Confused about the upcoming city election? The library is here to help

Thestar.com
October 4, 2018
May Warren

If your head is still spinning from all the changes to the wards boundaries and candidates in the upcoming municipal election, Toronto Public Library has got your back.

The library has created an interactive website called Know Your Vote T.O., complete with non-partisan info on what ward you’re in, who the candidates are and what they have to say, and even summaries of the major issues.

Toronto Public Library's city librarian, Vickery Bowles, seen at the the Toronto Reference Library, says it’s important that libraries “stand up for the democratic values that we all hold so dear.”

While it’s the first time they’ve offered such a resource, Vickery Bowles, the city librarian, says she sees it as a natural part of their role as “a cornerstone of democracy.”

“We’ve been a democratizing force in the modern world and people sometimes don’t think about that when they think about libraries, but that’s absolutely an important essential part of the work that we do,” she said.

The website was in the works well before Premier Doug Ford shook up the election by unexpectedly chopping the wards almost in half, and aligning them with provincial ridings.

It’s been “challenging” to create the site amid the uncertainty of shifting ward boundaries, Bowles said, but that makes it “probably a more important resource than ever.”

The library will share the code for the website with other libraries across North America, so they can have an easy framework to create similar tools in their own local elections, said Pam Ryan, director of service development and innovation.

“Public libraries aren’t in competition with each other, we are only as strong as our entire sector is,” she said. “So Toronto Public Library takes it really seriously that part of our leadership role is to provide whatever we can to others.”

The cost of the website, under $100,000, was financed entirely through donations from the Toronto Public Library Foundation, Bowles said. They worked with partner MASS LBP, a Toronto-based consulting company.

The library will be promoting the tool at its 100 branches across the city, and at a series of events that give voters a chance to learn about different campaign issues.

For Bowles, now is the time to lean into their role of protecting democracy, from building resources like Know Your Vote T.O, to hosting their ongoing civil society speaking series.

“I think that we are seeing more and more challenges, not just in the United States but in Canada and throughout the world, challenges to our democratic values and freedoms,” she said.

“It’s really important for public libraries throughout the world to stand up for the democratic values that we all hold so dear, so that we can bring discussions about them to the surface and so that we protect them.”