It was just last week that Jane Pyper, the city’s chief librarian, walked through the Toronto Reference Library and was reminded again why she would miss her job.

On the fifth floor in special collections, she saw a young woman reading hand-written letters from medical officers and nurses who served in the First World War, part of the woman’s research on early medical treatments.

When Pyper reached the main floor, she saw a young man in the new digital innovation hub, creating a prototype of a design in a 3-D printer.

“It just sums it up,” said Pyper, who announced Wednesday that she was leaving her job after six years. “There’s this role in preserving the past and offering access to learning. And in another part of the building is the same thing, using very modern technologies.”

Under Pyper’s leadership, the library evolved from a place that emphasized borrowing books to a broad community resource, where you can now download an eBook, borrow a laptop or use a 3-D printer.

And as the library changed, Pyper’s reputation grew. It is now “world-renowned,” said Councillor Paul Ainslie, who is on the library board.

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Under Pyper’s tenure the library also extended its hours, expanded programming for children, seniors and newcomers, and renovated branches. Circulation, which had been falling is 2012, was back up again by the end of 2013, driven largely by the popularity of eBooks.

Ainslie said Pyper has exceeded “any and all expectations” the board had when it hired her from within in 2008, after retaining a consultant to conduct an international search. “I’m really going to miss her,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier with her as our librarian.”

Born in London, Ont., Pyper moved here to attend the University of Toronto, where she studied English. She moved from the Annex to Riverdale, where she has lived for the last 15 years.

She decided on library work after a part-time stint in Fort McMurray, Alta., in the early ’80s, where she worked with young people who’d been in trouble with the law.

“One thing that struck me was how many of those young people had low literacy skills and no opportunity. And this is where they ended up at a young age,” said Pyper. “Public libraries allow you to connect a love of books with this idea that you can make a difference and give people an opportunity in the world.”

Pyper worked in the North York library system and then Toronto’s after amalgamation.

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Pyper has endured strikes and public fights over budget cuts, but has managed to stay out of the political fray.

“I’m not a politician. That’s the (library) board’s role,” she said. “Our job is to present the options and the facts and what it does. And to make sure that story is straight.”

She welcomed the public debate that raged when libraries, like all city departments, were told to trim budgets by 10 per cent in 2011.

“One of the things that happened through that budget process was this very lively civic debate about what libraries all about: Do we have too many of them? What should they be doing?” said Pyper. “What came out of that was a resounding ‘yes.’ They are important to us. They’re important to local communities.”

In the end, the library cut $10 million from its budget, instead of the $17 million Rob Ford wanted. The rest was restored by the city’s executive committee and council.

“The fact that budgets can go up or down, or that you may be asked to tighten your belts, that’s not unique to Toronto,” she said. “What’s important is to stay connected to what made you get into this work in the first place.”

Pyper, who will continue until June, says she’s not sure of her next career move, but it won’t be as a librarian.

“I feel like I have the best library job in the world and if I was going to keep working in libraries I’d just stay exactly where I was,” she says. “Beyond that, I don’t know.”

But she says, “I have a lot of faith in the library as an institution. It will be fine. It’s proved its relevance.”