Operations & Services

Over the years, the library has introduced various services to enhance user experiences. The following timeline describes technological changes along with service enhancements at the Dentistry Library.

Timeline of Technology and Services 

1927: A new catalogue of the combined Faculty and Harry R. Abbott Memorial Libraries was issued, and a provision was made that graduates may obtain library books by mail under the usual conditions (8).   

1930: The dental library grant of $2,000 from the Carnegie Foundation made it possible for the library to make a much-needed extension (9). There were many additions made to the collection at the time, covering a wide range of scientific subjects studied either in the regular course, or in research work (3). The additional facilities were greatly appreciated both by the students and the staff (9). 

1937: A travelling library service was inaugurated. This comprised a case of approximately 20 books and was sent, on request, to dental societies throughout the province. Thunder Bay Dental Society at Port Arthur was the first to ask for this service and 22 different dentists made use of the books. The expense of this service was covered by the societies to whom the books were sent (10).   

1980: Most of the library’s rare books collection was transferred to the Thomas Fisher Library, where many are now part of the Hannah Collection on the history of medicine (11, 12). The rare books that remain in the library are kept in a locked cabinet in the reading room (4). 

1980s: Throughout the 1980s, librarians and library staff attended workshops to learn about online searching. These workshops included instruction on databases such as MEDLINE (13), ISI databases (14), and BIOSIS REVIEW (15). 

1981: Computer searches of MEDLINE became available through the Dentistry Library. This allowed access to the Index to Dental Literature, Index Medicus and related files (such as HEALTHLINE and TOXLINE, among others). Until that point, all computer searches in the sciences were done at Gerstein (16, 11).  

1982: A DECwriter LA120 computer terminal was donated to the library by the Toronto Alumni Chapter of the Alpha Omega Fraternity (13). 

1984: The library offered access to CAN/OLE (Canadian Online Enquiry System) from CISTI (Canadian Institute of Scientific and Technical Information) including unique materials not found in MEDLINE or other databases of the time (17). 

1984: Susan M. Murray, Librarian, edited and published the Union List of Periodicals (4th ed.), a compilation of all medical and health periodicals held at U of T and the local hospital libraries. It included 4000 periodicals in 52 libraries across the GTA. This list was made available in a local database called MISTRESS running under UNIX on a PDP 11/50 computer (18). The list was useful for filling interlibrary loans, as well as for identifying gaps and duplications of titles. 

1984: The CURRENT AWARENESS service was launched at U of T. Users were provided with a monthly printout of references from Index Medicus and the Index to Dental Literature generated from a profile of their research interests (6).  

1983-1985: The audiovisual Room got a makeover during the mid-1980s renovations. The room was equipped with slide/tape players embedded in carrels; three video machines (Beta), six slide tape projectors and six audiocassette recorders (19)! 

1985: Librarians offered training on Knowledge Index. For those who wanted to run literature searches on their own personal computers, this system would allow searching MEDLINE and other databases for a fee of $24.00 per hour. Knowledge Index was offered by Dialog Information Services, Inc., and was only available to subscribers from 6:00 pm to 5:00 am in the subscriber’s local time zone (20). 

1986: The library launched the first ever Orientation Video. In collaboration with the staff at the Audio/Visual and Television Department, the 13-minute video (in colour!) featured Margot Froud in the starring role of Library Staff. The purpose was to inform incoming students, staff and researchers about library services and policies (21). Unfortunately, the video has been lost and we currently do not own a copy. 

1987: Book delivery services from the main campus Science and Medicine Library (currently Gerstein Science Information Centre) were getting too popular to handle in terms of workload for library staff. While Gerstein was putting its catalogue online, document delivery became slower and still paper based (22). 

1987: Computer searching workshops for libraries were held that focused on training users to do their own searching rather than having libraries search for users and provide lists of journal articles (23). 

1988: MEDLINE on CD-ROM arrived at the Science and Medicine library (24). 

1989: Compact Med-Base, the MEDLINE CD-ROM, arrived at the Dentistry Library thanks to overwhelmingly positive faculty support, use of the Dean’s Academic Enrichment Fund, and a letter written by the Library Committee. Literature was available from 1966 onwards with monthly updates (25).  

1989: The Dentistry Library became one of the 42 libraries in Toronto and surrounding areas to join the Consortium. The Consortium allowed faster delivery of books and photocopies of articles, greater availability of information and collections through sharing the union list of holdings, an electronic mail listserv for faster information sharing, and improved patient care with faster information access (25). 

