Library news for Artists

ZineWiki is an open-source encyclopedia devoted to zines and independent media. It covers the history, production, distribution and culture of the small press.

The Zine and E-Zine Resource Guide is a collection of essays focusing on the history of zines and the underground press scene. Essays include Stephen Perkins’ ‘Approaching the ’80s zine scene: a background survey and selected annotated bibliography’, with chapters on punk zines, mail art, and artists’ magazines.

A selection of 20 1960s and 70s artists’ books have been digitised and made available here. The selection includes examples by some of the most important artists associated with the boom in artists’ books publishing at this time, such as Lawrence Weiner, Sol LeWitt, John Baldessari, and Marcel Broodthaers.

The Modernist Journals Project is a joint digitisation project of Brown University and the University of Tulsa which aims to be a major resource for the study of modernism and its rise in the English-speaking world, with periodical literature as its central concern. The aim of the project is to produce digital editions of culturally significant magazines from the early 20th century and make them freely available via the website. Journals include Blast, Wyndham Lewis’ ‘quintessential modernist little magazine’, and its successor, The Tyro; Robert Graves’ The Owl; and influential literary magazine, The English Review.

The American Independent volume of the Directory of World Cinema is available to download for free for a limited time from http://www.worldcinemadirectory.org.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has recently announced the launch of its Reading Room, an online space devoted to the presentation of the museum’s publications. In an effort to make books available that are otherwise difficult to access, the initial group focuses on out-of-print offerings and features ten digitised catalogues highlighting the development of the Los Angeles art scene during the 1960s and 70s including Six painters and the object by Lawrence Alloway, Art in Los Angeles: seventeen artists in the sixties by Maurice Tuchman, and exhibition catalogues on Edward Kienholz and Robert Irwin.

BFI Screenonline this month takes a look at British gangsters, from Richard Attenborough’s memorable Pinkie in 1947′s Brighton Rock to equally vivid portrayals from the likes of Stanley Baker, Michael Caine, James Fox, Bob Hoskins, Richard Burton and Ben Kingsley. Meanwhile, focus is also on the centenaries of André Morell, the definitive Professor Quatermass, and Tommy Trinder, music hall star, comic actor and TV entertainer.

Highlights of this month’s updates can be found on the BFI Screenonline home page.

See all 33 new additions and updates on the What’s New page.

The Library has a trial for Pidgeon Digital until the end of September.  Pidgeon Digital is a collection of illustrated talks by architects and related designers. The collection was founded in 1979 by Monica Pidgeon (long-time editor of the magazine Architectural Design).

The trial is only available onsite or if logged into WTS remotely.

UCL has a trial of the Primal Pictures interactive human anatomy database until 15 May 2009.

Primal Pictures features more than 6,500 three-dimensional anatomy models that focus on individual organs, regions of the body and anatomical systems.  The models are derived from medical scan data and adapted by graphic specialists.  Animations illustrate accurate anatomical function, biomechanics and movement, as well as treatments and surgical procedures.

Please send your feedback on this trial to ejournals@ucl.ac.uk, or post a comment on the Electronic Resources blog. 

• Access the Primal Pictures trial (scroll down and select Primal Pictures Anatomy Premier Library Package)
• Trial ends: 15 June 2009