Margaret Wall

The ARL recently ranked the U of T library system one of the top three in North America, after Harvard and Yale. The only Canadian university in the top 10, U of T has placed among the ARL’s top five research libraries since 2002-2003.

“We are very proud to again be ranked in the prestigious company of Harvard and Yale,” said Chief Librarian Larry P. Alford. “This ranking reflects the investment made by the University in the libraries to provide access to outstanding electronic and print collections and to enable expert staff and librarians to support the learning and research needs of our faculty and students with leading-edge information services and technology.”

The U of T library system comprises 44 individual libraries that hold more than 12 million volumes in 341 languages, millions of electronic resources in various forms and almost 30,000 linear metres of archival material. More than 150,000 new print volumes are acquired each year and its data centre houses more than 200 servers with a storage capacity of 1.5 petabytes.

To help first-year students navigate the largest research collection in Canada and the third-largest academic library in North America, U of T developed a personal librarian program.

The program, which matches students with a librarian who provides customized support throughout the year, began as a pilot effort in the 2012/2013 academic year when 1,000 students were invited to participate. It grew to serve 2,300 students in 2013/2014 and will now be offered to all 7,800 first-year Faculty of Arts & Science students.

One of the top priorities this year, Alford said, is to complete fundraising and begin building a state-of-the-art addition to Robarts Library.

“The Robarts Common will be a vibrant information hub,” said Alford. “It will be equipped with the new kinds of tools and services required to prepare the next generation of scholars to excel in the global knowledge economy.”

Cheryl Regehr, vice-president and provost at the ��Ƶ, said the U of T community takes pride in the strength of its library system,

"We thank and congratulate all our librarians and library staff across the three campuses for sustaining such an important resource to our teaching and research."

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Major collection of Allen Ginsberg photos donated to ��Ƶ

sgupta — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 11:01:36 +0000

Major collection of Allen Ginsberg photos donated to ��Ƶ sgupta Tue, 01/21/2014 - 06:01

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Allen Ginsberg taking self portrait in 1985

Margaret Wall

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Margaret Wall

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Worldwide access to "ultimate ‘insider’ group of photographs on the Beats” available on campus, online

The ��Ƶ is home to the world’s largest collection of photographs by the late beat poet Allen Ginsberg thanks to a donation by the Larry & Cookie Rossy Family Foundation.

The 7,686 photographs housed in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and 236 silver gelatin prints at the ��Ƶ Art Centre include portraits of figures as prominent as John Cage, Bob Dylan, William de Kooning, Paul McCartney and Iggy Pop.

Comprising a nearly complete archive of Ginsberg’s surviving photographs, the collection, spanning the years 1944 to 1997, includes original snapshots and prints of various sizes. The silver gelatin prints are unique in that they are hand-captioned by Ginsberg. All of these images will be available to scholars and some will be on display.

“This is an exciting and remarkable gift,” says U of T President Meric Gertler. “It builds on U of T’s strength as one of the world’s greatest research resources, and our global stature in the humanities. We are very grateful to the Larry & Cookie Rossy Family Foundation for entrusting us with this truly fascinating collection.”

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was an American poet and nonconformist whose influence extended far beyond the United States. Along with his friends Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso, Ginsberg was at the centre of a network of writers and artists dubbed the Beat Generation. In the 1950s and 1960s their work and their personal example would forever alter the cultural scene. The Beats also influenced postmodern and avant-garde Canadian poetry.

Although known primarily as a writer, Ginsberg was an avid photographer. The collection includes images of writers Amiri Baraka (formerly known as LeRoi Jones), Paul Bowles, Doris Lessing, Josef Skvorecky (who was a professor of English at U of T) and Evgeny Yevtushenko. Other Ginsberg subjects were photographer Robert Frank, psychologist R.D. Laing, author and activist Dr. Benjamin Spock and psychologist and drug guru Timothy Leary. Ginsberg’s friend and fellow writer Burroughs appears in more than 300 photographs. Another frequent subject is Ginsberg’s lifelong partner, Peter Orlovsky.

The Ginsberg prints provide visual insight into New York urban landscape from the 1950s to the 1990s. They also document Ginsberg’s international travels to Canada, France, India, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, the USSR and many other nations.

