Lorna Diane Toolis (October 6, 1952 – August 11, 2021) was a Canadian librarian. She was head of the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy at the
Toronto Public Library
Toronto Public Library (TPL) (french: Bibliothèque publique de Toronto) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other pu ...
from 1986 to 2017. She was inducted into the
Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association Hall of Fame in 2017.
Early life
Toolis was born in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
,
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
, and raised in
Transcona
Transcona is a ward and suburb of Winnipeg, Manitoba, located about east of the downtown area.
Until 1972, it was a separate municipality, having been incorporated first as the Town of Transcona on 6 April 1912 and then as the City of Tr ...
, the daughter of Robert Toolis and Shirley Setter Toolis. She earned a bachelor's degree in history at the
University of Winnipeg
The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and kinesiology and applied health as well as gr ...
, and a master's degree in library science at the
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...
.
Career
Alberta
While studying in
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
, Toolis was a member of the
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
Science Fiction and Comic Arts Society, contributed to the group's cookbook, ''Stir Wars'', and edited its newsletter, ''Neology.''
She was one of the early organizers of Noncon, the Edmonton-based science fiction fan convention. After earning her degree, she was head of technical services at the library of the
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is a applied sciences institute in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. NAIT provides careers programs in applied research, technical training, applied education, and learning designed to meet the deman ...
.
The Spaced Out Library/Merril Collection
1986, Toolis was appointed head of the Spaced Out Library (SOL), the science fiction collection at Toronto Public Library. The collection was built around an initial donation of about 5000 items, given by writer
Judith Merril
Judith Josephine Grossman (January 21, 1923 – September 12, 1997), who took the pen-name Judith Merril around 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist, and one of the first women to be wid ...
. Beginning in 1987, she published ''SOL Rising'', a bi-annual
zine
A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to writ ...
for the Friends of the Merril Collection, and wrote essays for it, with titles such as "Mutant Fleas and Futurian Economics: The Merril Collection Sells Its Swag" (2011) and "Mad Hatters, Scones, and Carolling à la Cthulhu at the Merril" (2011).
In 1995, Toolis moved the renamed Merril Collection to the Lillian H. Smith branch of the library. By the time she retired in 2017, the Merril Collection had grown to over 80,000 items, including published works, manuscripts, audiovisual materials, games, and ephemera.
Just before her retirement, she welcomed a collection of books by Dominican authors into the collection. She was succeeded as senior department head at the Merril by
Sephora Hosein. "Today, the Merril is a treasure, and it's in no small part thanks to Lorna and her team," noted
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...
in 2017.
Toolis was frequently mentioned in the acknowledgments of scholarly works on science fiction, and in novels and collections of short fiction. For one notable example,
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...
credited the Merril Collection, and Toolis by name, in the acknowledgments of ''
The Blind Assassin
''The Blind Assassin'' is a novel by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. The book is set in the fictional Ontario town of Port Ticonderoga and in Toronto. It is narrated from the present ...
'' (2000).
Other activities
Toolis was a founding member of
SF Canada
SF Canada was founded as an authors collective circa 1989 under the title Canada’s National Association of Speculative Fiction Professionals. Several Canadian science fiction authors have made public claim to be "founding members" of the organi ...
.
She co-edited ''Tesseracts 4'' (1992) with Michael Skeet; the collection of Canadian science fiction stories won an
Aurora Award
The Aurora Awards (french: Prix Aurora-Boréal) are a set of primarily literary awards given annually for the best Canadian science fiction or fantasy professional and fan works and achievements from the previous year."Literary glow of Auroras lure ...
. In 2000 she spoke on a panel about popular culture at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. In 2007, she contributed to the compilation of ''Visions of Mars'', a collection of popular cultural images of Mars through history, assembled by the
Planetary Society
The Planetary Society is an American internationally-active non-governmental nonprofit organization. It is involved in research, public outreach, and political space advocacy for engineering projects related to astronomy, planetary science, and ...
. In 2017, she was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association Hall of Fame.
Personal life
Toolis married Michael Skeet in 1984. She died on August 11, 2021, in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
.
References
External links
* David Nickle (2021)
"In the Orbit of Lorna Toolis, 1952–2021" ''David Nickle''; a blogpost tribute by a writer and friend of Toolis's
"Lorna Toolis Speaks for the Sunburst Award"a short 2010 video of Toolis speaking, from YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toolis, Lorna
1952 births
2021 deaths
Canadian librarians
People from Winnipeg
Science fiction academics
Science fiction editors
University of Winnipeg alumni
University of Alberta alumni
Canadian women librarians