Southern Ontario Library Service

The Southern Ontario Library Service (SOLS) is a “non-scheduled agency”^[1] of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture. Established in 1989, SOLS delivers programs and services to Ontario public libraries in the southern half of the province, in a geographic area bounded by Windsor in the south, to Ottawa and the Quebec border in the east, and as far north as Muskoka in the north. Almost 200 libraries are included in this group, and these range from libraries in small communities to libraries in cities with populations in the hundreds of thousands.

SOLS mission statement is as follows: “The people of Ontario, as represented by the Minister with jurisdiction for public libraries, will have equitable access to library services at a sustainable cost.” ^[2]

SOLS is responsible for a number of services, including the following:

• Managing the province wide resource sharing (interlibrary loan) network as well as a related courier service
• Providing libraries with information and advice on management, governance, and accreditation issues
• Managing and supporting numerous training and library skills development programs
• Providing opportunities for libraries to network and exchange information, both face to face and electronically
• Managing shared electronic, print and non-print collections ^[3]

Notes