in the stackz

Crazy Belated Zine Project Update!

2008-02-26T14:26:00.000-08:00

Hello, faithful residency-blog readers!

I apologize for the total lack of posts relating to the progress of the project, but I think we've been focusing our efforts on making the project happen and neglecting the documentation.

NO LONGER!

Below is a photo of the newly installed space. Laura sewed a lovely colored banner, I printed up some dangly signs with shimmery red ink, we added a whole slew of donated zines, and TA-DA! A zine library is born! We didn't receive as much artistic freedom as our little artist minds had dreampt

(We aren't supposed to refer to the project using the words "library" or "collection," and we always must include the word "student," but sometimes I stumble on that.)

Plans now include:

An evening get-together with cookies to function as a belated "opening reception"

Thinking about next term and a future location for the zine collection

Working on another library project that includes a zine made by me and an unofficial tour of the library

More soon!

I love you!

MICROCOSM

2008-02-10T21:19:00.000-08:00

MICROCOSM JUST GAVE US ONE COPY OF EVERYTHING THEY HAVE EVER PUBLISHED.

THAT IS A LOT OF ZINES!!

But now here is my dilemma: people are definitely going to steal these book-like, not-affixed-with-a-censor publications. they're new and shiny and they sell them in bookstores for twelve dollars. I mean, we want people to have access to them, right? But we don't want the first twenty people to come in and take everything, right?

IDEAS IDEAS, HELP HELP! COMMENT, COMMENT!

thanks guys.

meeting about art wall

2008-02-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

So I met with Bill LePore, the chair of the Art Department, and I think I caught him on a bad day. I arrived early to the meeting and from the chairs in the waiting area could hear him sceraming obscenities into the phone. The receptionist actually told me, flat out, "It's not a good day."

Either way. I explained to him the situation in the Library where they are interested in giving that wall to the Art Dept. but with narrow guidelines for hardware, etc etc. He referred me to Jenene Nagy, his newly hired Gallery Director. He said if she's into taking on the responsibility of the wall, he'd allow her to. He wasn't really getting what I kept saying about creating a student position or student group to oversee and curate the wall.

Meeting with higher-ups...

On another note, I've been getting submissions in the mail from kind zine donors! Laura is making a banner this weekend, we've turned in the necessary forms, and next week we'll start installing the zine library! This weekend I'm going to work on making a sort of identity for the project, labels and signs and tags and things.

EXCITING THINGS ARE HAPPENING!

2008-02-03T22:03:00.001-08:00

Since my last post, there's been a lot of progress.

Last Monday during our meeting with Kim, she became very enthusiastic about one idea that suggested a zine exchange in the library, which would function as a sort of alternative information exchange with (hopefully) more pleasant aesthetics than the institutional fluorescent lights and linoleum floors in the library building. She suggested the third floor information slots (see photo in previous post to understand what I mean by "information slots"), which are in a high-traffic area and near the library's special collection of Dark Horse comic books. (Zines and comics, kind of related?) I wrote a proposal and sent it her way, and now we're waiting for final approval from the head librarian.

In the meantime, I figured I'd start spreading the word that we're seeking submissions for the project, and JEEZ I got lots of positive feedback and assistance from the zine and art community in Portland. The IPRC (Independent Publishing Resource Center) send the Call for Submissions out to their 1000+ mailing list contacts, and the communications director for RACC (Regional Arts and Culture Council) posted it on the organization's website! I have about a dozen promises of zines that people are sending to my house or leaving for me at the IPRC. The Portland Zine Symposium people also expressed some interest, though nothing concrete yet. Some girls handed me five copies of their zine yesterday, asking if we were going to have an opening reception. Woah?

Part of me is super excited that this project is going to be completely possible and successful, while another part of me wonders if this is really a needed addition to the library, with so many resources already existing in Portland. Zines are very important to people in Portland, and I wonder if anyone who happens upon our makeshift library-within-a-library is going to be surprised or feel like we're offering a unique service.

I suppose the way to counter this worry of the project turning out like any other old zine library (are we spoiled in Portland?! maybe!) is to work more on making zines for the library about interesting things I've discovered in starting to ask questions of the people in it. Laura and I decided to have one library-related featured zine at all times, and by making publications that are specific to our "department" we can make this project more unique and more oriented towards the LIBRARY and not just alternative media.

