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Artists' Books: A Feast for the Senses
Vamp & Tramp Booksellers Bill and Vicky Stewart put as many miles on their minivan each year touring the country to share their love of artists’ books as the average person racks up in his daily work commute.
Birmingham, Alabama is where Bill and Vicky call home, yet they spend nearly 11 months on the road each year, driving coast to coast to visit Special Collections libraries and show their assortment of artists’ books. “We average about 40,000 to 45,000 miles each year on the minivan,” Bill said.
During their west coast tour, Bill and Vicky brought their traveling “road show” to Rivera Library on the morning of March 2, 2017. Their display featured dozens of artists’ books ranging from colorful pop-ups that showed traditional cultural costumes, to miniature books carved out of wood, to accordion-fold books that depicted stylized creation myths from myriad cultures, and more.
Their passion for artists’ books is the result of “pure dumb luck,” as Bill stated. He first encountered artists’ books while he was selling first editions of literature and mystery fiction at a book fair. “I stumbled across one of these books and thought, ‘Wow! How much more exciting is this?’” he said.
Bill bought his first artists’ book that day and immediately shared it with his wife and business partner, Vicky. “That was nearly 20 years ago,” he explained. “We started small and grew more and more.”
Vamp & Tramp Booksellers began as a brick and mortar bookshop in Birmingham and gradually evolved into the traveling business model that it is today. “When it came time to make a decision about whether to keep the shop open, we decided to get rid of all the first editions,” Bill stated. “The best way to sell artists’ books is to travel around the country and let people see, touch, smell, and sometimes even taste the books.”
Bill and Vicky closed the doors to their physical bookshop in 2003 and started living on the road in 2004.
It was several years ago during one of their cross-country tours that Bill and Vicky first met Cherry Williams, UCR Library’s Director of Distinctive Collections. Like Bill and Vicky had, Cherry fell in love with artists’ books right away.
“People need to have a hands-on experience with artists’ books,” Cherry said. “It’s very different to be able to touch them than it is to see the books inside an exhibit case. It engages all the senses. I think the artistry is really amazing, how they envision and create.”
Bill agrees. “There are things that resist the digital world,” he explained. “We find when we give presentations to students, the physical part of the book becomes part of the esthetic experience – how it opens, how it feels. Artists’ books are sort of the antidote to the digital world.”
Attendees of the Vamp & Tramp event voted on which book that UCR Library would acquire, and the book selected was “Circle or Zero” by Mari Eckstein Gower. “It’s a limited edition of 15, which means there are only 14 others in the world,” Cherry explained.
“Circle or Zero” (pictured above) will soon be available for request in Special Collections on the fourth floor of Rivera Library. Many other artists’ books are currently available, until this one has been cataloged, and we encourage you to come explore our collection.
Landmark Open Access Agreement Signed with Oxford University Press
Effective February 4, 2025, this agreement provides access to OUP’s world-leading journals and support for UC authors to publish open access in nearly 500 OUP journals at reduced or no cost.
The 10-campus University of California system (UC), 20 of 23 California State University (CSU) campuses, and 30 private academic and research institutions represented by the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) have reached a comprehensive four-year transformative open access agreement with Oxford University Press (OUP). The agreement begins this month and will provide affiliated researchers with access to OUP’s world-leading journals and support for publishing their work open access.
“This partnership between UC, CSU and SCELC demonstrates the power of collaboration across diverse institutions,” said Mark Hanna, Associate Professor of History at UC San Diego and chair of the UC faculty Academic Senate’s systemwide committee on library and scholarly communication. “By joining forces, we are advancing open access and amplifying the global impact of California’s scholarship. I’m excited to see this significant step forward, which reflects our shared commitment to creating a more accessible, equitable, and sustainable future for scholarly communication.”
This major agreement harnesses the resources of research institutions, private liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities, and special libraries across California by redirecting existing library subscription funds to support authors publishing open access. The agreement enables authors at the participating institutions to publish articles using an open access license at reduced or no cost in more than 500 hybrid and fully open access OUP journals. Authors with grant funds available will pay a discounted open access publishing fee across OUP’s hybrid and fully open access journals. Authors who do not have grant funds available will be able to publish open access in hybrid journals at no cost to them.
