City Librarian’s Report for December 2025
Below is the City Librarian’s report for the December 2025 Toronto Public Library (TPL) Board meeting. This report covers items that are not part of the Board agenda package.
Spaces
Open hours expansion
On October 19, TPL launched year-round Sunday service at all 100 library branches from 12-5 pm except holiday weekends. Thirty-three branches opened on Sundays for the first time, while 67 branches extended their existing Sunday hours. This milestone marks the first time every neighbourhood in Toronto has Sunday access to welcoming library spaces, technology, books, programs and more. There was positive media coverage following the two press conferences with Mayor Olivia Chow announcing the new hours. Most rewarding of all has been the excitement and appreciation from Torontonians – on social media, in our branches and beyond.
TPL immediately saw 38% more visits and 66% more circulation compared to the same Sunday the previous year. This means that TPL welcomed over 21,000 visitors on October 19, the most visitors to TPL for a Sunday in five years!
The Gladys Allison North York History Room officially opens
The North York Central Library (NYCL) celebrated the official opening of the Gladys Allison North York History Room on October 30. The event featured remarks from Sarah Jafari representing local City Councillor Lily Cheng, Senior Manager for NYCL Kim Huntley, and special guest Lynn Gardiner, the granddaughter of Gladys Allison.
Gladys Allison played a pivotal role in establishing the North York Public Library (NYPL) system in the 1950’s, and in October 1959 the NYPL opened its first municipally-owned library building officially named the Gladys Allison Building. Gladys also served as the chair of the Library Board in 1961. Her legacy of public library advocacy continues in the TPL Board approved naming of the new Gladys Allison North York History Room.
The room is located on the 5th floor of the North York Central Library, and the collection consists of hundreds of books, maps, photographs, files, meeting minutes, microform, periodicals and newspapers. Library staff on the 5th floor are available to assist customers with their North York local history and genealogy research needs. The room is open to the public for full library service hours.
Fairview Community Open House and visit from Mayor Olivia Chow
On Friday October 24, the Fairview branch welcomed Mayor Olivia Chow to connect with library customers and promote the open hours expansion at all 100 branches on Sundays. Customers and staff alike were delighted to meet with the Mayor and share their love for the library with her.
The following day, Saturday, October 25, the Fairview branch celebrated Canadian Library Month and Ontario Public Library Week with a community open house, welcoming customers to the library following a major capital project. Renovations included the addition of a Digital Innovation Hub, an Audio Visual Recording Studio and an expanded program room for Youth Hub service. Since re-opening in April 2025, the Digital Innovation Hub’s 3D printer has printed nearly 300 items and the AV Studio has been booked 365 times. Enhanced study and meeting rooms as well as a virtual interview room were also added to provide important spaces for members of the community to learn and connect. During the open house, customers received a passport encouraging them to visit all the new features of the branch. Each completed passport served as a raffle entry, with five lucky winners announced by local Councillor Shelley Carroll of Ward 17, Don Valley North.
Staff expertise
Recognizing the dedication of our long-serving TPL staff
On November 13, TPL held its annual Staff Recognition event in the Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library to recognize all those celebrating a special milestone of 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 years at TPL. It was an opportunity for these 105 staff (representing an astonishing 3,375 years of service collectively!) to connect with each other, reflect on their careers and celebrate their many accomplishments.
The event featured a wonderful catered lunch, a live jazz quartet, a photo booth, and a presentation by members of TPL’s Senior Leadership team that highlighted some fun reminders of what was happening in the world and at TPL each milestone year.
In their opening remarks, City Librarian Moe Hossein-Ara and TPL Board Chair Alim Remtulla thanked these staff for their remarkable service and dedication to TPL. And TPLF CEO Will Scott presented two deserving candidates with the Pauline Hinch award for staff working towards their Master of Library Science who embody a deep commitment to public librarianship.
Each celebrant received a pin recognizing their years of service excellence, a certificate, and those celebrating 25 years received a watch engraved with the TPL logo.
Programs
Young Voices 2025 launch and 60th anniversary party
On October 23, teen writers and artists gathered for the launch of the new issue of Young Voices and to celebrate the magazine’s 60th anniversary. Young Voices was first published in 1965 and it has provided a forum for teen creative expression ever since.
The audience heard from a dozen teens whose work is featured in this year’s issue. They spoke on topics as varied as immigration experiences, the beauty of summer and the need for diverse opinions in democracy. A past contributor, Jesse June Jack, spoke about his first publication in Young Voices 2019 and how it gave him the confidence to pursue a creative career. Volunteers from the Young Voices Teen Council explained how they decide on the pieces to publish by working in small teams with professional writers and artists. With strong support from Toronto Public Library, Young Voices has been and continues to be an important home for Toronto’s emerging writers and artists.
Young Voices magazine is supported through the generosity of Friends of Toronto Public Library, South Chapter.
Joanne Fitzgerald Illustrator in Residence: Todd Stewart
The Illustrator in Residence program honours the memory of illustrator Joanne Fitzgerald (1956-2011). During this annual residency, a children’s book illustrator presents workshops, art activities and portfolio reviews for adults, teens and children. The 2025 Illustrator in Residence, Todd Stewart, has illustrated the books Skating Wild on an Inland Sea; Flow, Spin, Grow; and See You Next Year. He wrote and illustrated Little Moments in a Big Universe and The Wind and the Trees.
Throughout October, Todd met with six classes from three different schools at North York Central Library and led 140 students through the process of learning how to draw wolves. The classes enjoyed visiting the NYCL art gallery exhibiting Todd’s original artwork and asking him questions about his artistic process. Todd also hosted a career series online, and spoke to 118 attendees about illustration, storyboards, and publishing.
This program is funded by IBBY Canada and the Young Family.