“This constitutes the ultimate ‘insider’ group of photographs on the Beats,” says Anne Dondertman, associate librarian for Special Collections, ��Ƶ Libraries. “It contains important research material for the study of the life, family, work, travels and friendships of Allen Ginsberg from the 1940s to the 1990s,”

“This fabulous collection provides both scholars and students unique entrée to Ginsberg’s passionate eye and helps to confirm his status as a major 20th-century American poet with the camera,” says Louis Kaplan, professor of History and Theory of Photography and New Media, Graduate Department of Art. “One cannot overestimate its photo-historical, pedagogical and cultural value.”

Many of the prints have been digitized and are available via the Fisher Library’s Flickr site at http://go.utlib.ca/ginsberg and the UTAC Collections Online portal which can be accessed from the ��Ƶ Art Centre’s homepage at www.utac.utoronto.ca. This fall UTAC in collaboration with the Fisher Library will present an exhibition of the Ginsberg photographs.

The ��Ƶ Libraries system is the largest academic library in Canada and is ranked third among peer institutions in North America, behind Harvard and Yale. The system consists of 44 libraries located on three university campuses. Its Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library houses the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections including books, manuscripts and other materials, and is the largest rare book library in the country. For more information about the Fisher Library’s collections, visit http://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/resources.

The ��Ƶ Art Centre is the third-largest fine art gallery in Toronto, and home to three collections comprising more than 6,000 objects. Collection highlights include works by European Old Masters and the early 20th-century avant-garde as well as the Group of Seven, and Modern and Contemporary Canadian artists.

The Montreal-based Larry & Cookie Rossy Family Foundation was established by Larry Rossy, founder and CEO of Dollarama Inc.

Boundless: The Campaign for the ��Ƶ is the most ambitious fundraising initiative ever undertaken by a Canadian university. Meeting global challenges and preparing global citizens are the twin pillars of the campaign, which will support the exploration of new frontiers and the limitless possibilities of human experience. This gift will provide students and faculty alike with a new opportunity to explore human expression and social progress. Boundless has surpassed the milestone of $1.35 billion, more than two-thirds of the goal of $2 billion.

Margaret Wall is a writer with the ��Ƶ Libraries System.

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General James Wolfe’s historic letters acquired by U of T Libraries

sgupta — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 11:50:42 +0000

General James Wolfe’s historic letters acquired by U of T Libraries sgupta Thu, 11/21/2013 - 06:50

Jelena Damjanovic

Margaret Wall

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Margaret Wall & Jelena Damjanovic

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"My Antagonist has wisely shut himself up, in inaccessible entrenchments, so that I can't get at him, without spilling a torrent of blood & that perhaps to little purpose. The Marquis de Montcalm is at the head of a great number of bad soldiers & I am at the head of a small number of good ones, that wish for nothing so much as to fight him – but the Wary old fellow avoids an Action; doubtfull of the behavior of the Army."

- General James Wolfe (Letter 233) on the banks of the River St. Lawrence, 31 August 1759

The ��Ƶ has acquired an archive of national importance to Canada’s heritage: the personal correspondence of General James Wolfe (1727-1759).

The acquisition, through Christie’s, was made possible by the generous philanthropic support of Helmhorst Investments Limited and the assistance of a Movable Cultural Property grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage.

“Our Government is proud to have contributed to the repatriation of this archive, as it will be an invaluable addition to our national heritage,” said the Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages. “This archive of correspondence is of exceptional cultural and historical importance for all Canadians, and I am pleased that it will be made available to Canadians through the ��Ƶ’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.”

The story of Wolfe’s death during the 1759 Battle of Quebec is familiar to many Canadians. His reading of Thomas Gray’s An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard the night before the battle, and his declaration that he “would rather have written that piece than take Quebec tomorrow” have become the stuff of legend.

Wolfe’s letters home to his family are the main documentary source for his life. They have been in private hands since the death of his mother in 1764 and will now be available for study, giving a true picture of the private man as well as the soldier.

