Toronto Reference Library Blog

Science Rendezvous 2012

 

Join us at the Toronto Reference Library,

Saturday, May 12th, 12:00-4:00 pm, for
 

Science Rendezvous 2012

Science Rendezvous is an annual festival celebrating Canadian scientific research. Come and learn about Canada's top research institutions through hands-on activities and demonstrations. This festival began in the GTA in 2008 and now involves over 2500 volunteers and 300 events across Canada. 

 Some things you can do at Science Rendezvous 2012:

Find out how new drugs for cancer are developed

Extract DNA from a banana

Learn about the transit of Venus

 

Don't miss mini lectures and demonstrations by:

Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Ontario Genomics Institute

Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics

Ontario Health Study

Toronto Reference Library, Atrium, 789 Yonge St.

Saturday, May 12th, 12:00-4:00 pm

Questions? Call Answerline 416-393-7131

This event is FREE!

 

Dig Into Literature

While you are waiting to start digging your garden - distract yourself with one of these fine works of literature.

Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach	The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
Amsterdam in the 1630s went nuts over tulips - who knew a flower could cause such a frenzy!	An experimental potato farm in World War II England brings a young woman and a Canadian soldier stationed nearby together.

 

The Garden of Reading: an Anthology of 20th Century Short Fiction About Gardens and Gardeners by Michele B. Slung, editor	Monday or Tuesday and other  short stories by Virginia Woolf (eBook format)
Short stories about gardening from Garrison Keillor, Colette, J.G. Ballard, Eudora Welty and others.	This collection includes "Kew Gardens" set in the eponymous botanic garden in London.

 These titles are available in the Languages & Literature Department at the Toronto Reference Library. Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf is available as a downloadable eBook.

Do We Fall Down On Homelessness?

Girls Fall Down by Maggie Helwig is this year's "one book" for Keep Toronto Reading month in April. Homelessness in Toronto is one of the themes running through this book.

When I was asked to contribute a short essay on the Out of the Cold Program, I realized just how many clippings, reports and books, plans and recommendations on homelessness in this city we had in the library  --- And then I realized how many more we had on homelessness in general.

From  the 1983 study: No place to go : a study of homelessness in Metropolitan Toronto to the recent Can I see your ID? : the policing of youth homelessness in Toronto, our shelves overflow.

Are these covers worth more than a thousand words?                                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                       
                                         
 

 

 

 

 

You're Invited! Invitations From Long Ago

Handwritten invitations to social events were used by the aristocracy in England and France during the 18th century.  It is likely though that the invitation existed long before that.  The 1700's were an era of exquisite penmanship, elaborate calligraphy and personalization…a less hurried time when invitations were handmade and hand delivered.

The invention of the printing press and related technologies all but eradicated the handwritten invitation.  Even so, this took time as the printing of social invitations did not begin until the 18th century, long after the invention of the printing press.  It wasn’t until after WW2 that commercially printed invitations became popular in North America.

There are approximately 150 19th and 20th century printed invitations in the Baldwin Room’s Broadsides & Printed Ephemera Collection. There are also a handful of printed invitations in the Manuscript Collection. Weddings, birthdays, concerts, dinners, dances, lectures and building openings are some of the social events represented in the collection.  Many of the invitations are ornate, embellished with colourful images and engravings.

Styles and ways of delivery have changed, but the invitation has remained one of society’s long lasting modes of communication. 

Here are a couple of invitations currently on display in Special Collections, on the 4th floor of the Toronto Reference Library.  The exhibition continues until the end of April.

 

 

 

 

 

Doing it "old school" with microfilm @ Toronto Reference Library

 

 

We're doing it old school today and it was fun.  I just helped someone find Canadian Architect and Builder Magazine from 1905 on microfilm. Did you know we have reader / printers where you can look at microfilm and microfiche and as well make copies? 

Why not visit the Arts Dept on the 5th floor and explore the collection?