Library Special Collections: What We Collect

History of Printing and Publishing

Library Special Collections' holdings support research in the history of printing, the book trade and bookmaking, and the graphic arts. Traditional strengths in our collections include Western European medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, Middle Eastern manuscripts, and early printing (1465-1600), in particular, early Italian printing (including the foremost collection in North America of the Aldine Press). Our collections of British and American children's books (many of which date back to the eighteenth century) and artists' books also exemplify the craft of bookmaking and publishing.

Collection Development Policy and Current Priorities

See also: Discover Collections on our home page: UCLA Library Special Collections.

UCLA Library Special Collections (LSC) acquires archives, rare books, manuscripts, printed ephemera, photographs, audiovisual materials, digital files, objects, and other primary source materials of a rare or unique nature. We acquire new holdings predominately through donations and transfers and also purchase a select amount of material. We also create new scholarly documentation through conducting oral history interviews that support our current collecting priorities.

The nature of stewarding special collections holdings requires LSC to be selective in what it acquires and makes available for research. This document outlines the Rare Books and History of Printing philosophy, collecting scope, and current priorities, along with the criteria it applies in evaluating potential acquisitions

Rare Books and the History of Printing is a subsection of UCLA Library Special Collections

This collection documents the global history of printing and rare books and includes materials ranging from the earliest East Asian and European printing to contemporary pop-up books.

• Early Italian printing, including the Aldine press, 1450-1600
• Fictitious imprints, such as Pierre Marteau
• California imprints, early 19th century to present
• Historic children's books–primarily British and American--including pop-up, and toy and movable books
• Contemporary artists' books
• Photographs and related research materials from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Pacific Rim, Middle East
• Latin American history and culture
• Travel and exploration, including women travelers and the Antarctic
• East Asian print

Collecting Philosophy

1. Strengthening distinctive collections by diversifying their contents

The distinctive collections at UCLA are our greatest asset. We will continue to strengthen our collections by specifically targeting materials that will diversify their contents. Diversity, in this case, does not simply mean adding titles that we do not hold. Rather, it means that we seek to bring new materials representing non-hegemonic voices into our collections. We will actively seek materials that represent the considerable contributions of women, minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community to the history of printing.

This aspect of collection development is primarily intended to allow us to overcome the Eurocentric legacy of traditional collection development. It is desirable to build context around materials in ways that fundamentally challenge collecting practices which ‘othered’ materials within the collection. LSC must seek to honestly reflect not just the gaze of the colonizer at the other, but must intentionally seek to represent the dialectical relationship between the oppressors and the oppressed. With this in mind, the acquisition of objects that represent a hegemonic view should be paired (whenever possible) with materials that create a dialogue or relativize universalist claims.

2. Building webs of relationships within LSC

At present, many of our collection strengths have been developed in isolation. In order to enhance our distinctive holdings, future collection development will seek to build and enhance relationships with other materials in LSC. For example, while UCLA – LSC is one of the largest holders of Ethiopic manuscripts in North America, our holdings in Early Italian Ethiopic printing are weak. Actively seeking examples of Italian Ethiopic printing will allow us to both develop one of our distinctive collections and link the priorities of the history of printing to an unsurpassed manuscript collection. Relational collection development within LSC will enable us to create more coherent collections that encourage researchers in archival and manuscript materials to further avail themselves of printed materials.

3. Activist collecting

Because of the history of our collecting practices, it is a fact that many communities that should have been represented by LSC collections have been neglected and excluded. When the need presents itself, funds are to be sought out that will actively address some of the areas of neglect. Collecting in these new areas is only defensible when 1) there is a clear and present need for the collection; 2) there is widespread support from other members of LSC staff and University Faculty; 3) and the collection enhances existing collection strengths.

Collecting Priorities

The following is a list of existing strengths which will be actively supplemented over the next several years of collection development in consultation with faculty and library staff.

