Mayor Olivia Chow is set to open up all Toronto Public Library branches seven days a week within the next two years 

By Caitlin Chung

Several university students in Toronto said they will benefit from an incoming expansion of public library hours with increased access to free study spaces and various resources offered in their communities. 

With affordability concerns looming in the background, fourth-year Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) psychology student Malu Takemoto says she looks for inexpensive reasons to leave the house on weekends.

“It’s a good place [the library] to not have to spend money on coffee or worry about getting distracted,” said Takemoto. “It’s just a proper place to study, so having it open on more days would be absolutely amazing.” 

She says Sunday — the day before the start of the school week — is when she needs libraries “the most.”

“I will definitely be making use of that,” said Takemoto.  

The same goes for Ella Oladipo, a regular library patron and first-year languages and intercultural relations student at TMU. She says public spaces, such as libraries, help get her out of bed and offer accessible havens for commuters to rest.

The main appeal of these facilities, Oladipo says, is the vast array of workshops they host throughout the week, from running tax and finance lessons to providing sewing machines and sticker makers free of charge.

“More hours means an expansion of space and an expansion of the ability to use the resources that are there,” she said.

While Toronto Public Library (TPL) part-time employee and first-year University of Toronto social sciences student Eden Nath frequently makes use of the public facilities, she says extra hours will affect her older co-workers more personally. 

“Most of them are parents,” said Nath. “One of them in particular I know has a six-year-old daughter, and it’s already really hard for her to work the hours she does.”

She adds that most of them are worried about the impending changes, especially since longer hours will take away from their family time on weekends. 

“We don’t have too much information on what these hours are going to consist of,” she said. 

In response to a request for a statement, TPL sent a report of their 2025 revised open hours plan. 

According to the package, the expansion is the city’s response to a 61 per cent spike in library traffic following an increase in hours at select branches over the summer. Their newly released Social Impact Study further describes the TPL as the “lifeblood of the city.”

Toronto’s vision of fostering social cohesion, as outlined in both reports, aligns with Ray Oldenburg’s concept of a third space, which the sociologist describes as a place apart from home or work that is designed to “promote a sense of community.”

For Oladipo, the library perfectly embodies the term. 

In the midst of their decline — as data collected by the National Library of Medicine within the last decade suggests — the first-year regular says she’s happy to see the city investing more time and resources into keeping libraries open.

Nath believes that for many, the library can be an “escape from home.”

Oladipo says she thinks “the expansion of the days means [the library is] becoming more important.”

“We’re seeing it for the benefit it is and that’s a good trend.”