THE ROBERTSON DAVIES LIBRARY
 

           I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ms P.J.MacDougall to the new position of “Library Administrator” at Massey College. Formerly, Ms MacDougall was “Assistant Librarian” working with College Librarian Ms Marie Korey. Ms Korey is taking early retirement from the College beginning January 1, 2010 (see below), but will continue to be associated with Massey College through her teaching.
 
            In her new position, Ms MacDougall will be overall in charge of the Robertson Davies Library, its 19th-century presses and its historic collection of books and documents associated with the world of 19th-century publishing. She will be reporting directly to me. As well, Ms MacDougall and I will be working closely with a newly constituted Library Advisory Committee under Professor Heather Jackson. That committee will report to Corporation at least once a year.
 
            Marie Korey leaves her position as College Librarian after nearly two decades of solid achievement, during which she oversaw the consolidation of the library’s purposes to focus almost exclusively on the 19th-century, the renovation of the Robertson Davies Library which was a difficult and demanding two-year project, and the consolidation of the College’s relationship with the expanding graduate Book History and Print Culture Programme. The College is grateful for Marie Korey’s contributions and hopes to maintain and evolve its relationship with her in the coming months and years.
 
            Part of Ms MacDougall’s new remit will be to include more of the college community in events associated with the Robertson Davies Library and to that end I am happy also to announce the return on a part-time basis of the former College printer, Mr. Brian Maloney. I will have more details of this in the New Year.
 
            In making these announcements, I want to make sure the College and the university community understands that the commitment by Massey College to the Book History and  Print Culture Programme remains solid. At some point after the current academic year is concluded, the Book History office will move from House V to Marie Korey’s old office, so it will be a bit more of a presence to the College community than it has been.
 
            John Fraser, C.M., M.A., D.Litt., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.C.G.S.
           Master and Chair of Corporation

This is to let you know that the College has purchased a goodly supply of tickets for the Grande Finale lecture of the 2008 Massey Lectures on November 1st.  You have no doubt heard by now that author
Margaret Atwood is this year's lecturer and we are delighted that, once more, another of our Senior Fellows holds the title of Massey Lecturer.

Please join us on Saturday, November 1st at Convocation Hall at 8.00 p.m. for Lecture #5 of "Payback:  Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth".

Please let Anna Luengo know if you would like to purchase one or two tickets, and also let her know the category  you would like.  Here are the different categories:

$15.00 general adult
$10.00 student/senior
$5.00 for under 17

For further information on the lectures, please check the Massey Lecture CBC website.

Junior Fellow Uli Germann slices the heck out of a watermelon.  Unsurprisingly, I catch him just as he turns away from the camera.	Alumna Lisa Jackson demonstrates her domestic talents (somewhat sarcastically) as two Fellows who actually look as if they should be appearing in Guys and Dolls lurk in the background.  Any second now, someone will burst into song.	I point my camera down into a gorge and snap a random photo.  Later, we get into this gorge and others like it and clamber about in the mulch.  Only one of the pictures I take while I am actually gorge-bound turns out (see below).
Junior Fellow Hanah Chapman prepares to take some much better photographs with her tiny camera.  Another gorge lurks behind her.	A brave astrophysicist whose name I do not know Goes Where No One Has Gone Before and, luckily, does not die in the process..	Junior Fellow Jennifer Konieczny chills on the edge of a cliff.  You cannot tell from this picture that she is on the edge of a cliff, but frankly, if I had moved any farther back to take the photo, I would have fallen off the cliff myself.

Libby Harper-Clark and Judith Seary, two of the three new LMF co-chairs, supervise the barbecue as all of JF Toby Malone except his face sneaks into the photo and makes it look rather odd.	We continue not to be able to see Toby's face as he consults with Cillian O'Hogan, the third new LMF co-chair and currently the Keeper of the Box with Money in It.  JFs and alumni lurk in the background.	Various people, most of them facing away from the camera, stand around talking.  Katherine Verhagen looks as if she has a toothache, though she probably doesn't.  Over behind Jeff Wadsworth, someone is fiddling with the keg so that Andrew can deliver beer to the masses.
A teeny tiny Sarah Flicker, wearing a white shirt that makes her nearly invisible, talks to Mike McGillion's friends as a mysterious man in a stripy shirt walks towards them.	Yet again, the backs of people's heads star in this picture as JF Brian Beare stands alone, contemplating his fate.	A rather fuzzy President Andrew Eckford, in the process of turning away from the camera, hands beer--in a FANTASTIC BLUR OF SPEED--to someone who is probably facing the camera, except we can't see him/her, obviously.

