She was head of the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy at the Toronto Public Library from 1986 to 2017.
[1][2] While studying in Alberta, Toolis was a member of the Edmonton Science Fiction and Comic Arts Society,[3] contributed to the group's cookbook, Stir Wars,[4] and edited its newsletter, Neology.
[10][11] By the time she retired in 2017, the Merril Collection had grown to over 80,000 items, including published works, manuscripts, audiovisual materials, games, and ephemera.
[14][15] "Today, the Merril is a treasure, and it's in no small part thanks to Lorna and her team," noted Cory Doctorow in 2017.
[6][21] She co-edited Tesseracts 4 (1992) with Michael Skeet;[22][23] the collection of Canadian science fiction stories won an Aurora Award.