“General James Wolfe was an interesting person, not just as a soldier,” said Anne Dondertman, associate librarian for special collections and director of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. “His letters are candid and personal. They convey a sense of immediacy, of what it was really like to be there on the spot. He had a good sense of humour. He was critical both of his fellow soldiers and of humanity in general. He was also just a very gifted writer, so his letters are good prose."

The 229 autographed letters include the first, written to his mother at the age of thirteen as he was preparing to depart for war, and the last, written within sight of Quebec just two weeks before his death. They add very significantly both to the detail and the overall picture of the published records of Wolfe’s career.

“The acquisition of the Wolfe archive is an outstanding example of collaboration between the ��Ƶ Libraries, a private donor, and the federal government’s program to support the repatriation of items of outstanding significance and national importance,” said President Meric Gertler. “This archive will be a valuable resource for students and scholars for years to come.”

The archive is now housed at the ��Ƶ’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, which is open to the public. The collection had been the subject of a campaign to keep the letters in the U.K. along with other items considered of great historical significance, such as Jane Austen’s ring. At U of T, plans for its digitization are underway so that this important historical material can be made widely available.

“Uniting an archive of such importance to the course of Canadian history with the Thomas Fisher Library, a major research institution, guarantees ongoing research and accessibility, which we are proud to support,” said Christie’s representative Margaret Ford.

The ��Ƶ Libraries system is the largest academic library in Canada and is ranked third among peer institutions in North America, behind just Harvard and Yale. The system consists of 44 libraries located on three university campuses. Its Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library houses the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, including books, manuscripts and other materials, and is the largest rare book library in the country. One of its greatest strengths is Canadiana and the Library actively acquires important material related to Canada’s history and culture.

The donation to acquire the Wolfe archive was made through Boundless: The Campaign for the ��Ƶ, which aims to raise a historic $2 billion for U of T’s highest priorities. To date, the campaign has raised more than $1.35 billion toward its goal, thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends.

For more information about the Fisher Library’s collections, visit http://fisher.library.utoronto.ca.

For more information on Boundless: The Campaign for the ��Ƶ, visit www.boundless.utoronto.ca.

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U of T library system ranked among top three in North America

sgupta — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 08:20:25 +0000

U of T library system ranked among top three in North America sgupta Wed, 07/31/2013 - 04:20

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The Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library is part of the ��Ƶ's library system (photo by U of T News)

Margaret Wall

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The ��Ƶ has once again been ranked as one of the top three library systems in North America – after Harvard and Yale – according to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) rankings.

U of T was the only Canadian university in the top 10.

“We are very proud to again be ranked in the prestigious company of Harvard and Yale,” said Chief Librarian Larry P. Alford. “I believe this is a recognition of the work of our extraordinary staff who, with their deep knowledge and expertise, have expanded our electronic resources to more than 1.5 million items, acquired extraordinary historical materials with global research value and developed cutting-edge services to support students and faculty from wherever they are.

“The Libraries’ capacity to support new forms of research will also be dramatically enhanced this coming year through the expansion of our state-of-the-art data centre, which will soon be able to accommodate massive digitization programs and make available large amounts of text data to support national and international collaborative research projects.”

The U of T library system has placed among the ARL’s top five research libraries since 2002-2003 and is comprised of 44 individual libraries that hold more than 12 million volumes in 341 languages and over 28,000 linear metres of archival material. It is the largest publicly funded research collection in Canada and the third-largest academic library in North America.

“The ��Ƶ has not only Canada's, but one of the world's, finest libraries. It is clear that countless individuals understand how important this is for the nation's teaching and research, as the ��Ƶ's Boundless Campaign continues to attract significant support for the library. We thank those friends and benefactors, as well as the excellent leadership in our library system, for maintaining this precious resource,” said U of T Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Misak.

The ARL annually ranks its members based on total expenditures, materials expenditures, salary expenditures and number of staff.

Margaret Wall is a writer with the ��Ƶ Libraries.

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Margaret Wall

Back to School: U of T library system ranked in top three with Harvard and Yale

Major collection of Allen Ginsberg photos donated to ������Ƶ

General James Wolfe’s historic letters acquired by U of T Libraries

U of T library system ranked among top three in North America

Major collection of Allen Ginsberg photos donated to ��Ƶ