LitMore Poetry Library

This post was originally published on June 23 2014

by Laura Damon-Moore

Several weeks ago we got a note from Christophe Casamassima (whose Poetry in Community project we featured on the website a couple of years ago) that said, “Because of the generous space you gave me two years ago on the website, we were inspired to bring our enormous poetry collection into circulation for the public.” Music to our ears, let me tell you! The note went on to mention the resource highlighted in today’s feature – the LitMore Poetry Library, “Baltimore’s largest collection of small press poetry books and ephemera.”

The Poetry Library is a work in progress, a private collection of some 3,000 books, chapbooks, and other literary objects made public in its new home at LitMore, an expansive art and literary community space in Baltimore. The Poetry Library was collected by Douglas Mowbray and Christophe Casamassima, who is currently working to catalog the now 4,000 pieces in the library for use by the public.

The Poetry Library at LitMore community art space.

Works from the Cheap Poetry project, which asked artists to assemble poetic objects and package them for redistribution, now part of the LitMore Poetry Library.

A stack of recent book donations to the LitMore Poetry Library.

In a recent letter about the Poetry Library, Christophe writes,

Our mission is to serve the public’s literary interests and curiosities by making the whole library available for public lending and research. To make this possible, we are in the process of electronically cataloging all titles by a unique call number system (similar to the Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal), and physically arranging the collection according to binding (for example, perfect bound, saddle-stitched, or no binding). Some of the most exciting aspects of this collection are the hundreds of artefacts that defy the concept of the book (for example, a collection of photocopies, postcards, toys and even painted records bound into a sack), making this library a very important resource for the preservation and archiving of rare and delicate materials. A dedicated, searchable electronic catalogue, plus a complementary image library to support off-site users, will ultimately be available to the public, simplifying browsing and research.

Poetry enthusiasts from farther afield can stay tuned to the project’s progress through the library’s blog, which is updated weekly. Here you’ll find updates in the cataloging process, plus highlights of individual pieces in the collection with pictures and histories.

There’s a lot of cool stuff in the works that really embraces the LAIP’s ideal of programming as collection development:

While the physical collection is the heart of our library, we believe that poetry- and book arts-related programming is complementary to collection development. We naturally do the physical work of cataloging and organizing, but we’re also developing fun, educational opportunities for the members of our community, in which they will learn skills like writing and performing poetry, making books by hand, and learning strategies to start a poetry press. We will also hold two annual festivals celebrating the diversity of small press publishing—a large-scale book fair representing small press publishers and poets in the fall, and in the spring a fair dedicated to the art and history of book-making. And once a month, we will host a group of newly published writers, who will read from their collections during an open house.

Needless to say, we’re really excited about the future of the LitMore Poetry Library, and we can’t wait to see where the next year takes it!

If you are so inclined, the LitMore Poetry Library has a fundraising campaign running to help the library cover the cost of supplies, offer stipends to guest presenters, and more.

from Library as Incubator Project http://ift.tt/1lja4jn
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