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Research & Reference Libraries

What are Research and Reference libraries?

Research and Reference libraries are Toronto's largest, with extended hours and extensive collections to serve the entire city. Scroll below for more.

District libraries are medium-sized branches that take care of the readers and neighbourhood libraries in their area.

District libraries

Neighbourhood libraries are the smaller, comfortable branches around town, with the hours and materials to serve their own little piece of Toronto.

Neighbourhood libraries

More about Research and Reference libraries

There are two of these libraries serving Toronto:

Toronto Reference Library

North York Central Library

Both libraries offer:

• Central locations to serve everyone in the city
  
• Sunday hours from September to June
  
• A comfortable space to study, read or relax
  
• Staff with expertise in various subject areas
  
• Large collections for extensive research and reference in a wide range of areas
  
  Business and careers
  Performing arts
  Languages and literature
  Periodicals and newspapers
  Canadian history
  Local history
  Children's books and materials
  Government information
  Genealogy
  Consumer information
  Health
  Native Peoples
  Science and technology
  Pictures
  Music scores
  Social sciences

Collections of rare and valuable materials make research possible in some very unique subjects.

• Art Room
  
• Arthur Conan Doyle Collection
• Baldwin Room
  
• Canada Trust Audubon Collection
  
• Genealogy & Local History Collection
• Map Collection

A large number of computer workstations give you access to:

• The collections of the entire Toronto Public Library
  
• The Internet, including the Virtual Reference Library
  
• A wide variety of other electronic resources with general and specialized information on many different subjects
• Word processing workstations with Word, Excel and PowerPoint
  
  

Special services at these two libraries include:

• Services for people with disabilities
  
• IntelliSearch (Custom, fee-based professional research service)
  
• Consumer Health Information Service
  
• Audiovisual facilities for learning languages, watching videos and listening to music
• Meeting rooms, exhibit space, auditoriums, and space for literacy tutorials are available in one location or another.

Updated on: October 15, 2008

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