Early History of the Library

The University of Toronto's music collection was originally kept with the general library collection, and most of the collection predating the Faculty of Music's establishment was interdisciplinary, probably acquired using other department's funding. When the Faculty of Music was founded, the need for a dedicated music library was a pressing issue. From 1918 to 1962, the slowly-growing music collection was held in two main locations: pedagogical materials and scores were housed in the Royal Conservatory of Music's library, and reference and musicological materials were kept in the University's main library on King's College Circle. The Music Library was first unified when the Edward Johnson Building was built in 1961-64, where it originally occupied the entire third floor. By the mid-70s, it had outgrown its space, and began borrowing space in the new main library, Robarts. The library was reunited in 1991 with the construction of the Rupert E. Edwards wing. The current music library consists of the main collection, the Sniderman recordings archive, the Olnick rare book room, the archives, the performance collection, and several other specialized collections.