Ideas about Library Zines to be made this term:

-A single interview or a series of interviews with librarians at PSU on the topics of their lives or their specialty

-A collection of stories from students who work in the library, reshelving (the only student position)

-A photo essay (though in poor, xeroxed quality!) on the hidden parts of the library

Any more ideas, dudes? Any feedback so far on the project itself?

a little project

2008-01-31T23:20:00.000-08:00

On Monday I installed a guerrilla-style zine display in the fifth floor information cubbies. These cubbies are currently unused, and I took them over with a zine I made about my grandfather.

My grandfather, Norman Alexander, was an Associate Librarian at PSU from 1962 to 1966. He didn't actually work in the Millar Library, as it was built in 1966, but from what I can tell from his papers, he had a lot to do in the planning of the new building and its features.

He often made speeches, and liked to insert jokes occasionally to keep people interested. This weekend I spent time at my aunt's house sifting through some of his papers, and discovered a pile of notes he'd typed on the backs of discarded card catalog cards. The zine is a collection of these, with a picture of him, pensive, on the front.

Putting them in the library in a way serves to reinstall his presence in an institution in which he was very active decades ago. I'm excited for the personal ties I have to this library to encourage me to invest more of myself in the projects I'll undertake.

fly er

2008-01-30T11:59:00.000-08:00

last night i made a poster for an event that is coming up at the library.at our meeting yesterday with the librarian she mentioned needing help with a certain (boring-sounding) aspect of an upcoming Sierra Leone exhibition and after we declined, i decided to help in a way she didn't even realize she needed: a poster!

meeting with kim

2008-01-28T13:50:00.001-08:00

today we met with kim st. claire.
it was an interesting experience. there was very little discussion, which i wasn't happy about. there was also a concession on our part, as she was most interested in one of the ideas we were less enthusiastic about. oh well! we'll pour our hearts into it nonetheless, and i think there's a lot of potential in the space they're going to give us.

today i met three people in the library

2008-01-23T13:08:00.000-08:00

Leif works at the circulation desk. I went to him to ask about the University Archives, which is where I was hoping to end up in a lengthy discussion with the eccentric archival librarian I had invented in my head. No such luck. He did give me loads of information, most interestingly that the library is divided up into smaller departments within itself. This makes sense now that I think about it. I might think about narrowing my focus to a particular department. He told me about Library East, a small room at the end of a "long, dark stairway" in Smith, where they write code and make records for all the books in the library. Then we discussed the merits of the Library of Congress System over the Dewey Decimal System, which kind of broke my heart a little.

I met Don next, after Leif sent me upstairs to the reference desk to find out more about the university archives. Don is an old man who wouldn't tell me his name without an explanation, and then only his first name. I discovered his last name after reading his email over his shoulder while he looked for an email address for me. Don was both confused and amused by me, and he tried to discourage my interest in the archive room. ("It's just a bunch of old documents. I don't really understand what you're looking for.") He is the Library Liason for the University Honors department and the Government Documents Librarian. He did not volunteer this information, his colleague Heather did. (whom we will meet in a moment.) He studied at Harvard in the 1990's, and is a self-proclaimed "baseball scholar." Don seemed troubled that I was an art major, and asked me what I planned to do with my degree. I told him Graphic Design, which seemed to calm him. He asked if I was almost graduated and I laughed, which made him laugh.
Heather overheard Don and I talking about the archival librarian and wandered over to get in on the conversation. Heather is the Library Liason for the English Department and University Studies, though I think it's an interim position. She said she's filling in for someone on sabbatical. Heather has a masters in Library Science, which she was sure to tell me about. The people at the circulation desk hold service positions, while the reference desk staff are ACTUAL librarians with degrees and things.

