Royal Ontario Museum
April 24, 2009
Toronto, Ontario
After a lengthy winter we were again blessed with lovely weather for our visit to the spectacular and recently-designed Royal Ontario Museum.
Attendance was high for this day, with a particularly large student contingency from the Faculty of Information, thanks to the efforts of our student representative Laine Gabel. ARLIS/NA Canadian Representative Liv Valmestad (University of Manitoba) was able to join us as well. It’s been a long time since the Chapter paid a visit to the ROM, and everyone was anxious to see the controversial landmark building.
Our hosts, Arthur Smith, Head, Main Library and Archives and Jack Howard, Librarian, H.H. Mu Far Eastern Library arranged a warm welcome for us – complete with coffee and breakfast nibbles. We relocated to a new electronic classroom for our business meeting. Geoff Piersol has done an amazing job on the Chapter website using WordPress and he continues to make improvements and design it so that there will be various levels of access and participation from other chapter members. Suggestions for content and resources are always welcome.
The Chapter is starting to gear-up for the 2012 Annual ARLIS/NA Conference in Toronto and we are fortunate in having members with a great deal of experience in the planning and execution of past events. For the upcoming Fall meeting, we will need members to sign up for general activities related to the conference.
ROM Painting Conservator Heidi Sobol gave a fascinating lecture on her efforts in the preservation of an important oil-on-canvas painting by Edward Taylor Dartnell titled Panoramic View of The City of Toronto, c1850.
Members then lunched at the Museum’s airy and bright Food Studio which sources organic seasonal ingredients from local Ontario food producers.
Arthur Smith gave a riveting talk about the Collection Development Policy of the Main Library and Archives and its role in supporting the information needs of the curators and documenting the Museum’s collection. Some of the library’s treasures were brought out for us to view.
After the Library tour, we were armed with our vistors’ badges and released into the entire museum to browse whichever displays struck our fancy. Many attendees stayed well past the allotted time.
