Technological Innovations

Carole Moore, Chief Librarian from 1986-2011, led the Libraries through a remarkable time of technological change. She played a pivotal role in making UTL’s phenomenal collections accessible in new ways with cutting edge discovery tools. Her legacy includes pioneering work in digital preservation and the dissemination of Canadian heritage publications, leadership in the establishment of a collaborative purchasing model for electronic resources on a regional and national level, and initiation of a national infrastructure for the open access publication of Canadian research outputs.

A significant percentage of the Libraries’ collections budget is now devoted to electronic resources. Even so, about 150,000 new print titles are added to the shelves each year. Bringing this material to students and faculty involves the work of a large, interdisciplinary team of staff who apply their specialized expertise to behind-the-scenes processes which facilitate acquisitions, discovery and access. In addition to working with mainstream vendors, they research and collect niche titles from small publishers, even travelling internationally to purchase rare, local material that would otherwise not be available to U of T researchers. This attention to detail is part of what makes UTL’s collections truly world class.