If Robarts Library's walls could talk, what kinds of stories would they tell? A new podcast is uncovering the answers, one episode at a time.

Created and hosted by User Services Librarian Jesse Carliner, The Unquiet Library podcast is the culmination of a five-year research project exploring the many forces that have shaped Canada's largest academic research library over the past 50 years. Topics will include the library's distinctive (and occasionally controversial) Brutalist architecture, the evolution of library services, periods of austerity, and of course, the many ways in which library staff and spaces have adapted and weathered decades of technological change. Through 30 in-depth interviews with librarians and staff, architects and archivists, historians and faculty, listeners will get a fuller picture of a complex and resilient institution that sustains academic life and scholarship at U of T and beyond.

As universities navigate yet another seismic shift in technological advancement, The Unquiet Library is coming at an ideal moment, encouraging listeners to consider the enduring value of academic libraries and how they reflect the changing needs and concerns of the communities they serve. "To understand an academic library’s history is to understand a university’s history, and, in many ways, the history of the society around it," Carliner says.

You can subscribe and listen to The Unquiet Library on the following platforms:

🔗 Apple Podcasts
🔗 Spotify
🔗 Amazon Podcasts

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