the toronto reference library is getting a $34M facelift. yay!
I have recently rekindled my love affair with the tpl, and I couldn't be happier. when I was about 8 years old, the librarian assistant that was checking out my books gave me a weird look and insisted that what he was holding could not have been my library card. those were they days when crappy pen scanners were used and library cards were red and white and flimsy. mine had cracked in two and was held together by the thin film of plastic on top. eventually one of them got frustrated enough to give me a new one (green and white!) but I digress. so this man says, "this can't be yours, how old are you?" in retrospect, I guess I was just a tiny asian kid, but I gave my age and he was still not convinced. "you had a library card when you were that young?" I looked to my dad, unsure myself. "yes, you've been taking out books since you were two. like every week."
that's one of the clearest memories I have of the library from when I was a youngster. others are muddled in between the high shelves of fairview littered with clifford books, the bins where they kept archie comics, and the turnstiles for various fiction novels. simpler times.
several months ago, my sister brought to my attention that I could take out cds from the library. I remember thinking it was cool, but didn't take any initiative to take a look myself.
since I'm back to working across the street from riverdale library, I wandered over during a lunch break to check out the selection. I had my hands full within 5 minutes and took note of even more I wanted to come back for. there is no limit on cds, which is awesome, but I'd say the assumed limit is as much as you can carry.
so that's where it started. I checked out the catalogue after and found out there is practically every cd you could want. especially if it's mainstream enough -- even the old stuff. sex pistols, patti smith, mika, ashlee simpson. whatever. it's probably there.
I went to north york central and fairview in the following weeks and I honestly had to stop myself from going through all the bins because I had stacked up so many already. since then, I've been on a cd ripping spree and every time I'm missing something/want something in 320kbps, I put it on hold. why did I not make use of this before?
in any case, I'm making use of it now. the best part is that they have discs of foreign music too, so I am thoroughly enjoying some good quality lee-hom wang right now. additionally, you get to browse and pick out things you never would've stumbled upon otherwise. mtv unplugged by 10,000 maniacs is my new favourite album of that genre, all because I caught it in the corner of my eye while I was flipping through discs.
dvds too. popular items like disc 1 of the first season of lost may take longer to get a hold over, but I decided to give frasier a try because it was on the shelf and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually understood the jokes! can't say I got all of them, but I could definitely see why they won so many emmy awards.
last exciting thing of note I haven't yet taken advantage of -- music scores. the reference library has the score to pretty much every pop song or classic you could think of and I am itching to go photocopy some sheets. maybe when I have time to play.
welp, my shift is over. I hope my time-passing rave about my love for the toronto public library encourages you to make more use of it yourself. who knows -- maybe you'll find a gem somewhere in those
tossed salads and scrambled eggs.
they're callin' again.