“As a catalyst for transformative change in scholarly communication, SCELC is dedicated to forging agreements that empower libraries and their researchers,” said Teri Oaks Gallaway, SCELC Executive Director. “By working with Oxford University Press, we are not only expanding access to high-impact research but also driving a more sustainable and equitable publishing future for our member institutions.”
Transformative agreements provide a way for institutions to maintain access to scholarly content available only through subscription, while supporting the transition to open access publishing by their affiliated researchers. Institutions are, in effect, redirecting their expenditures on subscriptions to cover the open access article publication charges. Through this agreement, thousands of researchers at 60 institutions will be eligible for financial support when they choose to publish open access in OUP journals.
"CSU libraries are delighted to provide our students and faculty with access to more OUP journals than ever before and the opportunity to openly publish their research," said Ann Roll, Director of Systemwide Digital Library Content at the CSU Office of the Chancellor. "Through transformative and collaborative work with our partners at UC and SCELC, CSU research can be shared openly and CSU students will have the OUP resources they need for their success, all at a sustainable cost to CSU libraries."
The aim of this transformative agreement is to make it easier and more affordable for authors from SCELC, CSU and UC institutions to publish open access rather than behind a paywall, while also controlling the participating institutions’ journal expenditures. Like other transformative agreements at UC, CSU and SCELC, this agreement aligns with the institutions’ missions and contributes to the global shift towards sustainable open access publishing by making more research and scholarship from California freely available to the world.
The agreement demonstrates how innovative, diverse, multi-institution cooperation can play a vital role in the open access movement by ensuring that researchers at academic institutions of all types can fully engage in the benefits of open access publishing.
“We are delighted to reach this agreement with the California universities,” said Alastair Lewis, Sales Director, OUP. “The negotiations for this agreement have been positive and constructive, and we are really excited to expand access to our world-leading journals and open access publishing across these universities.”
More Information
Learn more about the agreement by reading the agreements FAQ's from the University of California's Office of Scholarly Communication. You can also reach out to the UCR Library's Collection Strategist for STEM Michele Potter with any questions.
Klein photo gallery sparks delight and discussion among science fiction fans
When Calisphere released the online gallery of 5,933 recently digitized photos from the Jay Kay Klein photographs and papers on science fiction fandom last week, the UCR Library’s team was thrilled with the rapid response of the science fiction fan community.
Within 15 hours of publication, chats about the images lit up fan blogs, including Mike Glyer’s site, File770.
A science fiction fan, Klein photographed many events during the 1960s and 1970s, including “Worldcon.” Klein donated these photographs, which were part of his $3.5 million estate, to the UCR Library in 2014.
“We’re a large but tight-knit community and we love our history,” said David M. Stein. “Since this archive went live, we've been pointing out images, lots of ‘OH MY, that's <so-and-so>,’ and ‘Hey Anne, were you ever THAT young?’”
Some fans were understandably frustrated that individuals were misidentified in some of the picture captions, but the overwhelming majority were delighted as they found many familiar faces and fond memories among the sea of photos.
Library staff received emails from many fans, graciously offering to provide additional information about the people and events pictured “before all those who attended the conventions have shuffled off this mortal coil,” as Maggie Thompson so aptly stated.
“NYCon III was my first world convention,” wrote John-Henri Holmberg. “I'm amused to more or less recognize my youthful self in a few of Jay Kay Klein's photos.”
JJ Jacobson, the Jay Kay and Doris Klein Librarian for Science Fiction, has had many conversations with fans about the photos since the gallery went up on Calisphere. “We knew there were flaws,” she commented. “We also knew it would be possible to crowdsource, but we had no idea that the SF community would be so magnificently generous. We weren’t ready for the flood, but we’re ecstatic that it’s happening.”
To give perspective on the “flood,” Digital Initiatives Program Manager Eric Milenkiewicz shared these statistics: In the last week of August, UCR collections on Calisphere received 33,557 pageviews (25,407 unique), which is far beyond those received in a typical week.
“The impact that this collection has had thus far is remarkable,” Milenkiewicz added. “Our pageview statistics on Calisphere have just soared over the past seven days, with much of this traffic attributed to the Klein photos!”
