Interview with the Head of the Merril Collection

The Merril Collection is the science fiction and fantasy special collection of the Toronto Public Library. It's currently housed on the third floor of the Lillian H. Smith Library on College Street. My wife worked there for a while before we had our first child and I've been a friend of the former head librarian, Lorna Toolis, for many years.

Lorna retired last year and her job went to Sephora Henderson. Toronto's International Festival of Authors has published a short interview with her.

SH: In 1970, the Toronto Public Library accepted a donation of 5,000 items from the personal collection of Judith Merril, who was a science fiction author and editor.  The collection was housed in other, smaller locations before its current location at 239 College St., and was originally named the Spaced Out Library.  In 1995, the collection was re-named after the donor and has been the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy ever since. It has grown to [house] over 80,000 items.

The collection consists primarily of fiction materials in the speculative fiction genres – science fiction, fantasy and related sub-genres, but there is also a small collection of non-fiction materials, the world’s largest RPG collection in a public setting, and over 5,000 graphic novels, pulp magazines, periodicals and art.

We have rare and antiquarian books alongside the most recently published materials in the genre – our goal is to collect one of everything published in English.

If you are an SF fan and in Toronto, you should most definitely pay the Collection a visit.