Are you a student or a professional in business, medicine or science? Does your thirst for knowledge go beyond TED Talks? Do you need detailed, expert information, but lack time? Then HSTalks are for you. This curated collection of online lectures with slide presentations features thousands of in-depth talks by global experts, including professors, business […]
Are you taking our 2019 Reading Challenge? So are library staff all across the city. In honour of Freedom to Read Week, we decided to ask them about their favourite books for the category, "A book that has been banned or challenged". About Freedom to Read Week Freedom to Read Week is an annual event […]
Digital audiobooks are the fastest-growing format in the world of books. It's not hard to see why – you can listen to them while you're commuting, exercising, doing housework, or going to sleep. Even if you have a hard time reading print or holding a physical book, you can still listen to audiobooks. But not everybody […]
via GIPHY. Image description: A boy returns a book to a friendly librarian. The caption reads: "eBooks: Return when done and share the fun!" You're not imagining it – waiting lists for some of the most popular ebooks and eaudiobooks are getting longer. These formats are incredibly popular in Toronto, and as more and more […]
Here's a bold hypothesis: Toronto has the most voracious readers in the world. Does that sound like we're bragging? Consider the numbers: we borrowed 5.6 million ebooks and eaudiobooks in 2018 – more than any other library users, anywhere. According to a press release from Rakuten OverDrive, Toronto was one of only two library systems that […]
Have you seen Bandersnatch? The innovative Black Mirror episode included a choose-your-own-adventure book that was also called Bandersnatch. Apparen’tly, fans across the UK have been searching their local libraries for the title. So we took a look, and it turns out that several Toronto readers have done the same. Unfortunately, the book doesn't exist – at […]
Do you like podcasts? Do you like podcasts about romance, werewolves, improv, Toronto, jogging in laneways, robot battles, cannabis and/or libraries? If your answer is "I'm not sure what a podcast is", check out this post for some examples. (Spoiler: they're like radio shows, but online.) But if your answer is "Yes", you're in luck: […]
Valerie has every book-lover's dream job: she coordinates the selection of print books for adults at Toronto Public Library. In other words, she and her team of selectors investigate nearly every book that we order. So when we want to know what new books to get excited about, we know who to ask. This list […]
Toronto Public Library's Top 10 most-borrowed books of 2018: Official MTO Driver’s Handbook: borrowed 4,665 times so far in 2018* Origin by Dan Brown: 4,120 Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill: 4,033 The Rooster Bar by John Grisham: 3,640 Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff: 3,547 Into the Water by Paula Hawkins: 3,289 Parting […]
Raise your hand if you're one of the hundreds of Torontonians who've committed to producing 50,000 words this National Novel Writing Month. (Now stretch your arm up and over, and repeat on the other side. Look up from the screen and blink your eyes a couple of times. You got this.) We have good news! When […]