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Despite doubts about “whether the location on College Street would
be suitable and accessible,”1 Toronto Public
Library’s new Reference Library was well used from the time it opened
in September 1909. Chief librarian George Locke commented about the suitability
of the site and the popularity of the Reading Room in the library’s
1909 annual report:
I understand that there were some persons who doubted
whether the location on College Street would be suitable and accessible.
There can be no doubt now, if one may judge from the ever increasing number
of persons who use the privileges of the Reading Room. The room itself
is perhaps the most handsome large room in the city, dignified in its
architecture and eminently adapted to its purpose. It will accommodate
two hundred and fifty readers without crowding, and it will not be many
years until the demands on it will be almost to its capacity. Already
with only four months occupancy there have been times when as many as
one hundred and six people were studying in this room at the one time.
There are some four thousand selected books on the open shelves of this
room, an innovation which is appreciated by the people.2
1Toronto Public Library,
Annual Report, 1909, 11.
2Toronto Public Library,
Annual Report, 1909, 11.
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