The Unquiet Library: Fifty years of Robarts Library

Bringing the University Online: Robarts Library and the expansion of computing access   Host Jesse Carliner explores how Robarts Library helped move the University of Toronto into a digital space as computing, the internet, and digital resources reshaped research and access. In the episode opener digital scholarship librarian Leslie Barnes defines digital humanities and describes AI as loweri...

Discovery Systems librarian Susan Bond explains that the University of Toronto Libraries’ LibrarySearch blends results from Alma (the catalogue for items like books and journals) with a large database that can include chapter- and article-level content, and suggests AI’s most likely near-term impact is enabling natural-language queries instead of Boolean searching, rather than replacing the catalo...

In this episode of The Unquiet Library: 50 Years of Robarts Library, host Jesse Carliner explores Robarts’ pre-digital era through oral history interviews with current and former librarians. Margaret Wall describes processing 340 legacy CD-ROMs (plus cassettes and floppy disks) and determining whether their contents evolved into print or online databases, noting the convenience...

This episode of The Unquiet Library examines how decades of public funding cuts, neoliberal policy shifts, wage restraints, attrition, buyouts, and rapid technological change reshaped Robarts Library and culminated in major strikes in 1975 and 1991. Former Chief Librarian Carol Moore and retired Chief Administrative Officer Alfred Cheng describe repeated annual budget reductions, prioritizati...

The gendered history of Robarts Library. This episode of The Unquiet Library: 50 Years of Robarts Library explores the gendered history of the John P. Robarts Research Library through 2021 oral-history interviews, framing librarianship as a “pink collar” profession dominated by women yet often led by men and undervalued in pay and influence. Kathleen Scheaffer explains that a 2019 gender salary-ga...

Host Jesse Carliner explores how the John P. Robarts Research Library at the University of Toronto evolved from an intimidating “Fort Book” into a more welcoming, student-centered hub through architectural changes, service innovations, and shifts in engagement culture. Retired U of T Libraries manager Gabriela Bravo describes efforts to improve navigation, promote reference help and inst...

Reference Service at Robarts Library in the 1970s and 1980s  Host Jesse Carliner explores Robarts Library’s intimidating reputation beyond its brutalist architecture, tracing how the building was intended as a formal, graduate student and faculty focused research facility until undergraduate protests led to full access when it opened in 1973. Through 2021 oral-history inte...

This episode of 'The Unquiet Library' podcast delves into the historical context and architectural significance of the John P. Robarts Research Library at the University of Toronto. Hosted by Jesse Carliner, it features insights from architectural historian Mary Louise Lobsinger, preservation architect Michael McClelland, urbanist Sean Micallef, librarian and photogra...

This episode of 'The Unquiet Library' podcast explores the criticisms and emotional reactions surrounding the John P. Robarts Research Library—an iconic and controversial brutalist structure in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Host Jesse Carliner introduces its massive scale and unique design, which has drawn both admiration and ire since its opening in 1973.   Featuring exp...

Welcome to T he Unquiet Library: Fifty years of Robarts Library , a podcast exploring the John P. Robarts Research Library at the University of Toronto—an iconic, debated, and often misunderstood building that has stood at the heart of Canada’s largest university for 50 years. Through interviews with architects, librarians, staff, administrators, alumni, and faculty, the series goes behind th...