[Libs-Or] Oregon Poetry posters online to print

Mon Apr 5 15:07:04 PDT 2010

In honor of National Poetry Month, the State Library and Oregon State Poetry Association (OSPA) are pleased to announce the Oregon Poetry Collection is expanding!  Below is a copy of the press release with details about the Oregon Poetry Collection and the new acquisitions that are now available for you and your patrons to check out via interlibrary loan.

In addition, the State Library and OSPA were very fortunate to find a talented local artist, Emily Germond, to volunteer to design two posters for you to download and print to promote Oregon Poetry in your library or school.  One poster has an excerpt from a poem by well-known Oregon poet William Stafford.  This poster has a very classic look and feel.  The second poster has an excerpt from Oregon poet Garrett Hongo.  This poster is a little edgier, and may appeal especially to teens and college students.  Both posters are available for you to download and print in color or black & white, and standard printer paper size (8.5 x 11 in.) or poster size (22 x 28 in.).

Please go to the Oregon Poetry Collection webpage to download and print your Oregon poetry posters: http://tiny.cc/ouu9r

Enjoy,
Katie

Katie Anderson, Library Development Services
* Youth Services Consultant * Oregon Center for the Book Coordinator *
Oregon State Library, 250 Winter St. NE, Salem, OR 97301
katie.anderson at state.or.us, 503-378-2528

Oregon State Library
250 Winter St. NE
Salem, OR 97301-3950

PRESS RELEASE
For Release: April 5, 2010
Contact: Katie Anderson, Oregon Center for the Book, 503.378.2528 or katie.anderson at state.or.us

Oregon Poetry Collection Expands

The Oregon Poetry Collection at the Oregon State Library has recently been enhanced by the acquisition of 159 titles from the estate of the late Vi Gale, well-known Portland poet and publisher, and from the inventory of Great Northwest Books, a Portland independent bookstore that closed last year. This substantial acquisition was made possible by a grant from The Kinsman Foundation.
Among the newly acquired books are first editions of poetry collections by C. E. S. Wood, H. L. Davis, Mary Barnard, and other famous past Oregon poets. Many of the books from Vi Gale's estate are signed and inscribed with personal messages.
During National Poetry Month, the works in the OPC will be highlighted by a lecture titled "Reading the Rain: 150 Years of Oregon Poetry," to be given by Eugene poet, teacher, and editor John Witte. The lecture is scheduled for noon to 1 p.m., Wednesday, April 7. Admission is free, and attendees are welcome to bring lunch. Box lunches will also be available for purchase on site. In his lecture, Witte will trace the evolution of Oregon's poetry from pioneer letters and diaries and the journals of early explorers to the emergence in the 1940s of the state's first great poems. He will explore the question of whether Oregon's unique landscape and history have left a distinctive imprint on its poetry.
Established in 2007, the Oregon Poetry Collection is a joint project of the State Library and the Oregon State Poetry Association. Its purpose is to provide a single, increasingly comprehensive collection of works by poets resident, born, raised or educated in Oregon, and to make these works accessible to all Oregonians. Whenever possible, the collection includes one circulating copy and one permanent copy accessible at the State Library. Oregon residents can borrow circulating volumes directly from the State Library, where they are housed in the Oregon Poet Laureate's Reading Room, or request them through their local public library
The idea for such a collection arose in conversations among Lawson Fusao Inada, who has recently ended his tenure as Oregon Poet Laureate, State Library Director Jim Scheppke, and OSPA past President David Hedges. The idea was developed in a Memorandum of Understanding between OSL and OSPA, and the collection opened to the public in April 2008. Its development has been overseen by a joint committee of OSL staff and OSPA volunteers.
Except for the recent grant-funded purchase, all the books in the OPC-now over 2,000 items, about 1,150 separate titles-have been donated. The first acquisitions were from private collections that OSPA members had donated to the Association with the intent that they would be made accessible to others. David Hedges culled from them books that met the criteria established for the OPC. Another OSPA past president, Linda Varsell Smith, also donated a substantial number of works by Oregon poets from her private library.
OSPA then issued a call to poets in its membership to donate their own books and also sought donations from Oregon publishers of Oregon poetry. This elicited many donations of one or a few titles. Copies in excess of two were offered by OSL to the state's public libraries, which proved eager to have them.
Once the collection was established with these donations of private collections and single titles, OSL added to it books already in its possession that met its criteria, including past winners of the Oregon Book Award in poetry, which had been donated to the Library by Literary Arts.
The catalog of the OPC can be accessed online at the OSL website, <http://www.oregon.gov/OSL>. Oregon poets and publishers of Oregon poetry with books not presently included in the Collection are encouraged to donate two copies of each title, one for circulation and one for permanent preservation. Copies should be addressed to Oregon State Library, Attn: Oregon Poetry Collection, 250 Winter St. NE, Salem, Oregon 97301-3950. 
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