Edward E. Marsh has donated of the collection of science fiction and fantasy to San Diego State University’s Love Library. The first portion of the collection is valued at more than $2.25 million and contains movie props, original book cover art, literary contracts, and autographs. Most of the books are signed first editions. A new room to house the collection will be built.
Several rare volumes of science fiction have been stolen from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection of the Temple University Libraries. First editions by Isaac Asimov, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, H. P. Lovecraft, and Jules Verne were among those listing as missing as of August 2012. Anyone with knowledge of these volumes, or other volumes which may rightfully belong to the University, should contact Margery Sly, Director of Special Collections, at msly@temple.edu.
Bruce Sterling has donated a collection to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Sterling is donating more than 250 books from his library and 322 serial volumes, many of which are editions of his own work or contain his work. The donation also includes drafts of Sterling’s novels. Sterling graduated from the University of Texas and his collection now joins the collection of L. Sprague and Catherine de Camp and L.W. Currey.
The Liverpool Central Library in the UK will be incorporating a walkway listing book, movie, and album titles, a literary panel listing authors, and a series of quotations in its £50 million redevelopment plan. A panel of experts have released a potential listing of the inclusions and welcomes comments. Authors on the panel primarily of genre interest include Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, and Olaf Stapledon. Works on the walk of genre interest include Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Lord of the Rings, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Star Wars, The Mabinogion, The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan.
Charles Coleman Finlay will speak on “How The Marysville Public Library Saved My Life.” at the Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, 233 W. 6th Street, Marysville, OH on Tuesday, February 15 as part of the Friends of the Library Authors’ Series. The event will last from 6:45—9:00 P.M. and will help raise money to support the Marysville Public Library.
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst is hosting an exhibit entitled “Uncertain Futures: Americans and Science Fiction in the Early Cold War Era.” The exhibit was put together by graduate student Morgan Hubbard and will be open for the next six weeks at the W.E.B. DuBois Library. In addition, the exhibit has an extensive on-line presence.
Hal Hall, who has served as curator of the Science Fiction and Fanzine collection at Texas A&M since 1978 retired on August 30. Hall built the collection to more than 46,000 items. He will be succeeded by Catherine Coke, who is also an SF fan.
The British Library has acquired 15 large boxes of papers from the estate of author J.G. Ballard. The papers, which have been appraised at £350,000, cover a period beginning with the writing of The Drowned World in 1962 through Miracles of Life in 2008. In 1982, Ballard told an interviewer that he did not maintain an archive of letters, papers, or drafts, all of which are represented in the donation.
The Organization for Transformative Works has announced a partnership with the University of Iowa to create the Fan Culture Preservation Project. The project hopes to artifacts of fannish culture and make them accessible to wider popular and research audiences. Items in the collection include fanzines, convention program books, and other materials. The first donation is a collection of 3,000 fanzines previously housed in Santa Barbara, California.
The Falmouth Public Library will be hosting a panel of science fiction authors on June 17 from 7:00-9:00pm. The panel discussion will include Michael A. Burstein, Jeffrey A. Carver, Jennifer Pelland, and Walter Hunt. This program is supported by the Falmouth Public Library Trustees and is free. For reservations, call 508-457-2555, ext. 6 or email: info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org