Glyer has generously offered to use File770 to help spread the word among the Science Fiction community about how fans can submit corrections to the photo captions.
“We knew there were some issues with the metadata before we put it up,” explained Cherry Williams, Director of Distinctive Collections. “But what’s important to us is that this is a vibrant, living project that’s going to continue to move and breathe and evolve.”
Fans who want to contribute corrections and/or enhancements for the Klein photo captions can submit them through this form, which was created for this project by Digital Assets Metadata Librarian, Noah Geraci.
Jacobson offers one word of caution to those who wish to help with the metadata corrections: “It will not show up immediately [on Calisphere] because we need to validate, in case two different people give us conflicting information.”
Williams, Jacobson, Milenkiewicz, and Geraci are already thinking ahead to how the library can improve the integration of crowdsourced metadata in the future, as there are more than 55,000 of Klein’s images that have not yet been digitized.
“I knew Jay Kay Klein back in the day (and may appear in some of his photos),” Dennis McCunney commented via email. “I think he'd be delighted at the response to his work. I certainly am.”
This project will continue to grow, but it would not be possible without financial donations. Should you feel inspired to support the digitization of more of Klein’s photographs, please contact Jernine McBride, Associate Director of Development for the UCR Library, to discuss how you can help to move this project forward.
Happy Holidays from the UCR Library
Second image: Drone shot of the campus with snow capped mountains. (UCR/Taylor Ruthford)
Explore Two New Digital Collections
We’re excited to announce the addition of two digital collections available for research and study.
Allison V. Armour Expedition to Yucatán, Mexico Photograph Album
This collection showcases the 1895 research expedition led by curators from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The photo album captures views of Mayan ruins, with additional photographs of local scenery and the expedition group.
Explore the collection on Calisphere.
Pico Rivera News (UCR Access Only)
Dive into LA County history with the Pico Rivera News, a newspaper chronicling life in Pico Rivera, California and the surrounding area in 1931 and 1932. While mostly in English, some issues do feature a page of news in Spanish. This archive is a valuable resource for members of the UCR community researching journalism, Southern California history, and even Hispanic culture.
Access the collection through UC Library Search.
These new digital collections highlight our commitment to preserving and providing access to historical resources. We invite you to explore these collections and unlock stories from the past!
Major HVAC Upgrade at Rivera Library Underway
The HVAC system for Rivera Unit 1, the north side of Rivera Library, is undergoing a major upgrade estimated to take as long as six months to complete.
Be aware that as a result of this work, there will be no air conditioning in the north wing for the duration of the project.
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as we work to improve our facilities.
Metadata and Discovery Librarian
We are pleased to announce that Jessica Kruppa has joined the UCR Library as our Metadata and Discovery Librarian.
Jessica earned her BA in English from California Baptist University, and her MLIS from the University of Alabama. Most recently, Jessica served as the Cataloging Services Librarian for Gateway Seminary and as a Library Intern at California Baptist University. Jessica brings experience in Integrated Library Systems, discovery, institutional repositories, and cataloging practices. Prior to working in libraries, Jessica served in administrative roles for Lake Perris State Recreation Area and California Rehabilitation Center.
When we return to campus, Jessica will be located in Metadata and Technical Services on the ground floor of Orbach Library, room G44, reporting to Manuel Urrizola, Head of Metadata and Technical Services.
Please welcome Jessica to the library!
Director of Organizational Design and Human Resources
The UCR Library is delighted to announce that Cindi Tompkins has joined the UCR Library as our new Director of Organizational Design and Human Resources.
Cindi will be located in Library Human Resources on the first floor of the Tomas Rivera Library, reporting to Steven Mandeville-Gamble, University Librarian.
Cindi earned her Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, Finance degree from California State University, San Bernardino.
Most recently, Cindi served as the Human Resources Director for the County of San Bernardino.
Accessing Special Collections & University Archives (SCUA) Materials
Below, you’ll find all the resources you need to explore and access our collections.
Getting Started with SCUA
If you’re new to SCUA, we recommend starting with our Introduction to UCR Special Collections and University Archives presentation. It provides an overview of the types of materials we house and the services we offer.