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Greetings,As a librarian who has published an artist's book (please take a look at http://www.screamatthelibrarian.com/ ), I can say I was pleasantly surprised to discover this world, and I believe it will be the salvation of book publishing. I wrote a short (50 page) collection of vignettes about working at the Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles...something that would have ended up on a blog (or back in the day, DITTOS!) if Booklyn Artists Alliance, a co-op in New York, had not published it as an artist's book. Not only did this establish a new audience (other than librarians and library geeks) it was a double whammy for art librarians, an artist's book about a library. I think this publishing model could help preserve the book as a medium; my publisher did a chapbook edition of 600 for $15 each, and 50 handmade, silkscreened artist's books for $1500. The chapbook run is now on second edition and everyone -- the publisher, myself, and the artists -- made money, which is not common for an ordinary book. We also used the kind of local marketing to peers and interested parties, as well as having artists and interns MAKE the book, which will help the bound book survive as the LP record has. Long live the DIY artist book! My days of struggling to find an agent and a publisher are over, the small press is returning...all good news for us! Joel Rane The Catty Librarian! Inglewood Public Library Cantantes licet usque; minus via laedit eamus. (Let us always go singing; the way will be less tedious.)-- Virgil --- On Fri, 11/19/10, ARLIS-L automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]> wrote: From: ARLIS/NA List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jenny Beard Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 9:57 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [ARLIS-L] Question Concerning Librarians and Artists Books Art Librarians, I've been thinking about the relationship between librarians and artists books. The benefit to artists books is obvious: librarians have fostered the medium from the beginning by purchasing, preserving, offering critical perspective, and acting as defenders of the medium. What is less discussed is how librarians and libraries benefit from their relationship with artists books. Of course there is pleasure in collecting as well as fulfilling the mission to preserve the cultural objects of our time. But is there a passion for artists books that, I think, borders the mysterious. How can I better understand the personal and passionate interest of so many art librarians and curators in artists books? For instance, how would a librarian be effected if their institution's collection of artists books was absorbed by another department or perhaps, sold off? The large collections of artists books seem to be in art libraries,and often in art museum libraries. Why not in art museum curatorial departments? How does the presence of artists book in library collection effect the morale of librarians? What do artists books signify to librarians? I'm wondering if anyone has any notions or personal anecdotes about why artists books are so very valuable to the profession of librarianship? I would be very grateful for your comments, observations or references to interesting articles. Jenny Beard Graduate Assistant, Image Cataloger Pratt SILS MLIS Candidate, 2011 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~