• Early Italian Printing: Given UCLA LSC’s unsurpassed strength in this area, we will continue building out our collection in Early Italian printing. The focus of collection development in this area will include: 1) ephemeral materials; 2) Accounts of foreign places; 3) non-Italian language printing in Italy. Pursuit of selected materials will occur through consultation with research faculty affiliated with CMES.
• Latin American: While we have a strong collection of materials from 19th century Mexico, we have little from the period of Spanish colonial rule or in indigenous languages.
• Indigenous Language/Colonial Printing: Within LSC there are small pockets of texts that reveal the importance of printing in indigenous languages and in colonial contexts. We will actively seek out materials which will allow for these neglected and suppressed stories to be expressed without our collection. In particular, in collaboration with international studies, we will seek to collect materials printed in the early modern Philippines. Moreover, new areas of collection should reflect communities that are associated with Los Angeles.
• Non-European language printing: LSC has remarkable holdings in early Near Eastern and East Asian printed books. These collections have regrettably been neglected. For example, despite the remarkably robust community of Korean-American in Los Angeles, LSC does not own a single example of pre-modern Korean printing. Targeted acquisitions will make sure we both represent this community and enhance our existing strengths in East Asian Materials. New acquisitions will by pursued according to teaching and development priories discussed with the East Asian Library and faculty.
• Women/LGBTQ/History of Sex: Women have been active in the printing trade for hundreds of years, and LGBTQ voices are often neglected in the history of printing. In line with library policies to diversity our collections, we will make special efforts to include these materials.

More About the Collection

• Printing and Publishing in Library Special Collections

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The UCLA Library Special Collections holdings of medieval and Renaissance manuscript materials created across Western Europe is comprised of approximately 400 bound manuscripts, and hundreds of documents, leaves, and bifolia. The collection is an exemplary teaching collection for paleography, history of the book, as well as the history and culture of the Medieval and Renaissance eras.

Current Collecting Priorities

• Materials that bring new documentation of or by those to whom access to the knowledge and power held by those of higher religious, scholarly, or social classes was limited or denied during the medieval through 17thcenturies.
• Manuscript materials written by or for use by women.
• Manuscript materials in vernacular languages, including Spanish language, and early literature.
• Manuscript materials that evidence who owned and used them, how and for what purposes.
• Materials from which one can learn about manuscript and bookmaking methods, artisans, and their sources, and will facilitate codicological study and research.
• Materials offering exemplary forms of writing and scripts that will facilitate paleographic study and research.
• In striving to select exemplary objects for teaching, we value manuscript materials that may be incomplete or imperfect where their content is rich, over materials that are of high monetary value due to the amount and level of artwork they hold, or because they are traced to an origin of high power.

Out of Scope

• Manuscripts that duplicate our current holdings of medieval and Renaissance Western European manuscripts; e.g., Western European liturgical manuscripts, unless they embody characteristics listed under Current Collecting Priorities (above).
• Manuscripts that would overlap with medieval and Renaissance manuscript strengths of other local institutions, such as French illuminated manuscripts or English bibles and illuminated manuscripts.

More About the Collection

• Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Library Special Collections Research Guide
• Medieval Mastery: Manuscripts from the Richard and Mary Rouse Collection - January 2019
• The Orsini: A Roman Baronial Family in Context,  January - March 2007
• Medieval Manuscripts from the Collection of Richard and Mary Rouse, October 1-7 2007, and September - December 2003

The archives and personal papers of writers of a broad range of experiences and genres complement the UCLA Library Special Collections’ print holdings of twentieth and twenty-first-century literature. Ranging from writers, including Angelenos as well as those who emigrated from other parts of the U.S. and other countries, many have imagined both Utopian and dystopian Californias in genres and forms including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and journalism.

Current Collecting Priorities

• Archives of writers whose voices have not been heard or are under-recognized in the Academy, with a focus on Los Angeles writers of color; LGBTQ, and writers of all abilities.
• Authors who have immigrated, or whose parents or families have immigrated from Mexico and Latin American countries, Africa, Asia, the Near East, Southeast Asia, and diasporas across the globe, with emphasis on the interconnections of the many cultural influences and stories that comprise Los Angeles’ unique identity.
• Writers who have explored new forms of written and performative expressions.
• Records of local writers’ collectives, book stores, and literary centers where contemporary writers and artists have gathered and read or performed their works.

