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Toolis, Lorna

(1952-2021) Canadian librarian and editor, initially involved in Canadian Fandom, best known for her long successful tenure as head of the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy in the Toronto Public Library system from 1986, when the collection was still known as The Spaced Out Library or SoL, until her retirement in 2017. Having shepherded with great care in a demanding environment, in 1995 she supervised the transfer of what was now the Merril Collection from inadequate housing into its ultimate, purpose-built quarters in central Toronto, and monitored its expansion – from the classics-heavy rump donated by Judith Merril in order to found the original library – to at least 80,000 items, with an emphasis on the acquisition of Genre SF of the past half century. With her husband, the fantasy author Michael Skeet, she edited Tesseracts 4 (anth 1992) in the Tesseracts series of Canadian sf anthologies. [JC]

Lorna Diane Toolis

born Winnipeg, Manitoba: 6 October 1952

died Toronto, Ontario: 11 August 2021

works as editor

links

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 21:49 pm on 19 April 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/toolis_lorna>