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Research Guides
The following research guides were created by our Librarians and Archivists in order to provide more ready access to the collections and facilitate research with Special Collections and University Archives materials. These guides colocate resources in Special Collections and University Archives according to their subject matter. These are intended to provide an overview on their subjects and help navigate the collections.
Massive Science Fiction Photo Collection Digitized in Record Time
The California Digital Library and the UCR Library recently partnered to digitize nearly 6,000 photographs from the Jay Kay Klein papers – and completed the task in less than two days.
“If we had done the same project in-house, it would have taken us several months to do,” said University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble.
UC Riverside is the first among the entire UC system to employ this specialized workflow with proprietary object holders designed by Pixel Acuity. The company has used the process with previous clients that include the Smithsonian Institution and Stanford University.
According to Mandeville-Gamble, this project demonstrated that non-book content can be digitized en masse at an affordable price by working with outside vendors.
“The Jay Kay Klein papers were so well cataloged and prepped for digitization, we finished well ahead of schedule,” commented Eric Philcox, owner of Pixel Acuity. “It was a pleasure working with UCR and CDL.”
“A standard has been set here, one that we will strive to meet in our future efforts to digitize comparable collections,” stated Eric Milenkiewicz, Digital Initiatives Program Manager.
This was the first in a series of pilot projects to use Pixel Acuity’s specialized mass digitization process to make more of the UCR Library’s non-book collections available online. For this inaugural project, Milenkiewicz selected 35mm negatives from the Eaton Collection’s Jay Kay Klein papers (MS 381), documenting the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) from 1960-1971.
“We are actively working to make the collection available to researchers worldwide, which I know was one of the goals of the original bequest from Jay Kay Klein,” Mandeville-Gamble added.
The UCR Library plans to make the resulting digital collection available on Calisphere by August 15, 2017.
Although the full project spearheaded by the California Digital Library has not been completed yet, their Technical Lead for UC Mass Digitization Projects Paul Fogel commented, “Overall, I feel like the project is a big success.” Fogel added that CDL was motivated to work with UC Riverside thanks to the library's eagerness and the fact that library staff were already working with some of the systems that CDL wanted to test.
“It is always hard to be the trailblazer and I'm impressed by UCR's willingness to take bold steps in digitization,” Philcox added. “The impressive results of UCR and CDL's first mass digitization pilot will certainly have a positive impact on UC's digitization efforts moving forward.”
Milenkiewicz concluded, “This collaborative project allowed us to witness firsthand the efficiency at which non-book mass digitization can be completed and has provided us with techniques that can be deployed locally to increase our own productivity.”
50X50: Celebrating the Eaton Collection's 50th Anniversary
The J. Lloyd Eaton collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Literature began under humble yet controversial auspices when University Librarian Donald Wilson acquired the collection in 1968. Wilson was alone in recognizing the research potential in the modest 7,500 volume personal library of Dr. J. Lloyd Eaton, but it quickly became a significant portion of the materials held here in Special Collections and University Archives. The collection grew in size and significance under the curatorship of George Slusser who began pursuing a wider range of materials including comic books as well as venturing into the world of fandom through the acquisition of fanzines and private collections related to fan groups, cons, and the broader science fiction community.
The Eaton collection has continued to grow in size and scope to include a wide range of materials from movie posters and authors’ papers to artwork and collectible items. The rest of the academic world has likewise caught up with the trailblazing of Donald Wilson and George Slusser and UC Riverside is no longer alone in believing that the realms of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and utopia have endless richness and depth to offer researchers. Indeed, we are witnessing a flourishing of the worlds of science fiction and fantasy during the early 21st century that rivals any other period since the genre emerged in the late 1800s.
This exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Eaton Collection at the Tomas Rivera Library of the University of California, Riverside. The objects on display here are but a small sample from the wide scale and scope of materials that comprise the collection. Please enjoy this curated journey through the realms of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and utopia.
Explore the Rich World of Fanzines for Research and Study
The UCR Library’s Special Collections & University Archives is thrilled to present a digital collection of fanzines, an exciting online resource for researchers of science fiction at UCR.
This digital archive features over 1,000 items from 12 different publications, offering a glimpse into the vibrant world of fan magazines.
