With hundreds of thousands of archival recordings and millions of pages of notated scores, the Toronto Public Library’s music collection should sing volumes about this city. Instead, it sings like a caged bird.

That’s according to Michael Foderick, chair of the Toronto Public Library Board and author of a motion that last year directed staff to report back on the viability of creating a Toronto Music Library to house the bulk of the library’s music-related collections and programming.

The motion asked library staff to explore the possibility of centralizing and promoting the library’s audio, video and written music collections, including music-related literature, under one roof.

“I think we can safely say we’re going to move forward with this idea in one form or another,” Foderick told the Star Friday. “Whether it’s a revitalized portion of the Toronto Reference Library, whether it is a stand-alone music library, no options are off the table.”

But library staff are not ready to sing the plan’s praises just yet, citing better ways to free the songbird from its cage in the digital age.

“Online music services will continue and we have just added a number of those and they are being well-used,” said Linda Mackenzie, director of research and reference libraries and author of the staff report. “The other offsetting consideration for the board, of course, is the cost of establishing a new stand-alone music library.”

In its boldest iteration, the plan would officially designate one of the library’s 99 branches to become the Toronto Music Library, and bounce its nonmusical holdings elsewhere in the system. But the board also asked staff to consider the possibility of situating the Toronto Music Library within part of an existing branch, allowing the remainder of that library to continue its normal day-to-day function.

When library staff deliver their report Monday, they will oppose plans for a dedicated space for the library’s music collection, and recommend that community branches retain their own music-related holdings. Meanwhile, staff will recommend that the library’s most significant and historic musical works remain part of the Toronto Reference Library’s special Arts collection on the fifth floor of 789 Yonge Street.

Instead, staff will favour a promotional plan to “reposition Toronto Reference Library as a centre of musical excellence,” while also exploring options to provide music-making tools, including concert pianos, for use in more branches, according to the report.

The idea for a dedicated music library isn’t a new one, even for Toronto. From 1959 until 1977, the city had a special music library in the George Howard Ferguson House at 559 Avenue Rd., now the site of the South Korean consulate.

Today that collection still forms the core of the reference library’s music holdings, including upwards of 40,000 sheet music scores, most of which can leave the library on regular loan. In addition, there are 22,000 CDs, 15,000 vinyl LPs, thousands of music books and magazines, and hundreds of musical DVDs, which cannot be borrowed.

Among the crown jewels of this under-hyped musical treasure trove are a concert program from Glenn Gould’s Feb. 16, 1944, performance at Massey Hall and an original score for Alexander Muir’s 1867 ode to Confederation, “The Maple Leaf Forever.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Library card holders can already go online to stream hundreds of thousands of music titles for free on their home computer, laptop or smartphone, via the library’s Naxos and Hoopla on-demand subscriptions. On Monday, staff will propose a doubling down on their digitizing efforts, including options to develop a website that would collect and promote the work of local musicians and music events.

“Let’s try and build on that,” Mackenzie said, “and create, if you will, a virtual music library.”