Collecting Criteria

• Content pertinent to UCLA faculty teaching twentieth-and twenty-first-century literature.
• Content that supports collecting and teaching areas of library partners and subject librarians, including English, International Studies, East Asian Library, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies.

Out of Scope

• Comprehensive collections to include multiple drafts of a given work of an author.
• Large objects and artifacts owned by writers and poets, including awards.

More About the Collection

For more information about the collections and materials available online see:

Past exhibits in Library Special Collections

• John Fante: A Life in the Works
  • See this UCLA Library Special Collections blogpost to view photographs and video of the Bonnie Cashin lecture presented by Fante's biographer, Stephen Cooper.
• One Person's Truth: The Life and Work of Paul Monette (1945-1995), October-November 2005
• How Shall a Generation Know its Story: The Edgar Bowers Conference and Exhibition, April-June 2003
• The Susan Sontag Archive at the UCLA Library, May 2002
• William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg: a select bibliography of works in the UCLA University Library, from The Kurtzman Collection, displayed in the UCLA Department of Special Collections, February 1998.

UCLA Library Special Collections selectively acquires, through purchase and gifts, materials in all formats that document the performing arts created in and around Los Angeles and Southern California including film, television, dance, theater, and music.

Performing Arts Collection Development Priorities

Within each area, collecting priority is given to archival materials that are created by organizations and/or individuals that represent Los Angeles, and Southern California, and those that reflect the work of underrepresented voices in these industries.

Film

The collections document film in both aesthetic and technical aspects, spanning the history of the media from its beginnings to the present day. The holdings include the papers of artisans, writers, directors, and performers; the records of producers and studios; and a variety of posters, ephemera, and stills.

• Under-represented independent and studio filmmakers
• L.A. Rebellion papers and documentation
• Industry: cinematography, production design, scenic design, editors
• Community partner-related collections (e.g. – Outfest, Sundance Institute, etc.)
• Selected notable UCLA alumni

Television

The collections document television in both aesthetic and technical aspects, spanning the history of the media from its beginnings to the present day. The holdings include the papers of artisans, writers, directors, and performers; the records of producers and studios; and a variety of posters, ephemera, and stills.

• Local Los Angeles Television
  • Newsletters – newsletters of local stations
  • Local LA TV history, post-Kerner commission/late 1960s-1970s. In particular, producers representing marginalized communities via the work on local stations such as KCET and KMEX
• Primetime network milestones (selected) – firsts, women, under-represented artists
• Materials related to the reception of TV programming; ratings, letters, fan magazines

Music

The majority of the music holdings cover the Los Angeles region in the twentieth century and include American popular music,  papers of Los Angeles émigré composers, oral histories and papers of Los Angeles jazz musicians, and the music industry. Antiquarian music holdings date back to the ninth century and include music manuscripts, Italian libretti; early printed editions (including first editions) of full scores, and piano-vocal scores of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century operas, and original editions of musicology texts. 

• Under-represented music-making communities in Southern California, particularly including musical traditions of immigrant communities
• Women composers, musicians, and other women in the music industry (conductors, engineers, executives, etc.)
• Collections that document the process for music in film, television, and media

Theater

Los Angeles theater is represented by the records of local theater groups and includes collections of playbills, scripts, and assorted production materials.

• Los Angeles theater companies – particularly those that feature the work of local playwrights and theater designers, and whose performances center the lived experience of Los Angeles communities
• Los Angeles-area playwrights and theater designers

More About the Collection 

Labor unions, an over-arching topic found in each subject area, will be considered in collaboration with Los Angeles Communities and Cultures collection development.

