page_title: Toronto Public Library
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Toronto Public Library / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Mechanics' Institute at Church and Adelaide Streets, Toronto, Canada. The Toronto Public Library Board took over the collections and building in 1883 after Toronto voters approved the free library by-law. The building remained a branch of the library until 1927, and was demolished in 1949. Français&#160;: La succursale centrale de la Bibliothèque publique de Toronto en 1884.
context_page_description: Toronto Public Library is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada and in 2008, had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other public library system internationally, making it the largest neighbourhood-based library system in the world. Within North America, it also had the highest circulation and visitors when compared to other large urban systems. Established as the library of the Mechanics' Institute in 1830, the Toronto Public Library now consists of 100 branch libraries and has over 12 million items in its collection.
context_section_description: The first subscription library service to open in the city was on 9 December 1810, at Elmsley House. During the Burning of York in April 1813, several American officers under Commodore Issac Chauncey's command looted books from the library. Discovering his officers were in possession of the stolen books after they returned to Sackets Harbor, Chauncey ordered the looted books returned to York. The stolen books were returned in two crates, although by the time the time they arrived, the library had already closed. The books were auctioned off in 1822.
  In 1830, a library was established in the York Mechanics' Institute. In 1882, the provincial legislature passed a free libraries act. In 1884, the Mechanic's Institute's  collection became the Toronto Public Library.  James Bain was the first chief librarian and he supplemented the collection with $15,000 worth of books purchased on a trip to England in late 1883.
  Between 1907 and 1916, ten libraries were built with funds from the Andrew Carnegie Trust. Several of these Carnegie libraries continue to be used by the public library; one, the original Central Reference Library, is now the Koffler Student Centre at the University of Toronto.
  Henry Cummings Campbell was Chief Librarian of the Toronto Public Library from 1956 to 1978, and the first Chief Librarian to hold a professional library degree. He is credited for having contributed to the expansion of the library and its adaptation to an increasingly dynamic and multicultural city.
  During the amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto in 1998, the individual library systems of all the Metro municipalities and of Metro itself were merged into the Toronto system:
  East York Public Library, established 1967, 5 branches
  Etobicoke Public Library, established 1950, 13 branches
  North York Public Library, established 1955, 19 branches
  Scarborough Public Library, established 1955, 19 branches
  York Public Library, established 1967, 6 branches
  Metropolitan Toronto Public Library, established 1967, 1 branch
  The old Toronto Public Library, established 1883, 33 branches
  This made the Toronto Public Library the largest library system in North America, serving a population of 2.3 million people with 98 branches at the time.
  In 2004, a new library was opened in the St. James Town neighbourhood of Toronto, bringing the total number of branches to 99. In 2014, the city’s 100th library was constructed and opened in Scarborough City Centre.
caption: The Toronto Mechanics' Institute in 1884. A library was established at the Institute in 1830, whose collection was later absorbed into the Toronto Public Library in 1884.
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