot, we walk to our local library with our grandchildren. They enjoy going there, and I try to read books to them there in the children’s area but with little success because it’s too much fun playing in the children’s area. Last time though our grandson actually listened to a story. At last! It’s a modern building, and an active library system, but I’m not sure I love its layout, which feels very disjointed. But it does have a social enterprise cafe inside, and I like that idea.
Waaaiiit, so you’re saying that the fact that one HAS books they could read at home can impact one’s decision to visit libraries and bookstores? #weird
It feels like a never-ending stage when kids aren’t interested in sitting to hear a book read aloud, doesn’t it? lol So true. A social enterprise cafe in a library sounds cool. The different ways that libraries have evolved with digital technologies and different ways of doing business (e.g. the increase in remote workers) is fascinating.
Haha, Marcie – yes indeed it can! I do pop into bookshops all the same but truly, I have so many books at home that I WANT to read (in addition to review copies) that I just don’t want to add to them. I know I’ll never get to read all I want to in this life so I’m happy to have some rules of thumb that keep some sort of check on it all!
I agree re how libraries are “pivoting” to the new world. (“Pivoting” was a popular word here during the pandemic, so I can’t resist using it. I loved being a librarian, because things did keep changing, even in my specialised film/sound archive corner.)
I love going to the library and just wandering around. Sometimes that’s the best way to find a new book. I actually have to go soon so I can renew my library card and return some books. And, I’m sure I’ll pick up a new one or two.
I completely agree! It reminds me of On Browsing.
Were you ever able to sort out the mirroring issues you were having with your website? I hope so: tech annoyances are so frustrating!
I tend to enjoy the smaller libraries, they feel very cozy and community-oriented to me. I really enjoyed taking my kids to the Port Carling Library near our cottage a few summers ago – they had a great time browsing the bookshelves and tucking in with a book or two, but were disappointed to learn we couldn’t take out a book with us (their system has a cheaper ‘summer’ membership for those who can’t produce the complicated paperwork to prove their names on the deeds of their family cottages, but it was still over a hundred bucks, so not worth it for our one visit). Still, we loved visiting it, and I’m sure we will make it a mandatory summer stop of ours now everytime we are in the part of Ontario
You and Reese alike! But you must have some really great libraries in Calgary, no?
That does seem like a steep fee; comparatively, it’s only $150 for Toronto and its 100 branches and programming!
Sounds like a lot of vacationers aren’t returning their loans, best intentions and all that! /eyeroll
we do have some gorgeous libraries here in Calgary, very lucky here. They also have fantastic kids sections; one library in Calgary has a real fire truck they lifted the roof off to place inside, and another has a helicopter for kids to sit in
That sounds like great fun: I’d enjoy that too! hee hee
I only have the one library within walking range, but of course there are many across the province and they are all constantly sending books in the mail to all the others. I do love popping into other libraries, though, to check them out if I’m traveling.
When I applied for my library job about 7/8 years ago now, everyone already knew me from coming in so much to pick up books, or with the kids. 🙂
I would like to read the Granofsky!
I thought of you when I was reading Elaine McCluskey the other week, with the bit about the Halifax library in it (even though I know that’s only a source of ILLs for you). It was McCluskey, wasn’t it? Whatever it was, I knew you’d already read it, so I didn’t bother to mention it at the time!
I always wondered how you got hired there!
It was on a list of rec’s somewhere; I hadn’t heard of it before!
A lovely post! My two local libraries are in big old Victorian buildings so the spaces are a bit inflexible as they are listed, but they’ve still made some interesting choices about layout in recent years. They always seem well used when I’m there, which is reassuring!
Thank you! You inspired me to see just when the Bloor Gladstone branch opened, but not so early as yours–1911. This also led to discover an outdoor photo here (for TO readers, there’s a History tab below) and a FB page with an indoor photo here. Yes, it’s hard to find a seaet for sure!
It sounds as though you have access to some great libraries, which is good to see. I’ve kind of fallen out of the habit of using our local library, partly because it’s only open on certain days during the week, which is a shame. I wish the local council had the resources to support it more fully.
That would make it very challenging. Even when hours have been slightly restricted, I’ve found it harder to frequent them, so I understand. It’s something I feel very grateful for indeed.