See the following Research Guides for more information about these materials:

• Sheet Music in Library Special Collections
• Film and Television Research in Library Special Collections
• Music Resources in Library Special Collections
• Animation Materials in Library Special Collections
• Women in Entertainment Resources in Library Special Collections
• Punk Music and Culture in the UCLA Library

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The UCLA Libraries’ holdings of artists’ books include over 1,000 editions and unique works, ranging from fine press editions to sculptural and dynamic books with movable parts, to newly imagined forms and definitions of what a book can be and how its message can be conveyed.

Current Collecting Priorities

• Works that reflect the politics of power and contemporary challenges to individuals and communities, especially those related to emigration or diaspora, otherness in society, and issues having a global environmental impact.
• Works that envision solutions to those challenges, whether they be based on fact or imagination.
• Works that relate topically to other LSC collections that are strengths + high priority; e.g., contemporary emigration and immigration (including from Latin American, Middle Eastern, Southeastern Europe, Southeast Asia/Philippines)

Collecting Criteria

• Works that reimagine the parameters of the book format in new ways, or expand the concept of the printed codex as a vehicle for intellectual and aesthetic expression.
• Works that resonate on a personal, communal, or global level with regard to current human challenges.
• Works that integrate well its message with its material form and craft.
• Works that challenge commonly held perceptions, assumptions, or biases that have become widely accepted through enculturation, education, and media saturation by, for example, juxtaposing visual imagery and language that present new or alternative ways of viewing, interpreting, and understanding the physical and spiritual world.

Out of Scope

• Artists’ books whose form and content duplicate the collecting strengths of other local institutions and UCLA Library units.

More About the Collection

Some exemplary artists’ books held in the UCLA Library Special Collections, UCLA Arts Library and other local Southern California institutions can be seen in these exhibits:

• SOCALled Books: Diversity in Artists' Books from Southern California,  July - September 2002
• Recent Acquisitions in the Department of Special Collections: Modern Fine Printing and Graphic Arts: Artists’ Books by Julie Chen and Mary Heebner, September 2001
• Recent Acquisitions in the Department of Special Collections: Popular Literature and Printed Materials: Illustrated books by Barbara Hodgson, November 2001

The UCLA Library Special Collections’ dance holdings support UCLA's long-standing participation in the creation, study, and reconstruction of modern dance, contemporary ballet, dance for stage and screen, kinesiology, dance therapy, education, criticism, and dance performance reflecting cultures throughout the world. The collections represent and support the exploration of dance scholarship, notation, education, and criticism.

Current Collecting Priorities

• Archives of dance artists and companies not traditionally documented, represented, and supported by the Academy and by concert venue audiences.
  • Contemporary dance forms that echo the experiences of local communities and cultures.
  • Dance forms that strive to break racial barriers through dance.
  • Dance forms that elevate awareness and appreciation for dancers of color, LGBTQ dance groups, dancers with different physical abilities, hip-hop, fusion, breakdance, street dance, site-specific, and performance art.
  • Dance in L.A. 1960s-present that broke away from canonical East Coast concert-based performance successes; e.g., Black modern and modern jazz choreography.
• Traditional dance performed by those who live in or have immigrated to L.A. from geographic origins worldwide; e.g., Hawaiian dance and hula, traditional Brazilian dance.

Collecting Criteria

• Archives of Los Angeles-based dance artists, companies, and choreographers.
• Dance genres that formed the identity of L.A. dance, ca. 1960s-present.
• Dance archives that support or supplement dance taught in UCLA World Arts & Cultures/Dance Department.
• Interviews that capture the legacies of L.A. dancers, choreographers, managers, and dance critics.
• Contemporary dance forms that echo the diversity of dance expressions and cultures.

Out of Scope

• Costumes (other than a few exemplary items).
• Large musical instruments, props, or sets used in dance training or performance.
• Materials for which there are donor restrictions that prohibit making them fully accessible.
• Collections whose origins are not connected to the Los Angeles area either historically or theoretically.

Our focus is on collecting materials that shed light on choreographies, technique and training, and performance processes that can be viewed and handled in the Special Collections Reading Room, or in one of our classrooms.

