Cataloguing Creativity: A Symposium of Literary Archives

Working Press, books by and about working class artists, 1986-1996

Cataloguing Collaboratively

Background: University for the Creative Arts

• Six Art Schools and Technical Institutes dating from late Victorian times

• Campuses at Canterbury, Rochester, Maidstone (Kent), Epsom, Farnham (Surrey)

• Specialising in the Creative Arts

Beginnings of The Working Press• Initiated by Dr Stefan Szczelkun,

with Graham Harwood

Working Press poster

• About working class identity

• First self funded titles in 1987

About The Working Press• Class, gender and race perceptions

(1980s-1990s politics)

• Digital innovations

• Self-funded publishing activity

• Archive includes:• Correspondence • Conference records• Draft manuscripts• Finance• Publicity and distribution

Class, Identity, and Culture Conference 1994

Letters of reviews of Working Press

Letter to Stefan Szczelkun relating to the pamphlet ‘Artists Liberation’

Working class women artists

Working class black artists

Publicity

Nothing Special, by Micheline Mason (a day in the life of a girl in a wheelchair)

Links between different publishers

The Federation of Worker Writers & Community Publisher letter, confirming funding for the 1994 conference

Partners in the project

• Dr Stefan Szczelkun, Artist

• bookRoom, UCA research cluster.

Cataloguing requirementsInitial talks with Stefan:

• Cataloguing as an artistic process

• History of Working Press

• Information about individuals

Cataloguing requirements

Discussions on and Involvement in:

• Arrangement

• Description

• Definitions

Cataloguing requirements

• Searchability and Accessibility

- Exploring links between books and archive

material

- Subject terms(including librarian knowledge)

Under exploration• Online presence

• Voice recordings

• Student involvement• Visual Guides• Exhibitions

In summary…

• Greater understanding of collection • Arrangement• Description• Subject terms

• Links between published/unpublished material

• Involvement leading to engagement

Thanks for listening!Contact us at…

ucreative.ac.uk/library

Rtaylor8@ucreative.ac.uk

http://ucaarchives.wordpress.com/