Announcing the Texas State University Artists' Books Collection Digital Exhibit!!

The Texas State University Artists' Books Collection Digital Exhibit is a sampling of the artists' books in the whole Artists’ Books Collection. There are 20 total artists’ books in the digital online exhibit. 

An artists' book is a book that is handmade or has an interesting form. It is nontraditional and is often rare, limited edition, and may include signed prints. It can be a box with several printed things in it, or it can be a sculpture. In this online exhibition you will see several examples of these characteristics. The Artists' Books Collection includes the entire Zine Collection too. 

In order to ensure these rare books are kept safe, most of them are securely stored either in Special Collections & Archives or off campus in a climate-controlled facility called the Archives and Research Center, making this digital exhibition a unique chance to view these materials. This digital exhibition aims to give the artists’ books exposure and provide inspiration if you are making your own artists’ book. To navigate through the exhibition, you can preview some of the images of the artists' books on the Home page and then use the stacked menu in the right-hand corner, or you can use the Next buttons at the bottom of the pages. 

The Texas State University Artists' Books Collection Digital Exhibit was created by Tara Spies Smith, College of Fine Arts & Communication Liaison Librarian and Open Licenses Librarian in cooperation with the University Libraries Digitization and Preservation Department, the Special Collections & Archives Department, and the artists of the artists’ books in the digital exhibit. 

All of the artists’ or publishers were contacted for permission for their artists’ books to be digitized and exhibited online in the exhibition. 

Look for more announcements this semester about a physical exhibition of the artists’ books that are in the digital exhibit and a reception for the digital exhibition in the spring. 

For questions related to the exhibit or the Artists' Books Collection you can contact Tara at ts20@txstate.edu

New ARLIS/NA Notable Graphic Novels Review 2024 Edition is Now Available!

Announicing the latest edition of the ARLIS/NA Notable Graphic Novels Review! This edition includes reviews for 10 titles that were published in 2024 (reviews were written in 2025), plus an appendix of nominations. All reviews can be downloaded as accessible PDFs from the NGNR Knowledge Commons and are also linked individually on their website pages.

We encourage you to use the Bookshop links within each review in order to purchase titles, as ARLIS/NA receives 10% commission on each purchase made through our bookshop.org links.

Special thanks to our reviewers for volunteering their time:

Elizabeth Brown, Instruction & Outreach Librarian, Kraemer Family Library, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Aurora Daniel, MA History and MS Library and Information Science Student, Simmons University

Matthew Garklavs, Electronic Resources Librarian, Pratt Institute Libraries

Anne Kavanagh, Librarian, Collections and Licensing Services, University of Windsor

Erin Murray, Library Project Cataloger, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Lizzie Nagy, Library Assistant at National Art School, Sydney, Australia

Lauren Scanlon, Teaching & Learning Specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Sarah Scarr, Arts Collections Curator, Virginia Commonwealth University

Mimosa Shah, Reference Librarian, Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute

Taylor Strong, Research and Instruction Librarian, Savannah College of Art and Design

The primary objective of the Notable Graphic Novels Review is to acknowledge and celebrate the craft of sequential art from the last year by tapping into the experience and love of this medium from ARLIS/NA members. As a result, this annual publication can assist (art) library workers in improving their own institutional collections of graphic novels by providing summaries, critical evaluations, and informed recommendations.

Cheers!

Giana Ricci, giana.ricci@nyu.edu, co-editor

Tara Spies Smith, ts20@txstate.edu, co-editor