More About the Collection

For reference and other secondary resources on dance, see the following Research Guides:

• Dance in Library Special Collections
• Guide to Dance Research at UCLA
• University Archives Dance Collections
• Performing Arts Dance Collections
• Dance Oral Histories

Who We Are

The UCLA Library Punk Collective is a DIY group of punks who are interested in collecting and preserving the music and culture of the Los Angeles County punk scenes. The working group began in 2014 and consists of catalogers, archivists, audiovisual archivists, library staff, students, faculty, and other community members. The UCLA Punk Collective actively participates in outreach and programming within UCLA and throughout Los Angeles County. We work closely with our colleagues in the Music Library who steward commercially released punk recordings.

UCLA Library Punk Collective Members

Kelly Besser	Gabbie Cortina	Courtney Dean	Yasmin Dessem
Josh Fiala	Caroline Cubé	Doug Johnson	Michael Pazmino
Megan Rosenbloom	Jessica Schwartz	Maggie Tarmey	Annie Watanabe-Rocco
	Allie Whalen	Jimmy Zavala

 

Sincere thanks to past UCLA Punk Collective Members: Peggy Alexander, Jillian Cuellar, Alex Cline, Lori Dedeyan, Megan Fraser, Gloria Gonzalez, Kearra Amaya Gopee, Melissa Haley, Tom Hyry, Courtney "Jet" Jacobs, Natalie Mattox, Eric Olsen, Cesar Reyes, Paola Salazar, Amanda Slater, and Rebecca Waldorf for their work and dedication, and to Sharon Farb and Todd Grappone for their support.

Current Collecting Priorities

The UCLA Library Punk Collective documents the development and expression of punk music and cultures by collecting and preserving the materials of the people and organizations that are part of the various scenes throughout Los Angeles County from the mid-1970s to the present.

We work collaboratively with our communities, which include musicians, photographers, filmmakers, promoters, producers, record labels, artists, writers, venues, spaces, and fans. It is our mission to inspire and facilitate the discovery and research of punk cultures.

We are particularly interested in documenting how LA punk communities coalesce around music venues and DIY spaces across the County. We specifically want to collect materials that document the histories and stories of spaces that speak to marginalized punk communities of color, feminist punks, queer punks, riot grrrls, and punks with disabilities. Within these communities, genres of interest include Afro-punk, queercore, Chicanx/Latinx punk, art-punk, straight edge, hardcore, avant-garde, and experimental punk.

(Hard)Core Values

In support of our collecting priorities and our values for ethical community engagement, we adhere to the following guidelines, which were inspired by the Zine Librarians Code of Ethics

• Prioritize collecting directly from community members over working with third-party sellers
• Respectfully engage with and represent community members
• Actively collect material from under-documented scenes and communities
• Foster lasting and reciprocal relationships with communities
• Encourage community member participation and public use of collections
• Collaborate on outreach and programming to spotlight the work of community members

Collecting Criteria

Formats that are particularly important to further our collecting goals are:

• scrapbooks, diaries, and journals
• administrative records of venues, DIY spaces, and record labels
• original film, video, and audio, such as mixtapes, demos, documentaries, video art, public access TV programs, etc.
• flyers, patches, and buttons
• calendars, show schedules, guest lists, and setlists
• interviews and oral histories
• notes, drafts, and original writing covering the scenes
• photographs and photograph albums
• lyrics
• artworks
• correspondence and fan mail
• publications including zines and books
• custom punk fashion

Out of Scope

• Commercial recordings
• Materials that are still being actively used by their creators (working collections)
• Contemporary reproductions like digital scans, facsimiles
• Oversize artifacts and posters
• Materials collected or assembled, but not created, by an individual, group, or organization
• Materials we cannot provide access to for legal reasons

More About the Collection

Our named collections are archives created or collected by an individual or group. Smaller donations may be added to our Punk zines and ephemera collection, with donor information attached to individual items.

To see our current holdings or to fill out a donation form, visit our Punk Music and Culture in the UCLA Library Research Guide.

