UB Poetry Collection Wins ALA Award for Joyce Exhibition Catalogue

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Poetry Collection of the University at Buffalo Libraries has received an honorable mention in the 2010 Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab "American Book Prices Current" Exhibition Awards competition.

Michael Basinski, PhD, curator of the UB Poetry Collection, said the collection is being recognized for "Discovering James Joyce: The University at Buffalo Collection," the illustrated print catalogue edited by James Maynard, PhD, the collection's assistant curator.

The awards will be presented on June 27 during the RBMS Annual Membership Meeting and Information Exchange, at the ALA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

The catalogue accompanied a major 2009 exhibition of the same name mounted at UB's Anderson Gallery.

The Leab awards are given by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a major division of the American Library Association (ALA) for catalogues associated with library exhibitions in one of four cost categories. One honorable mention was made, as well, to the UB Poetry Collection.

The UB catalogue was recognized for many reasons, and with great praise from Richard Noble, Brown University rare book cataloger and chair of the RBMS Exhibition Awards committee.

"This catalogue is an indispensable guide to and demonstration of the scholarly possibilities of this particular collection," Noble said.

"It's also a visual feast," he said, "the complexity of its design properly representing the variousness of the many items on view, but with the clarity necessary to the understanding of all that variety: each element of the page has a distinct function, and everything is brought into clear relation.

"The challenge to the makers of this catalogue was the variety and depth of the materials: the Joyce family collection," he said, "which includes books by Joyce, as well as his personal library, manuscripts, photographs and memorabilia; together with the collection of Sylvia Beach, publisher of the first edition of 'Ulysses.'"

The catalogue includes essays by Luca Crispi, PhD, lecturer in the University College Dublin School of English, Drama and Film and its Centre for Research for James Joyce Studies, and former James Joyce Scholar-in-Residence, UB Poetry Collection; Michael Groden, PhD, professor of English at the University of Western Ontario, director of James Joyce's "Ulysses" in Hypermedia project and a scholar who, for decades, has conducted research in the UB Joyce Collection; Sam Slote, PhD, lecturer in James Joyce studies and critical theory, Trinity College, Dublin, and former James Joyce scholar-in-residence, UB Poetry Collection; and the late Oscar Silverman, professor and chair, UB Department of English and director of UB Libraries, an avid Joyce scholar instrumental in acquiring many of the materials in the UB Joyce Collection. It also includes an exhibition checklist and a foreward by Basinski.

Kristopher Miller, the UB Libraries' web/graphic designer, designed the catalogue and served as print manager, and James A. Ulrich contributed photography.

The catalogue is available for purchase at http://library.buffalo.edu/pl/collections/jamesjoyce/exhibition/catalog.php.

The Leab awards are funded by an endowment established by Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab, editors of "American Book Prices Current," an annual record of books, manuscripts, autographs, maps and broadsides sold at auction, the standard tool used by dealers, appraisers, auction houses, scholars and tax authorities for definitive information.

The awards recognize outstanding exhibition catalogues issued by American or Canadian institutions in conjunction with library exhibitions as well as electronic exhibition catalogues of outstanding merit issued within the digital/web environment.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.