1989: FELIX arrived at the library. The installation of FELIX, the University of Toronto online catalogue, allowed library users to see the holdings of all U of T collections online. Unfortunately, only part of the Dentistry Library’s collection was available on FELIX at the time (26). 

1989: SCANDOC, a new computerized search service (free for faculty and graduate students) became available at the library. Users would send a topic of interest to main campus librarians, and they would receive a list of citations matching their interest on a weekly basis (27). 

1990s: During this time there was a gap in Filling the Gap. Due to budget cuts and staff changes, the last Filling the Gap issue for some time was January 1992 (28). This gap in the 1990s is a great loss to the documentation of library services and developments. During this time, there were most certainly technological advancements, such as the long-awaited automation of records into the U of T Libraries catalogue, FELIX, sometime in the late 1990s, and the launch of the internet, which changed the landscape of online searching forever. The beginning of PubMed in 1998 was a major change to how users would access MEDLINE articles, and the library was no doubt impacted by these changes. The last print version of Index Medicus was in 1999, and it was archived at Keep@Downsview in 2011.  

1999: DOCLINE, a major North American interlibrary loan system, was now web-based, and this allowed libraries to request and lend materials faster than ever before (29). The Dentistry Library maintained a DOCLINE account from 2000 to 2022. 

2000: January 2000 is the first issue of the relaunched Filling the Gap newsletter we have in our files. However, the newsletter was likely relaunched around 1997, when Stephanie Walker was hired as Head Librarian. The new newsletter looked different, in the sense that it was now published using a word processor and not a typewriter, and the focus of the newsletter was more user-based. Content focused on efficient searching and document sharing.  

2000: The Library Website was updated and relaunched for the 2000/01 school year (30). Around this time, Web Development Librarian became a position at the Dentistry Library, and the library was responsible for maintaining and updating the Faculty of Dentistry website (30). This changed the way librarianship was viewed at the Dentistry Library, with more technical responsibilities, rather than simply helping information seekers. This unique combined role of librarian and webmaster continued at the faculty until 2013 (2013 email to Helen He).  

2001: U of T Libraries launched the my.alert service. This service allowed U of T Library account holders to login to their web-based account and create search strings related to their interests. Alerts would arrive in their emails when new resources matching their search strings were added to the catalogue or to a database of interest. In light of this new service, the Current Awareness service was retired (31). 

2002: SIRSI Dynix was selected as the new database platform for all U of T Libraries’ holdings (32). The catalogue was directly connected to the SIRSI database, allowing for quicker updates on collection items – for example, items that were checked out would show up as unavailable sooner than before. The library’s collection was now available to the public with faster status updates.  

Late 2000s: The library’s audiovisual collection was becoming obsolete and continued to take up a large part of the reading room with very little use. Tapes, microfiche and microforms were around, but no longer used by users. In addition, the web presence of the library quickly became an important point of contact for users to find information and learn about policies and services.  

2005: The "get it! UTL" button was introduced on database websites (such as Ovid MEDLINE and Web of Science). Clicking this button will take users directly to a link into the article in question if U of T subscribes to the journal. Otherwise, it will take users to a U of T catalogue search for any print copies of the journal (33). 

2007: The library “Ask Us” chat service using Meebo was launched in early 2007. Although we have no source for this, we do recall being one of the first U of T Libraries to offer chat services. Meebo was a widget that was embedded in our home page, and users could ask us any questions from the comfort of their own computer screens, without approaching the desk (34).  

2007: A library blog was created to promote library collections and services, with a Google search results feed to brief our users about any news related to dentistry (34).    

2010: The library digitized its vertical file for easy online access to the subject bibliographies and biographies of figures connected to the Faculty of Dentistry (35). The vertical file had previously been composed by library staff members under the leadership of former Head Librarian, Ms. Phyllis M. Smith (4).     

2011: The library created a Twitter account to feature current news in the dental field and promote faculty publications, new books, services and events, and more (36).   

2011: The library digitized most of its rare book collection via a partnership between U of T Libraries and the Internet Archive (IA). Over 300 pre-1923 items were shipped to Robarts, digitized, and returned to the library. They now make up part of the U of T Libraries’ collection on IA. In 2014, a selection of these books was added to the Medical Heritage Library (MHL), which unfortunately recently closed. However, our collection is still available via IA.   

2012: The “Ask Us” chat service was replaced with the Ask a Librarian chat service, which is still in use today. This service similarly allows users to ask library-related questions virtually from the library website, but is staffed by library workers across the U of T Libraries instead of just Dentistry Library workers (37). 