The UCLA Library Special Collections acquires archival collections and primary source materials that reflect Los Angeles’s unique cultural identity. Our current priorities for collecting primary source materials and archives of creative individuals are centered on visual arts, landscape architecture and land art, photography, and artists’ books.

Current Collecting Priorities

• Art educators /artists working from the 1960s to the present –a period of vital political and artistic change that affected L.A. art museums, galleries, and art education.
• Designers: modernist and post-modern, especially those whose work breaks preconceptions and crosses boundaries between design and fine art.
• Landscape architecture and land art (design and installations that amplify awareness of environmental issues and impacts).
• Photography.
• Book arts and artists' books.

Collecting Criteria

• Archival materials that enlighten the creative processes and activities of artists, including sketches and working drawings, journals, correspondence, writings, syllabi.
• Artists and artists collectives whose work has been invisible or under-recognized by art museums, galleries, and critics.
• Visual art forms that bridge definitive labels or disciplinary lines; e.g., fine art and design.
• Landscape architecture that addresses sustainability and environmental impact issues through design intervention.
• Formats may include works of art on paper, exhibit-ready works and photographic prints, concept sketches, professional project documentation, and correspondence -materials that can be housed and preserved by LSC using standard archival materials, and digitized surrogates of oversize renderings.

Out of Scope

• Collections on artists, architects, designers, and art galleries that duplicate the collecting strengths of other local institutions.
• Comprehensive sets of working drawings and renderings by architects.
• Large framed works of art.
• Large three-dimensional models.

More About the Collection

• Visual Arts and artists in Library Special Collections
• Photography and photographers in Library Special Collections
• Portrait of a Jewish Artist: R.B. Kitaj in Text and Image, January - April 2008. Held in conjunction with the Skirball Cultural Center's R.B. Kitaj: Passion and Memory.
• Bonnie Cashin Collection of Fashion, Theater, and Film Costume Design - 1913-2000, January-May 2004
• Igniting Creative Thinking: The Doreen Nelson Method of Design-Based Learning, October - December 2017
• Richard Neutra in World War I: Sketches and Watercolors, May - July 2015
• John & Marilyn Neuhart: An Archive of Mid-Century Graphic Design, August 2014 - January 2015
• A Letter from the Renaissance: The Double Soul Ariel Soulé/Simon Toparovsk a contemporary art installation for UCLA Library Special Collections, August - December 2010

The UCLA Center for Oral History Research (COHR) conducts in-depth, multi-session oral history interviews with individuals who have participated in the history of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and its many communities. COHR has particularly strong collections in the history of social movements, communities of color, the arts, Los Angeles politics and government, and the history of UCLA. For a complete list of the oral histories in COHR’s collection and access to a number of the transcripts and recordings, visit UCLA Center for Oral History Research.

For more information, please contact:

Jane Collings
Project Manager
 310.267.4754
 jcolling@library.ucla.edu

Current collecting priorities

Most of the oral histories in COHR’s collection are conducted by COHR staff or by interviewers hired to do specific individual projects. COHR does, however, accept donated oral histories if they meet the following criteria:

• Document historically significant phenomena connected to the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
• Follow standard oral history methodology and are conducted by trained, skilled interviewers.
• Are preserved as audio or video recordings that are clear and audible and that do not include significant background noise, feedback, or distortion.
• Are accompanied by legal agreements that transfer necessary rights and permissions.
• Are accompanied by transcripts or timed logs that can assist users in finding their way through the recordings.

In order to ensure that their oral histories meet these requirements, prospective donors are strongly encouraged to contact COHR Project Manager Jane Collings before beginning a project. Donors should also consider attending one of COHR’s introductory oral history workshops in order to familiarize themselves with oral history methodology and gain the necessary interviewing skills.

Out of scope

• Oral histories that do not focus primarily on Southern California

More About the Collection

For a complete list of the oral histories in COHR’s collection and access to a number of the transcripts and recordings, visit UCLA Center for Oral History Research.