Eaton Science Fiction & Fantasy Archive in trouble?
August 22, 2014 12:22 PM   Subscribe

Celebrated writer Nalo Hopkinson blogs that the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy, the largest publicly-accessible collection of sf/f genre books in the world, may be in danger, in the wake of changes in the library and university administration. The archive is housed by the library system of UC Riverside and currently hosts a biennial conference, a lifetime achievement award for celebrated writers in the genre and a student short story contest. The journal Science Fiction Studies (based at DePauw) sponsors a fellowship to promote research at the Eaton archive.
posted by aught (4 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Having just recently gotten a couple of fanzine articles sent to me by Eaton, I will be very sad if it gets destroyed.
posted by tavella at 1:38 PM on August 22, 2014


Can I ask a dumb question? What the heck is the rest of the world supposed to be doing about this?I mean, spreading the word for support is nice, I guess, but that probably isn't going to do a darned thing about shitty new management that is driving everyone out of there.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:02 PM on August 22, 2014


What the heck is the rest of the world supposed to be doing about this?

Someone out there could buy it. Or host it. Or something.
I've known some impassioned SF fan librarians in my time, and with the batsignal up, and the signal boosted, someone could keep the archive together in one place and accessible.

Stop the Eaton riflers, as it were.

(Okay, that last bit was a hell of a stretch).
posted by Mezentian at 2:43 AM on August 23, 2014


What the heck is the rest of the world supposed to be doing about this?

It isn't like academics are immune to peer pressure. If the new university administrators get enough bad press they might change their priorities. Better than just ignoring it and letting them put the books in a dumpster, right?
posted by aught at 8:44 AM on August 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


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