Celebrating Islamic history and culture
October marked Islamic History Month and Islamic History and Culture is part of our annual cultural series – including Black History, Asian Heritage, Indigenous Celebrations and Jewish Heritage – that showcases the rich tapestry of cultures that make up our city.
Throughout October and year-round, we encourage everyone to discover Islamic arts, culture and history through a series of events, programs and featured collections that highlight Muslim communities’ invaluable contributions to our shared history and identity.
TPL presented more than 17 programs, with almost 700 engaged attendees to date, including author talks with Roza Nozari (2025 Toronto Book Awards finalist), an evening of readings featuring Muslim-identifying authors and journalists (in collaboration with PEN Canada), performances from Labyrinth Ontario, several creative workshops on Arabic Calligraphy and events across the city. TPL also shared recommended reading lists for adults, teens and children.
Many key events associated with this series have been created in collaboration with the Aga Khan Museum.
Small Business Month programs and activities
Marking Small Business Month in October, branches across the city hosted diverse entrepreneurs and presenters to offer various small business programs, inspiring and supporting emerging and established small business owners.
Highlights included:
- Small Business networking programs – several programs designed to spark connection, conversation and possibility for Toronto’s diverse entrepreneurial community.
- New Beginnings, New Habits at Jane/Sheppard Branch – 52 aspiring entrepreneurs from a local ESL school attended this Newcomer Entrepreneurship Initiative program.
- TPL booth at City of Toronto’s Small Business Forum – Members of TPL’s Small Business Services Committee provided small business-related resources to over 1,000 people (over 1,800 in attendance).
TPL continues to offer Small Business and entrepreneurship programs throughout the year, with a recent launch of the Newcomer Entrepreneur in Residence program with Dihan Chandra, hosted at Albert Campbell branch.
Culture Days @ TPL
Culture Days is a nation-wide festival highlighting artists from all forms of art. In collaboration with Ontario Culture Days, the library hosted approximately 180 people who attended Culture Days programs at branches across the city. Featured programs included:
- Drawing Community Together with popular children’s book illustrator, Suharu Ogawa, at Cedarbrae Branch.
- The Making of Empire of Wild with the Canadian Opera Company featuring a reading and musical performance with Ian Cusson and Emma Pennell at North York Central Library.
- Phantom Postal Service with Vicki Sue Manchin and Erin Poole at Parkdale branch, where participants were moved by the invitation to ‘mail’ a message to someone they were thinking about.
The Culture Days programs exemplified the power of art to bring communities together and foster meaningful connections across the city.
Technology
Digital Inclusion Week 2025
This year’s Digital Inclusion Week was TPL’s biggest yet! From October 6 to 11, the library hosted 147 programs in 59 branches and reached 1,350 attendees. Program offerings included Office Basics, Seniors E-Connect, digital content creation, coding programs for kids, an exploration of mis-disinformation in film and more.
Digital Inclusion Week highlights the importance of technology access and building digital literacy skills to support informed technology use. Mayor Chow proclaimed the week as “Digital Inclusion Week” in Toronto.
The week kicked off with TPL’s third annual Digital Expo, attended by nearly 300 people. This year’s event, “Bridging the AI Divide,” featured industry leaders discussing responsible technologies, privacy and digital citizenship in the age of AI. A Kids Digital Expo was introduced this year, providing kids and families with programs and activations on online safety, media literacy, robotics and more. Recordings can be viewed on TPL’s YouTube channel.
Specialized services
TPL at Homeless Connect One-Stop-Shop
On October 26, a team from TPL participated in Homeless Connect Toronto’s annual One-Stop-Shop event, a safe and inclusive drop-in program for individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Toronto. The event, held annually at Mattamy Athletic Centre, brings together service providers to offer free on-site support including clothing, hair care, eye care, meals, legal aid, dental care, housing help, pet care and an I.D. clinic.
Over the course of the day, TPL’s outreach team had meaningful engagements and conversations with over 200 individuals, reinstated expired accounts, forgave any outstanding fines, donated approximately 230 books and provided information about library programs and services. TPL also registered more than 40 new library memberships, welcoming customers into our library spaces and providing access to a broad array of library collections and services. Mayor Olivia Chow even stopped by the library’s table to say hello! This event is a meaningful way to demonstrate to customers that the library has something for everyone and is a welcoming space for all.
Bookmobile visit to East Bayfront Community Recreation Centre
On Friday October 24, the Mobile Library Services team attended the newly opened East Bayfront Community Recreation Centre’s Pre-Halloween party. Hosted by Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik, hundreds of community members and families enjoyed a Halloween movie, costume contest, games, prizes and a special visit from TPL’s bookmobile Big Blue. Bookmobile staff had the opportunity to connect with community members and families to register library cards and discuss Toronto Public Library’s services, programs, collections, online resources and more.
Rooting for the Blue Jays
During the 2025 World Series, TPL showed its support for the Toronto Blue Jays in a variety of ways that garnered attention from across Canada and the United States. Staff designed a limited-edition pin featuring a playful twist on the TPL logo—the two activators replaced with baseballs—and distributed them at select branches across the city. The pins were a hit with customers.
On social media, TPL teamed up with Los Angeles Public Library for a friendly book spine poetry battle and showcased memorabilia and prints from Special Collections. In total, TPL’s Blue Jays-related posts received more than 1,000,000 views during the World Series and drew an outpouring of positive comments, including:
- “Thanks for being part of Toronto coming together for the Jays!”
- “This series was the best thing about the World Series this year! Thanks Toronto Public Library!”
- “You’re a home run with your posts! Keep knocking it out of the park!”
- “This account has stolen my heart.”
Although the Blue Jays didn’t win the Series, this was definitely a win for TPL and the city. Like baseball, libraries bring people together—and when our communities connect, everyone wins.
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