Have you ever wanted to learn to draw? Before you answer with "I can't even draw a straight line," let me assure you that drawing is a skill that anyone can learn. Portion of a frontispiece from A Catechism of Drawing (1818). The two things needed to learn to draw...
Have you been curious about web design, and would you like to know if it's something you'd be good at or enjoy doing? A recent blog showcased our eLearning resources on programming. Besides those, there are many free and open-source tools in the web that will enhance your path forward....
Fairy tales have a special ability to spark the imagination and transport readers to other worlds. These stories have been told and retold, with different tellers adding their unique perspective. This post features five fascinating fairy tales from our Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, a research collection of rare...
Illustrations from The Cook Not Mad (1972 edition). Now that we're staying home due to COVID-19, I've seen many people baking bread and experimenting with their pantries. This modern pandemic seems to have brought us back to earlier times. In this spirit, I thought it'd be interesting to test a...
While we're practicing physical distancing, it's a great time to take a look at our digital collections for ways to stay engaged with learning about the things that interest us. If you don't have a library card, you can also get a temporary digital card to borrow these books from...
By a casual count, there are at least 19 items in the TPL catalogue with the title “Catherine the Great.” Why revisit this subject so often? She’s fascinating, is why. Catherine and her reign sit at the nexus of East and West, of profoundly religious and Enlightenment thinking, of rule...
Free movies, free programs, free classes. All at the Toronto Reference Library. Click on each image to enlarge or Download The March 2020 Toronto Reference Library Calendar (PDF). For a full listing to browse or search, visit our Programs, Classes and Exhibits.
Free movies, free programs, free classes. All at the Toronto Reference Library. Click on each image to enlarge or Download The February 2020 Toronto Reference Library Calendar(PDF). For a full listing to browse or search, visit our Programs, Classes and Exhibits.
Did you know that our Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy has the world’s largest collection of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) in a library setting? Our collection boasts more than 1500 items, including guides for Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder and other popular RPGs. Yet, alongside...
It is remarkable how Cleopatra’s story has remained relevant some two thousand years after her death. Her story was first told by Roman writers, such as Plutarch and Dio Cassius. Based on these written sources, Shakespeare wrote his tragedy Antony and Cleopatra in the seventeenth century. His words still resound...