The Globe and Mail

The University of Toronto's Robarts library, home to one of the largest academic collections in North America, has plans to become even bigger. A $74-million expansion proposal, that would see a new wing added to the distinctive concrete building at the corner of Hoskins Avenue and St. George Street, was endorsed this week by the university's academic board and will go for final approval to the school's governing council. The planned addition will increase student study space by 50 per cent and will be on the site of a third "pavilion" of the library that was dropped from the original design because of cost. "It is something that needs to be done. Even in a virtual world, students still need study space," said Carole Moore, the university's chief librarian. Conceptual drawings show a new, five-storey structure linked to the west side of the triangular main building, just as the rare book library and the faculty of information studies sit on the building's other two sides. The project also includes improvements to existing study spaces.