This fanzine collection is a subset of the much larger collection of fanzines housed in Special Collections. Our comprehensive collection includes more than 68,000 fanzines, primarily from the 20th century, covering topics such as science fiction, fantasy, animation, and related genres. This extensive archive was created by integrating several individual fanzine collections from prominent members of the fan community, including the Bruce Pelz and Fred Patten fanzine collections.
Please note that the content on this site is for use by individual UCR-affiliated researchers only and you will need to log in with your UCR credentials for access. Specific written permission is required for public display or publication of these resources. To request reproductions of materials from the fanzine collections at UCR, please visit our SCUA Reproductions Policy.
To find out more about the fanzine collections at UCR, visit our LibGuide, Fandom Materials in the Eaton Collection: Fanzines.
Phoenix Alexander
Dr. Phoenix Alexander is responsible for the development, stewardship, and promotion of the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy and associated collections of science fiction, fantasy, horror and other forms of speculative fiction housed in our Special Collections & University Archives Department.
Jay Kay and Doris Klein Science Fiction Librarian
New Batch of Klein Photos Document Sci-Fi Fandom History
Nearly 2,000 new photographs of science fiction fandom history are now available to the public. They come from the photograph collection of Jay Kay Klein, a fixture of mid-twentieth century sci-fi fandom.
Klein Librarian for Science Fiction and Fantasy Dr. Phoenix Alexander describes Klein as "a visual chronicler of the community." Rarely seen without a camera, Klein donated a vast collection of photographs from science fiction and fantasy conventions and related events to the UCR Library’s Special Collections and University Archives, along with an endowment that supports the collection.
Digitization began in 2017 — five years before Phoenix joined the library — with just under 6,000 images published to Calisphere. A comprehensive review by Special Collections staff, including Processing Archivist Andrew Lippert, took place from 2019 to 2021, then incorporated community feedback into updated descriptions for that entire first batch. Now Phoenix and Andrew are announcing the next milestone: the digital publication of the first of eleven boxes of photographs, comprising nearly 2,000 images from 47 conventions and events. Digitization of this new batch was led by UCR Library Digitization Services Specialist Mark Buchholz.
Among Phoenix’s personal favorites in the collection are the Star Trek costumes seen in early cosplay competitions. "The longer I'm in this job, the more I realize just how inspirational Star Trek was," Phoenix said, noting the franchise’s profound impact as a series that took science seriously, presented women and people of color in leadership roles, and inspired generations of engineers, writers, and pilots.
About 57,000 images remain to be digitized, a project that will take years. To speed up access, some photos are being released now with minimal descriptions of events and people depicted, while others have been fully annotated. This decision to publish before everything is perfect is deliberate.
"We don't want materials to be sitting in a repository for decades without anybody being able to see them," Phoenix said. "We'd rather have folks be able to view them and make identifications themselves."
As Phoenix suggested, Special Collections and University Archives is asking for the sci-fi community’s help to identify unnamed people in the photographs — particularly the everyday fans and lesser-known figures who built the sci-fi fandom community from the ground up — which primarily span the late 1950s through the 1980s. We have created a web page with guidance on commenting practices to explain how comments are moderated and the types of descriptions that will be the most helpful.
You can view the full collection on Calisphere. To participate in the identification process, select an image and scroll to the bottom and click Join the Discussion.
Gregory Benford Papers
Located in: Special Collections & University Archives
This collection contains manuscripts, publications, press clippings, correspondence, and other material regarding Gregory Benford, an American science fiction author and astrophysicist. Included are Benford's academic and literary works, his collection of fanzines, and press clippings on both his academic and literary career.
Visiting Scholar in the Eaton Collection
The UCR Library has been host to Pablo Gomez, visiting scholar from the University of Zaragoza, Spain, throughout Spring Quarter, 2016. Gomez found his way to the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy after an international search for a library that could provide access to the largest possible number of works in these genres. He has found titles in the Eaton Collection that are invaluable for his work and very difficult to find in Europe.
Gomez is researching transnationalism in science fiction cinema for his Ph.D., and his research has identified trends in science fiction that reveal the development of a “transnational social conscience” that has come about largely through globalization. “Science fiction has a social imagination that can deal with our real world by suspending reality or pushing the boundaries of reality.”
Gomez will be returning to Spain in June.