My meeting these three people was facilitated by my search for a way into the University Archives room on the fifth floor. They all pointed me in the direction of one Cathy Alzner, the interim archivalist ("NOT a librarian, there's a difference.") Things I have learned today about Cathy Alzner:

– while she never checks her voicemail, she can be reached by email.
- she is a professor at PCC
- she is a baseball fan and sometimes shares memories of stadium visits with Don

i also found the card catalog. whoa.

making little bits of progress

2008-01-23T10:53:00.000-08:00

blurting

2008-01-16T18:06:00.000-08:00

so today laura and i went to the library and after asking at the circulation desk where kim wilson-st.clair's office was, we were pointed to the woman who had been in line ahead of us, rushing out the door. we called after her and she graciously turned around to stop and talk to us. i incorrectly assumed she had received my email and quickly spit out, "i'm the one who emailed you! about the artist residency thing?" hardly smooth, and hardly the way we've been discussing approaching people. she was kind, though, and we set up plans to set up plans.

i feel like i've had it easy so far (having an enthusiastic friend of harrell's as my sure-to-be contact person) and maybe that's why i failed to be sly and overtly interested in the department/institution initially. i'm going to bring notes to our meeting so i'll remember to pace myself in approaching the idea of an artist. in residence.

on another note:
on our short walk to the library, laura and i reiterated a bit some ideas we've been talking about. not terribly concrete, just particular aspects of the library that interest us: space, the sterile environment inside, the beauty of the silent and hidden fifth floor. still not sure if we'll end up collaborating or working individually, but hopefully both will be possible. indoor plants were also discussed.

yet another note:
today we visited the theater arts scene shop where young undergrads were hard at work constructing giant books for the set of the upcoming main stage show at PSU. i asked the TA what happened to the sets after the shows and she said they were usually dismantled and the lumber saved for reuse. i couldn't help but think how neat the giant (bigger than you are tall, probably, unless you are eight feet tall) books might look somewhere in that sterile library... installation piece? i dont know. can't think ahead too much.

library session

2008-01-14T22:30:00.000-08:00

tonight i explored some of the floors of the library i don't often frequent.

in the basement i found group study rooms, media-viewing rooms, and a completely different atmosphere (due to the lack of windows, i suspect) that felt pent-up in cozy and institutional ways at the same time.

tucked away in a fifth-floor corner is the office of the archival librarian, which i'll definitely be setting up an appointment to see. unfortunately the sign on the door only had summer term hours, so i'll have to investigate that. in another corner of the silent fifth floor are rows of empty shelves with signs on them that say "don't re-shelve anything here leaks!" there were no puddles or trash cans full of putrid rainwater, though. the fifth floor was almost entirely empty and at one point i felt a little unsafe.

the fourth floor has a lot of study desks and books about engineering and hydrology, which is likely why i don't stop on my way to the fifth floor. i never noticed but was pleased to discover windows on the back side of the building facing the football/soccer field which i've also never seen. it's a nice view of the entire field from the top floor.

tonight i really understood how vast the library is. there are secret stacks and entire wings with no one in them, rows of volumes of the same color and stacks of unused chairs in hallways and corners. hopefully by the time i'm finished i'll know every corner of the building.

maybe i'll memorize the dewey decimal system?

approaching strange people in new departments

2008-01-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

i think we had overwhelmingly positive experiences approaching departments on wednesday.
the campus ministry woman,
the black studies department,
the math resource center.
everyone was pretty much thrilled to be able to tell us what they do, because i think maybe it's rare that fifteen people walk in looking for information in an obscure basement meditation center or a tucked-away room packed with mathematics periodicals.

sylvia in the math room was particularly inspiring, and i think it'd be neat to do a project examining the crazy reprogramming of her brain that enabled her to miraculously do math to the extent she's now capable of. seeing her masters project, seeing the triangular-hexagonal-golden mean thing she built- this woman should be commissioned to do a math-inspired public sculpture or something. i also liked the idea of having a "former-bad-experiences-in-math" support group.

sylvia was definitely the highlight of my day, even though she did freak me out with all her talk about the fourth dimension.

social practices II

2008-01-07T23:37:00.000-08:00

ideas for departments for artist residency:

the library (because it's warm and quiet and offers a plethora of project possibilities)

the bike coop (because it's squished into a closet on the ground floor of a parking garage and i think it needs my help)

a food cart on fourth avenue (the burrito cart with the mural because they are really nice people or new taste of india because they are the first cart i ate at in portland)