Today we went to a different Toronto Public Library, this one was also downtown. We had a very different experience here than we had in the Special Collections a couple of days ago. Today we learned that the Librarian can make all the difference in the world.

Today’s Librarian, John, an older kind man, never gave us a minute to get up from the table. We were in the Canadiana Local History room, at a table John kept filled with books and documents he pulled from the stacks and the back room. Many were rare, some with original historical photographs. He brought dozens and dozens of books to us relating to the time period we were researching. We read (devoured) and photo-ed pages non-stop from 9:30 this morning until 7:00 this evening without so much as a food or bathroom break. Our heads and our computers are full of fascinating maps, photos, documents and pages of the history of York, which became Toronto in 1834, and Churchville and the surrounding areas.

I think I can pretty confidently say that I know more about the history of this area than I do about Orem, Utah, my home. Not just a bit more. Volumes more. I feel like I’ve been transported into another world. Sometimes you just have to go into those other worlds to understand where you come from.