The Southern Ontario Library Service (SOLS) is a “non-scheduled agency” 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.”
SOLS is responsible for a number of services, including the following: