Long Island University Digital Commons @ LIU Brooklyn Library Faculty Publications Library 2007 Biz of Acq -- Sample Magazine Display at the Pratt Institute Library: 2003-2006 Susan E. Thomas LIU Brooklyn, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liu.edu/brooklyn_libfacpubs Part of the Collection Development and Management Commons Recommended Citation Thomas, Susan E., "Biz of Acq -- Sample Magazine Display at the Pratt nI stitute Library: 2003-2006" (2007). Brooklyn Library Faculty Publications. 40. https://digitalcommons.liu.edu/brooklyn_libfacpubs/40 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Library at Digital Commons @ LIU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Brooklyn Library Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ LIU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Against the Grain Volume 19 | Issue 6 Article 25 11-4-2013 Biz of Acq -- Sample Magazine Display at the Pratt Institute Library: 2003-2006 Susan E. Thomas Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Thomas, Susan E. (2007) "Biz of Acq -- Sample Magazine Display at the Pratt nI stitute Library: 2003-2006," Against the Grain: Vol. 19: Iss. 6, Article 25. Available at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg/vol19/iss6/25 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Biz of Acq — Sample Magazine Display at the Pratt Institute Library: 2003-2006 by Susan E. Thomas (Evening/Weekend Librarian, Assistant Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY, 199 Chambers St., S-434, New York, New York 10007; Phone: 212-220-8000 x7112; Fax: 212-748-7466) <[email protected]> Column Editor: Michelle Flinchbaugh (Acquisitions Librarian, Albin O. Kuhn Library, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250; Phone: 410-455-6754; Fax: 410-455-1598) <[email protected]> Column Editor’s Note: Finding effective individual students, staff, and faculty as well as • For general interest and inspiration means of including patrons in the collection classes. Librarians have taught library instruc- • To examine design specimens development process can be difficult. Pratt tion sessions on the periodicals collections, • To read about emerging artists, designers, Institute’s Library successfully gathered including current, bound, and special collec- and writers patron feedback via a sample journal display tions. The collection includes periodicals about fine arts, art history, design, literature, current • To be informed about current trends in and incorporated their results into their col- and the avant-garde of creative fields lection management decisions. I am greatly events, hard sciences, social sciences, library pleased to present with this article author science (at Pratt Manhattan), and more. The • To be informed about current affairs Susan Thomas’s Poem “‘Relax’ Art Library,” Periodicals Committee consisted of all the li- • To become exposed to independent peri- assembled entirely from patrons’ comments brarians responsible for selecting materials for odicals publishing, including magazines written into sample magazines. — MF the library. Librarians contributed in their areas as well as zines. of specialty or research, with some librarians more deeply involved than others. As the chair, The Sample Magazine Display I worked closely with the Technical Services One of the goals of the Periodicals Commit- “Relax” Art Library librarian and clerical staff on quotidian work tee was to create more opportunities for patrons Assembled from Pratt Institute Library like processing unusual issues, establishing to contribute to collection development. Sev- patrons’ comments written in the back of binding schedules, and the like. Through 2003, eral years ago, many of the subscriptions be- sample magazines. the PIL periodicals collection was in two parts: yond art, architecture, and design were straight Art & Architecture and Reference. In 2004, out of the print Reader’s Guide to Periodical both collections were merged together. Literature, Social Sciences Index, and Humani- I thought personally Special Periodicals include historical titles ties Index. They were not necessarily the best I’m digging this big time like Avalanche, Avant Garde, Creative Art, periodicals for the PIL community in the 21st I have been waiting around and The American Magazine of Art as well Century. Thus, a with substance and meaning as more contemporary titles like Émigré, McSweeney’s, and Gum. Why haven’t you already? Probably due to different perspectives on cataloging and processing over the architecture eye candy years, some historical periodicals, like don’t listen to him Cahiers d’art, have been classed as too many ads and corporate nah books and live in the Special Collec- tion (books) or Rare Books collection. Less hipster crap would be great too! Most, however, have no call number and live in the Special Periodicals sec- would love to frequent this magazine tion of the Special Collection. Pratt if you know what’s good Institute Library has an inchoate Zine seriously, from different countries collection, too. great deal of work was done to select more relevant, important, and As with many open periodicals stacks and unique titles. The committee came up with current displays, no hard statistics have been More fire, blaze it up!! a plan to acquire sample periodicals, display collected other than those related to the in- the best Japanese magazines them, and ask patrons to write comments about house use and occasional circulation of bound why the library should (or should not) sub- today’s anarchists journals, which have barcodes. The librarians scribe or regularly purchase a magazine. The smash layout on the Periodicals Committee closely observed committee read the comments and considered the use of the periodicals collections over the so “relax” art library them during the course of its selection process. last several years; it is clear that the collections, The committee thought long and hard about the especially the current periodicals, are heavily Upstairs. fabulous collection and decided early on that a title need used. Pratt community members use the pe- not be indexed or available via subscription to the word strange is a helpful reference riodicals collections for many reasons: be selected for regular acquisition. and great all in one breath • For academic research yes, I say I have always loved this one. When we became aware of a new or es- • For creative research tablished magazine of potential interest to the • To teach classes (faculty bring in classes library community and curricula, we attempted to study periodicals, with or without to acquire a sample from the publisher or pur- Background librarian presence) chased an issue from a bookstore. Sometimes patrons would bring sample issues of favorite The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, • To stay current in their fields by regu- magazines, and those would be added to the offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in larly reading seminal journals and maga- display. In addition, a notebook was kept on several design fields, fine arts, art history, and zines display. In it patrons wrote the names of pub- other disciplines. The library’s expansive, rich, • To find periodicals to which creative lications they thought the library should sub- unusual periodicals collection is popular with work may be submitted and to which the Pratt community and is frequently used by students may apply for internships continued on page 77 76 Against the Grain / December 2007-January 2008 <http://www.against-the-grain.com> eral months — usually Biz of Acq — Sample Magazine for about a semester. from page 76 The Outcome scribe to or otherwise acquire. Acquisition as I found comments well as subscription is mentioned because the written in most of the library had to purchase several titles regularly magazines. The com- from bookstores because subscriptions did not ments in general were exist (Gum, a design magazine), a credit card rather thoughtful, with was required for subscription (Tate, etc., a UK the occasional, margin- art magazine), or EBSCO could not provide ally useful “This sux!” or could no longer provide (Arquine, a Spanish or “this is great! Sub- architecture magazine). In some cases the Li- scribe!” Useful com- brary made bookstore purchases until EBSCO ments included: “There was finally able to provide a subscription. is too much advertising Examples included Marmalade (UK design in this magazine.” “ar- magazine), 032c (German art magazine), and chitecture eye candy, Bidoun (U.S. published magazine about art and blah.” “all style but no culture in the Middle East). substance.” Writers of- In 2001 and 2002, the Dean of Libraries ten responded to each approved a budget of a few hundred dollars other’s comments, as so that librarians could purchase sample peri- well: “don’t listen to odicals. The money came from petty cash in him.” “I agree, there increments of no more than $25. Librarians aren’t enough Japa- visited bookstores, made purchases, and were nese magazines in the reimbursed. During those years, samples were library.” Writers would not displayed but were studied by librarians often compare the peri- only. Beginning in 2003, samples were put odical to the rest of the on display. Later, the budget was $400 — later collection, noting that it increased to $600 — and was expanded to was “unique,” “popu- officially include sample magazines and lar,” etc. One patron bookstore purchases of regularly acquired wrote that she gained magazines that did not offer subscriptions, an internship at one of including zines. Most purchases were made the sample magazines. at St. Mark’s Bookshop and Spoonbill & Someone else wrote Sugartown Bookstore in New York. If un- that a part-time faculty available at a bookstore where the PIL had member at Pratt was an account, materials were purchased with involved in the production of the magazine.