Massey's end-of-year barbecue was not particularly warm or sunny this year, but since it was also pirate-themed, the weather worked quite well.  The new LMF did an excellent job of organising the event, providing not only the usual dance-party-and-beer-related activities but also a treasure hunt, juggling lessons, entertainment, and croquet.  There were three (count 'em) types of free booze, plus calory-rich food and way too much ice cream. Several alumni did attend the barbecue, though most of them left early.  A very, very small hereditary alumnus--two-week-old Mateo Galbraith, son of former Junior Fellows Craig Galbraith and Catarina Gomes--made what may have been his first public appearance at Massey.  He spent most of the time sleeping.  And yes, he was very cute. On the left, please observe a lovely Massey-as-pirate-ship photo snapped by Junior Fellow Ben Fortescue.  You have no idea how hard it was to get that picture (I was trying too); the wind was just barely blowing, and the flag was mostly hanging limp rather than flying straight out.  Anyway...arrrrrr.

Noam Miller explains the whole deal with Elvis.  Here you can see him flanked by the King and his Queen (variously known as Elvina, Elvis's Girlfriend, and the Thing in the Hat) and holding up the Tablet of the Elvis-Keepers.	Elvis sits proudly on the JCR mantelpiece, accompanied by a list of his Keepers to date.  The list, by the way, is tastefully wood-burned on two shiny new tablets.	Six Keepers pose, Unusual Suspects-fashion, with Elvis.  The Keepers are (left to right):  Don of Hall Andrew House, Dan Giang, Arjun Tremblay, Geoff Lapaire, Idris Mercer, and George Kovacs.
Having decided that their last pose was boring, the Keepers mix it up a little.  We're not entirely sure what George is doing there, however.	The participants in the inexplicable Massey Beard-Growing Competition show off their crops.  I don't feel like looking up all those surnames in the Massey directory...but the first names of the participants are Cillian, Spencer, James, Toby, Bryant, Marcinku (or however it's spelled), Peter, Jordan, and Andrew (better known as House).	Yet again, I have only five decent pictures...and so yet again, I am providing you with a photo of the view from my balcony, this time on a very snowy day.

Andrew Eckford and Brenda Didyk tak a cup o' kindness while Brenda's husband, Geof, looks on	Brenda Didyk, Mike McGillion, and Mike's random cousin, the latter of whom happened to be in the Duke for reasons unclear to everyone concerned, tak a right good willie-waught	Emmanuel Chomski and Brenda Didyk (note that Brenda obviously has a habit of appearing in almost every picture Kari takes) smile madly at the camera
Geof, who has a last name that I have entirely forgotten, attempts to devour what he describes as "the biggest chunk of nacho in the world"	Kevin Blagrave sits in front of a piper, who is following another piper, who is following another piper, who is...anyway, there are a lot of pipers	None of the other pictures from the evening turned out, so here is the view from Kari Maaren's balcony at dusk, just because

We're happy to announce that Hazlon Schepmyer, a former non-resident Junior Fellow (until 2004), has just published her first book, Winning Reviews:  A Guide for Evaluating Scholarly Writing (with Yehuda Baruch and Sherry Sullivan).  You can find more information about the book here...or you can check out the copy Hazlon has donated to Massey's Upper Library. The book was included in U of T's 2006 Alumni Book Fair.  The picture at the right was taken at the fair; in it, you can see Hazlon talking to Massey alum Adam Chapnick, who also had a book featured in the fair.  You can also see, off the to right, the left-hand edge of a poster advertising Hazlon's book. Congratulations, Hazlon!