It’s not a secret that the city’s current administration is not a friend to the Toronto Public Library, which is one of the biggest library systems in the world. They managed to avoid a massive budget cut by the Ford administration in 2011 that would have meant the closure of up to 38 branches throughout the city, largely beacuse of public outcry against it. But the library system remains woefully underfunded — provincial funding since the ’90s has been cut in half, and municipal funding cuts have totaled $800 million, even though demand for the service is constantly growing. Huge wait lists for the latest titles are pretty common, since the acquisitions budget for the Toronto Library is constantly shrinking.

Luckily, the library is willing to look outside the conventional means of funding in order to make up the money that they’re not getting from the government, and last week they announced two new initiatives to help the library make some money. The first is a partnership with Indigo on their website, with a “Buy Me” button that appears when you search their titles online. A portion of purchases made when you click that button go towards the library, though right now it only includes print editions and not e-books. The Ottawa Public Library is also considering participating in this program.

The second moneymaker is only a six month trial at this point, but by the end of this month they’re going to start printing ads on the back of all due date slips. They haven’t named any names about who is advertising with them, though they’re all businesses that are somewhat relevant to books and reading. The project will earn $20,000 a year in revenue, but this figure could grow depending on how many people are interested in advertising with them.

Personally, I think any way the library can make money is a good one, especially since library sales are one of the things that helps make the Canadian publishing industry money and keeps it viable. Not to mention all the benefits having a vibrant library system can bring, especially to the young and impoverished. If the library can get e-book purchasing on their site, it could definitely be a good source of income for them, given the voraciousness of people who own the devices. 

[via Quill & Quire, Infodocket]

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Megan Patterson is the Science and Technology Editor at Paper Droids and currently a Toronto Standard intern. She also tweets more than is healthy or wise. 

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