Ryerson University Library is the library of Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. The Ryerson Library collection consists of over 500,000 books, 3,700 print journal titles and over $2 million of electronic resources, including approximately 23,000 e-journals, e-books, databases and indexes, geospatial data, and catalogued websites or electronic documents. Most of the electronic resources can be accessed remotely by Ryerson community members with Internet access, although authentication of Ryerson Library registration is required for access to all commercial resources. The Library acquires materials to support the curriculum taught at the university and to support the research needs of faculty. All hard copy materials are housed in the Library building at Gould and Victoria Streets.
The 11 storey tower was built in 1974, and is a classic example of Brutalist architecture. The library buildings also holds administrative office, the Nursing Collaborative and until 2007 the Urban and Regional Planning program. Urban and Regional Planning vacated the building in 2007, leaving more space for the existing library.
As part of the Ryerson University Master Plan, the Library is expected to either relocate or be the subject of extensive renovations in the next several years.
On January 18, 2008 the university announced the acquisition of properties including the former site of Sam the Record Man which will allow expansion of the library to a prime Yonge Street location. The new expansion will be designed by architectural firms Zeidler Partnership Architects of Toronto and Snøhetta of Oslo, Norway.
Read more about Ryerson University Library: Ronald D. Besse Information & Learning Commons, Microcomputer Facilities, Geospatial Data, Ryerson Archives, Special Collections, The Writing Centre, Changes To Library Space, Mission Statement
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“Like dreaming, reading performs the prodigious task of carrying us off to other worlds. But reading is not dreaming because books, unlike dreams, are subject to our will: they envelop us in alternative realities only because we give them explicit permission to do so. Books are the dreams we would most like to have, and, like dreams, they have the power to change consciousness, turning sadness to laughter and anxious introspection to the relaxed contemplation of some other time and place.”
—Victor Null, South African educator, psychologist. Lost in a Book: The Psychology of Reading for Pleasure, introduction, Yale University Press (1988)
“Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge; it blossoms through the year. And depend on it ... that they who are so fond of handling the leaves, will long for the fruit at last.”
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816)