It's obvious, in the context of the city's budget battle, to wonder if these kinds of donations take any of the pressure off the Toronto Public Library's budget woes. But while this is a good-news story from the Globe and Mail, the answer is that City Hall still needs to figure out how to fix the library budget:

Marilyn and Charles Baillie have contributed $1.5-million to the Toronto Public Library Foundation’s fundraising campaign, putting it over its $10-million goal.

The campaign, dubbed re:vitalize, was launched in May of 2009 in support of a $34-million renovation to the Toronto Reference Library. Part of the renovations will include a Special Collections Centre, which was supported by the gift. In recognition, the centre will bear their names....

Mr. Baillie said he thinks it’s important for the private sector to help support the library, but is concerned about cuts to public funding. “What I wouldn’t want to see is the government decide that they can slack off on funding the libraries and replace it by the private sector,” he said.

The money is timely, since the Toronto Reference Library also had an spot of flooding this week. (It's not clear if this funding will actually help the flooding specifically, but it's hard to imagine it hurting.)

Blog photo by Toronto History via Flickr.