Toronto Public Library has Quiet study rooms, a meeting room, auditoriums and theatre facilities

PS. I hope this is being read & considered by the Marketing managers @ TPL, in order to advertise the quite, most-wanted corners.

You want to meet, and the only place you thought you can do this is a coffee shop. Right. But libraries are getting into this role of offering you a place where you can meet (if not simply eat). In doing so, TPL (Toronto Public Library) is following the best practices (see below: a glimpse of whatz up @ British Library, London).

Toronto Public Library, has newer facilities, a few in the news and more to come; but the bottomline is you need to Ask if you don't find on their site. Some of these are free (less publicized and you need to ask), others are for FEE. And much more for those in-need of a small space, see the following description:


Gladstone library's Bloor bliss-out
Gladstone Library makes you think you deserve elegant public spaces
By Ashley Botting

At the Bloor/Gladstone branch, there are quiet study rooms, a meeting room, group study areas and reading lounges for adults, children and teens. There are two restored fireplaces, a pulsing teen zone with a large flat-screen TV, a new learning centre, CD listening stations, 44 computers for public use and the enclosed outdoor reading garden I mentioned earlier.

See also on the same shelf:

The future of public libraries – local, connected, innovative Posted by: Fiona in public libraries, March 16th, 2010

Small meeting rooms for freelancers and small business. I really like the Business and IP Centre at the British Library, but it doesn’t really do meeting spaces very well if you don’t have a reader’s card (my BL card is just about to expire…). I frequently have to find meeting spaces in the city during business and after hours, and usually end up at a coffee shop, which is far from ideal – noisy, bad lighting, crowded etc. Not to mention, it’s a commercial space. Wouldn’t it be great if businesses and freelancers could stay local and rent out small meeting places now and then in the library, or even a casual coworking style setup? I’m sure some libraries are already doing this, but where are they? How would I find out when such information is so buried on their website?

Coffee Shops Are New Desi Offices, Rahul Mehta @ South Asian Generation Next, Toronto, 17 March 2010

Siddiqui: Our home and native - and adopted - land

By Haroon Siddiqui Editorial Page, Toronto Star Mar 14 2010

Extract:
"If you don't like non-whites, Statistics Canada has given you more reason to grumble. But if you are among the overwhelming majority of Canadians who have adjusted well to our demographic diversity, indeed see it as a defining feature of our nation, take a bow.

Statistics Canada's population projections to 2031, released Tuesday, showcase what is perhaps the most ambitious and successful experiment in heterogeneity in human history. The population of visible minorities is expected to rise from one in every five Canadians to to one in three – potentially 14.4 million. The largest group, as now, would be South Asians.

The Toronto CMA (census metropolitan area, Oshawa to Burlington) would be nearly two-thirds non-white – 5.6 million. Among them, South Asians would have tripled to 2.1 million. Chinese would be 1.1 million. Vancouver also would be almost two-thirds non-white. But, in a flip of Toronto, the largest group there, as now, would be the Chinese, followed by South Asians." continue reading