A Different Stripe

Hey, librarians. Hey, readers. Hey, Small Press!

Has this happened to you?

You walk into your library. You glance around the shelves filled with row after row of the same best sellers, but you're not interested. Maybe you even know the titles of a book or two you've been wanting to read. Alas, the library doesn't have them in its collection. You walk out empty-handed, or with something you're just not that into.

or

You're in a bookstore. This book looks good. That book looks great! You reach for your wallet, but then you remember you're broke. No use checking out your library, you think, those aren't the kind of book they'd have.

 

Well, you've got the answer to your predicament, and it's already in your own hands. Just pick up that blunt golf pencil and fill out a library request form. For more on this, see Don Antenen's post about the power of the request form here. Don works in a library and he wants to spread his empowering message around. He and Kate Hensley have begun a new site called Hey, Small Press! to highlight some of the best books in the small press world and to encourage us all to start talking about them. That's right, they suggest talking to your librarian:

Tell them how much you like small press literature and why you’re excited about these particular titles. Encourage them to check out this site. There is nothing that brightens up the day of a librarian like a conversation with an enthusiastic reader.

If we can't convince you to go to a library, maybe Linda Holmes at NPR can. She had an epiphany about libraries and their greatness just the other week, chronicling them hilariously on her twitter feed.

A Poem by Hungarian Writer Tibor Déry

In getting together our edition of Tibor Déry's (that's Déry Tibor to you Magyarphiles) novel Niki we came across some poems of his, published in the short-lived Dokumentum, a journal he helped edit. After dropping some not-so-subtle hints to poet and translator George Szirtes (who has written the introduction to Niki) that it would be wonderful to read the poetry in English, he graciously had a go at translating one or two. We should mention that the poems would not have been found had they not been digitized by the New York Public Library.

MY GOLDFISH

born into sunlight
they swam around her silent
one spring night they entered my heart

the well of resurrection!
their golden ferries glittered through my breast
look at them dancing!
years march on monotonous in the garden greenhouse
here and there a face leans towards me
and sheds its tears

feed my goldfish
the wind moans outside
day’s leaden back casts its shadow across us
days pass
who will unearth time’s infinite gifts from my body?

in the dust of the street…
there sprawl the lost nights
gilded wooden statues of beggars march along the boulevard
everywhere darkness
the stars above them: the purple-scaled highway of my fish

George Szirtes webpage and blog


Niki: The Story of a Dog
Tibor Déry

Guest Post: Tips on getting small press books into your local libraries

A few months ago I made a NYRB display at the library where I work and was shocked at how few titles we had. I have no power over what books get ordered (though I make lots of suggestions!), so unfortunately I can't just wave my hand and make it change.  Fear not fellow readers, there is hope.

One of the best ways to get NYRB Classics into libraries is for patrons to request them.  Librarians responsible for catalogue development are primarily concerned with three things: circulation numbers, budget, and shelf space.  Most ideas for purchases come from reviews in major publications like The New York Times Book Review or Library Journal, but patron book requests are also taken into account.  It’s through these requests that small press books can get onto library shelves.

Anarchist publisher Crimethinc has a printable list of their titles with all the information people need to request them at a library.  This list is sent out with every order, and it works.  Without any advertising or reviews in major publications Crimethinc books are found in libraries all over the country (according to Worldcat their best selling title is in over 180 libraries).

The non-profit imprint Dalkey Archive Press works with libraries to offer discounted prices and even donates their titles to libraries.  While donation is out of reach for most small presses, they can develop special pricing for public libraries.  This is getting more and more important as library book budgets shrink.

Once small press books are in libraries, it’s up to library workers to get them into the hands of patrons, but we can worry about getting them to fly off the shelves once we get them on the shelves.

—Don Antenen

Update: We had inaccurately described Mr. Antenen as a librarian in the original post. We apologize for the misidentification.

all illustrations:
lantern slides from the New York Public Library's digital collection
via flickr's the Commons

Fun with Library of Congress cataloging categories

We miss the days of intricate and extremely specific Library of Congress categories. Here's a nice one from Henry James's Outcry:

    Painting—Collectors and collecting —Fiction.
    Painting—Expertising—Fiction.
    Art historians—Fiction.
    Art dealers—Fiction.

Expertising!