2013: The Space Committee at the Faculty of Dentistry approved 267F as a multi-faith room starting September 2013 (2013 email to Maria Zych).

2014: The Dentistry Library received the Dr. Sydney Wood Bradley Library Fund. These funds are used to expand our collection and services in order to better serve all our users. Our first effort to put this fund to use was the Literature Search Service.  

2015: Due to the increase of requests for systematic review and other knowledge synthesis service help, libraries across North America were overwhelmed with requests for search strategy assistance in knowledge synthesis projects. The Dentistry Library was no different, with its librarians taking part in systematic reviews in collaboration with faculty members. One of our librarians completed the Cochrane Author Training, in order to better prepare to assist with such requests.  

2015: The library introduced its tech loan collections with phone and laptop chargers to support users’ technology needs (38).    

2018: A major renovation took place at the library, including changes in technology that have altered the way researchers, students and staff access resources. Most of our print collection was archived from 2011 to 2018 (39). The library was transformed into a modern, bright and welcoming space for all to enjoy studying individually and in teams (7). The library purchased light therapy lamps to improve the well-being of our users (39). 

2018: In December 2018, DOCLINE 6.0 was launched and interfaced through Google Drive. A Google account is required to access the service. With great resistance from libraries across North America, libraries adapted to this new way of using DOCLINE through the cloud (2018 email to Maria Zych).  

2019: The group study room was equipped with electronic tools for collaborative work. These new tools allowed up to two devices to be connected at one time, enabled annotation via the large monitor in the study room, and let users easily make video conferencing calls (40). 

2019: One of our librarians starts to take part in the Toronto Black History Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, a collaboration between U of T, York University Libraries, Toronto Metropolitan University Library and Toronto Public Library. The goal of the Edit-a-thon is to increase representation of Black individuals on Wikipedia, the largest reference work in the world. Now on its sixth year, the Dentistry Library staff have always contributed in one way or another to this important event. 

2020: During the COVID-19 pandemic closure, Library digital collections were enriched with a subscription to HathiTrust (41). Thanks to the forward thinking of libraries across North America, HathiTrust provided access to millions of digital collections across academic libraries through its Emergency Temporary Access Service, so that researchers and students could continue their work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic closure (42).   

2020: The COVID-19 pandemic closure forced the Dentistry Library to move its services completely online, as it did for much of the rest of the world. Reference, technical, and directional questions were now answered online or via email. Virtual one-on-one consultations, virtual reference desk via Teams, and instruction sessions were all done remotely from staff’s homes (42). Interlibrary loan requests were mostly filled remotely. However, library staff would have to periodically go in to retrieve print materials. Library staff were given special letters from administration to justify their presence on campus during the closure. PPE was worn at all times when on campus. Since the library reopened, some of its services have remained online for users’ convenience. 

2020: The Scoping and Systematic Review Service was launched during the COVID-19 closure, due to the increased requests for knowledge synthesis projects at a time when our community was at home (43). Our librarians were able to co-author 4 reviews during this brief time.  

2021: U of T Libraries changed its library service platform to ExLibris Alma, which is still used today. U of T's Alma discovery layer, LibrarySearch, not only consists of an online catalogue of print and electronic materials across campuses, but also allows users to navigate through other libraries’ collections for interlibrary loans, manage their library fines, renew materials, save more complex searches of their interests and easily manage intercampus requests for scans (43).  

2021: Scan and Deliver service was introduced for easy access to the print materials in the library. The Scan and Deliver Service allows users to request scanned PDFs of journal articles that are only available in the library (43). 

2021: The Dentistry Library expands its role in the Toronto Wikipedia Edit-a-thon by joining the U of T Science subgroup, focusing on Black scientists and healthcare providers. 

2021: After an 18-month closure due to COVID-19, the Dentistry Library reopened its doors on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. Staff wore PPE at all times at the desk and signage for physical distancing was placed across the space (44). Virtual reference continued for one more term, to provide users with an alternative to approaching the desk if they did not feel comfortable doing so.  

2023: Due to the archiving of most of the print materials, the Dentistry Library retired its DOCLINE account. Most interlibrary loans are now done centrally at Robarts.  

2024-2025: Books available at large U of T libraries, such as Robarts, UTM and UTSc Libraries, and Gerstein Science Information Centre, can be requested to be picked up at the Dentistry Library. This initiative increases our users' ability to access all U of T collections, and is a reflection of the multi-disciplinary aspects of dental education and research.