O muses, let me sing of my love for the concrete chicken.
Robarts always reminds me of the line about architects and their mistakes - "plant vines". There aren't enough vines in the GTA to cover the dodgy angles at Robarts.
The simple fact is that it has the most beautifully massive collection you'll find outside the Toronto Reference Library, but you can take things out. The strange 70s colour scheme, the peculiar angles, the kafkaesque elevators all fade in significance next to the feeling you get when you walk amongst tens of thousands of books, all for the browsing.
I used to come here whenever student life got overwhelming. I'd smell the books and grab things off the shelves that looked interesting (a book of last words; a book of sea creatures; poetry; a little book published in the 18th century) and find a window seat. You could look over Toronto for miles; I remember watching snow falling ten stories down over the Annex.
At many great libraries you need to fill out a web form or a little slip of paper and petition the great and powerful Oz to provide you with your book. This is methadone compared to the beautiful drug of unattended access to the stacks.
My recommendations for Robarts users:
1) master the insanely complex system for periodicals searches. This will raise your GPA in ways you can't imagine.
2) make friends with the reference area; there are books in there that will help you find what you're looking for (e.g. all the reviews of a book published in a given year)
3) don't sit outside the caf exit unless you want to be chatted up.
4) speaking of the caf, the tuna isn't bad.
5) the study rooms on the first few floors are intense places - good if you have trouble focussing
6) getting the proxy set up on your home computer will mean you can research the periodicals from home!
7) enjoy it while you got it, because last I saw, an alumnai card cost almost $100