Thanks for your post! I enjoyed your thoughts on library layout and what spaces are dedicated to or end up being best for. This week my system is totally offline while they do IT updates, so people can’t access the catalogue or their accounts. My volunteering session this morning was purely shelf tidying, therefore. In two hours I got through all the general and YA fiction.
I appreciate that volunteers keep books in their proper places; I love being able to pluck a book off the shelf expeditiously. 🙂
The TPL catalogue was offline from October 28 until February (a cyberattack) and I went half-mad. Even when I’m not actually using the catalogue as a catalogue, if I’m online, I’ll refer to it for one reason or another (publication deets, bibliographies, etc.).
Our local library flooded and is taking ages to remediate so they have a small pop-up in a storefront in the nearby shopping mall. (Very modest mall. Sechelt, not west Edmonton!) Only new books, although you can request other books from the collection and arrange to pick them up from the working area of the library. A weekly library visit is a life’s necessity for me so I am making the most of the new books, Large Print and all! (And the great thing is, I have some eye damage so I don’t feel at all guilty about leaving off my reading glasses at night and simply opening a book with a huge font.)
Still?! I remember when it was forecast to take just a few weeks. But, the same thing happened with my local branch just before the heart of the pandemic, when what should have been a simple concrete repair sprawled into weeks of work. (But obviously I have other library allegiances, so I just walked a few more blocks. hee hee). Those large print editions are such a relief, aren’t they? #grateful
I was planning to ask if you’d read Lorri Neilsen Glenn’s latest (the old moon in her arms) because it seemed to be perfectly to your taste, but then I finished reading it myself and spotted your name in the acknowledgments, so no need to ask! 🙂
I love libraries!
Me too! It always surprises me to meet a reader, who has the privilege of a public library system, who doesn’t love/frequent them!
That’s adventurous! 😉 I almost never get beyond my local branch–it’s nice that they know me there–even though there’s others that aren’t so far away. Once I walked to Lilian H. Smith because they had a book in the branch I wanted right away, but mostly I just order them to come to my branch. The only other one I get to at all regularly is the main one on Yonge, but I go there for Appel Salon things.
Biblioasis is such a great press.
These days I just use libraries for audiobooks. I march in, put 6 in the chute, grab 6 more and march out. Every two or three years, I wear that library out and move to another one. I think I’ve used up all the ones close to home.
I have to admit to preferring print books still. Toronto’s got a hundred branches and fortunately enough books I won’t wear it out. (I’m not sure about our host, BIP…)
Hi Reese, I’m a driver so it’s safer if I stick to audiobooks. The city I live in, Perth Western Australia, is smaller than Toronto but I stick to the suburbs nearest home.
HAH! A librarian friend told me that I am what the staff refers to as a “heavy user”, but I will never read my way through even one branch!
Waaaait, is there an actual chute? Some of the branches in TO are automated for returns with a chute (which I still find terrifically amusing), but there’s no chute for patrons to check-out (there’s counter service from a busy, begrudging librarian, or self-serve terminals with a pad that reads the barcodes). #FOMO
Chutes for returns, self checkout. I haven’t spoken to a librarian this year, nor last probably.
Your home branch is such a cosy one, I get that. A real neighbourhood vibe. My home branch has such a large staff that they know my number (from all the holds! lol) but not my face/name! Because I grew up in many small/small-minded places, I feel like I’m pertually on vacation in TO, so I’m constantly on TTC in different neighbourhoods, and I cannot resist a library when I pass. I’ve certainly not been to all the branches (tho that little “passport booklet” really appealed to me!) but each has its own feel and flavour and I absolutely love that.
The Appel Salon is the BEST. I attend a lot of their events remotely now. But I miss seeing the other regular attendees. We must have attended some of the same events over the years, in the past.
Whenever I have moved someplace new, one of the first things I have always done was a get a new library card 🙂 One of my favorite libraries was the Dakota County main library branch in Apple Valley Minnesota. It was closest to my house when I lived in Farmington, and James and I would go there for a date once or twice a month. Those were some good times!
Same! I just found a couple of my library cards the other day, looking for something else, and they immediately conjure up so many memories. But Apple Valley? None of my library cards have been in such an awesome-sounding place! So you only went for dates twice a month? Or, you only went on library dates that infrequently? In my dating years, I never had dates in the library, but that sounds very sweet. What’s your favourite apple?