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- From: bpholmes@ac.dal.ca
- Newsgroups: soc.libraries.talk
- Subject: Small Press Questionnarie
- Message-ID: <1993Jan27.163721.10619@ac.dal.ca>
- Date: 27 Jan 93 20:37:20 GMT
- Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Lines: 77
-
- 27 January 1993
-
- Dear Sir or Madam:
-
- I am a graduate student at Dalhousie's School of Library and Information
- Studies who is currently preparing a presentation on the subject of small
- presses. If you can at all spare the time, I would be deeply interested
- in your responses to the following queries. Please note that I am to
- present on February 1.
-
- 1. There seems to be no universally agreed-upon definition of what
- constitutes a SMALL press. How would you define a small press?
-
- 2. Do you use any of the small press distributors, such as Bookpeople,
- Bookslinger, Inland, Kampmann, Quality Books and Small Press Distribution?
- How would you gage the usefulness of such distributors in making small-
- press purchases?
-
- 3. Do you have any librarians assigned specifically to look after
- purchases from small publishers? If so, how do such librarians ensure
- that valuable small press publications do not slip through their
- fingers?
-
- 4. Is the current recession affecting small book purchases in any
- particular way?
-
- 5. How useful are small press book fairs in making library
- purchasing decisions?
-
- 6. I am looking for any professional magazines that have a
- regular column devoted to small presses. Thus far, I have only found
- Collection Building. Are you aware of any others?
-
- 7. Do you use any small press publication guides, such as The
- Small Press Book Review, Small Press Review, and Small Press, to make
- your purchasing decisions? Do you ever consult the biennial journal
- Alternative Library Literature? How would you rate the usefulness of
- these guides in determining book purchases?
-
- 8. Do you use any of the more mainstream publications, such as
- Quill and Quire, the New York Times Book Review, and Books in Canada,
- to find small press reviews and make appropriate purchases? Are any of
- the reference texts, such as Canadian Book Review Annual, useful in
- determining what purchasing decisions are to be made?
-
- 9. Small press publishers sometimes claim that librarians pay
- insufficient attention to their work. Is this claim valid? If so, why,
- and if not, why not?
-
- 10. [For librarians in the United States.] The LC Information
- Bulletin wrote in 1986 (vol.45, p.384, November 24) about the
- National Endowment for the Arts Program (NEA) for small presses. Is
- that progam still in existence.
-
- 11. [For librarians in Canada.] Does the Canada Council, at the
- moment, play any role in bringing the work of the small presses to
- the attention of libraries and librarians?
-
- 12. [For librarians in Canada.] Are there any distributors in
- Canada that concentrate on small press publications?
-
- 13. Do you have any other observations on the relationship between
- libraries and small presses that you think would be useful?
-
- Please send your responses to my username, listed below; this prevents
- clogging up this service.
-
- Thank-you in advance for your consideration. It is very much appreciated.
-
- Yours sincerely,
-
- Boyd Holmes
- (Username: BPHOLMES@AC.DAL.CA)
- Dalhousie University
- School of Library and Information Studies
- Halifax, Nova Scotia
- Canada
-