the zine scene

The winning zines in the 8th Annual Washington State Zine Contest have been announced and you can see the list here. They will be digitized and available online soon, but meanwhile here are a few places you can see and learn about zines now, in person and/or online, in no particular order:

• The Library of Congress
• The Seattle Public Library ZAPP Zine Collection
• Olympia Timberland Library
• the zine librarians interest group
• Los Angeles Public Library
• Papercut Zine Library
• zines on Issuu

Make some zines this summer and add your work to one or more of these collections!

books behind bars

The Washington State Library partners with the Department of Corrections and the Department of Social and Health Services to provide library services to inmates in adult correctional facilities and patients in adult psychiatric hospitals.

You can support institutional libraries by visiting the Wishlist page at the Washington Center for the Book, then making a purchase of wishlisted books by clicking on the links provided (you can support independent booksellers at the same time!).

Support literacy. It’s easy.

going somewhere?

Maybe there’s a poetry museum or library on your route. This list is not comprehensive, but it’s a start:

• Adam Mickiewicz Museum at The Polish Library, Paris, France
• American Poetry Museum, Washington, DC
• The Beat Museum, San Francisco, California
• Carol Ann Haenicke Women’s Poetry Collection, Kalamazoo, Michigan
• Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts
• The Frost Place, Franconia, New Hampshire
• Ivan Franko Museum, Winnipeg, Manitoba
• Keats House Museum, London, England
• National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre, London, England
• The Poetry Collection at University at Buffalo Libraries, Buffalo, New York
• Poetry Foundation Library, Chicago, Illinois
• Poets House, New York, New York
• The Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, Atlanta, Georgia
• The Rimbaud Museum, Charleville and Sedan, France
• The Robert Worth Bingham Poetry Room at Ekstrom Library, Louisville, Kentucky
• Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry, Locust Grove, Oklahoma
• Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Sims Library of Poetry, Los Angeles, California
• University of Arizona Poetry Center, Tucson, Arizona
• Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
• The Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard Library, Cambridge, MA
• Wordsworth Grasmere, Cumbria, England

Poets House

We try to keep things somewhat upbeat here at The Poetry Department, but were saddened to read that Poets House, the nation’s premier poetry library, at Battery Park City in New York, has announced that it will suspend operations indefinitely, effective immediately, due to budgetary issues caused by the Coronavirus. It is hoped that the library may be able reopen late in 2021 once the pandemic is under control and Poets House has reconfigured its operations.

Though events have been suspended, online resources continue to be available, at least for the moment, including audio, video, and digital materials, such as a wonderful collection of chapbooks from the “Mimeo Revolution.”

prompts galore

If you’re interested in the natural world and you’re looking for a new perspective, look no further than the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Currently weighing in at 57,897,176 pages, the library “is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives.”

You can browse the BHL’s collection by Title, Author, Date, Collection, or Contributor. For example, click on Collections, then on Extinct Species, and you get a further listing of 29 volumes from 28 titles, containing 11201 pages. Click on any of the linked titles and you’ll find yourself at a scanned version of the original document, which you can browse page by page.

Have fun!

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Thanks to Colossal for the heads up

reasons to go to… Iowa City

We’ve posted before about the Sackner Archive, Ruth and Marvin Sackner’s astonishing collection of some 75,000 pieces of visual and concrete poetry. Housed at the Sackner’s residence in Miami for many years, the entire collection has now found a new home at the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections. The archive will be open by appointment to students, scholars, and the general public starting January 2020.

Read the announcement here, browse the archive online here, or start planning your 2020 trip to Iowa City, A UNESCO City of Literature.

speaking of poetry libraries

The Poetry Foundation Library in Chicago is the Midwest’s only library dedicated to poetry. Visitors to the library may browse a collection of 30,000 volumes, experience audio and video recordings in private listening booths, and view exhibits of poetry-related materials. The library is open weekdays 11:00am–4:00pm (check website for holiday closures).

next time you’re in London

It has been a few years since we mentioned the National Poetry Library in London. Founded in 1953, the library moved its expanded collection to the Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre in 1988, with Seamus Heaney presiding over the grand opening.

The library posts daily poems, has a free online poem collection and catalogue, assists with “lost quote” requests, has a collection of over 2,000 audio recordings, about 2,000 postcards and poem cards, some 1,500 posters, year-round events and exhibitions, and an online listing of poetry competitions.

The National Poetry Library is the largest public collection of modern poetry in the world, is open six days a week, and is free to visit.

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photo by Gapfall

Reasons to go to… Atlanta

At Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library comprises some 75,000 volumes (50,000 of which are catalogued and searchable). Believed to be the largest privately-held assembly of poetry books, the collection was amassed over many years and in 2004 donated to Emory University by Mr. Danowski, who died last week.

The collection is curated by poet Kevin Young and the library hosts a variety of fellowships, readings, exhibitions, and visiting scholars. To learn more about the Library and its collection and programs, visit the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library website.

Whatcom wins!

When you think “library” the next word in your mind probably isn’t “marketing.” But this week a connection was made as the Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) announced that it has won three national library marketing awards, including the very prestigious John Cotton Dana award, which comes with a $10,000 prize.

As the WCLS website explains,

WCLS worked with Red Rokk, a Bellingham-based marketing agency, to launch the “My Modern Library” campaign in the spring of 2016; the digital marketing campaign focused on promoting the library’s digital services in a fun and positive way. At the end of the 9-month campaign, WCLS more than doubled their annual goals for circulation and cardholders, increased digital circulation by 86.5%, and broke the record for most card sign-ups ever in one month by 26%.

We love our libraries and congratulate WCLS and Red Rokk on their big wins… and also thank them for their support of poetry in Whatcom County!

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Pictured from left to right: Sally Crouse, Christina Nelson, WCLS Executive Director Christine Perkins, Sherri Huleatt, Megan Cook, Lizz Roberts, Sarah Hirsch, Red Rokk CEO Tyler Byrd, and Steven Aldous. Photo Credit: 1123 Productions