Kenneth Spencer Research Library

This is the latest installment in a series of posts introducing readers to student employees who make important contributions to the work of Spencer Research Library. Today’s profile features Ceres Botkin, a Public Services student assistant.

Please provide some brief biographical information about yourself.

My name is Ceres Botkin (they/them) and I’ve been working in Public Services at Spencer since the spring of my freshman year in 2022. I am currently completing the fifth and final year of my undergraduate program, and I will graduate with degrees in mathematics, physics, and computer science. I hope after graduation to either go to graduate school in physics or library science.

What does your job at Spencer entail?

I work in the Public Services department, which entails helping library patrons find and access library materials germane to their research interests. This involves being familiar with the collections and the several strengths of our library. I’ve also worked with several curators on numerous projects from sorting and cataloging donations to helping with research for temporary exhibits.

In addition, I have also helped out in other departments as needed. For example, I have worked in Conservation Services with construction of glass plate housings along with making Mylar book jackets. I have also helped in the cataloging department by aiding the process of integrating newly cataloged material into the wider library collection.

Why did you want to work at Spencer Research Library?

My previous on-campus job involved staffing the front desk of a residence hall between the hours of 3am and 7am. I wanted a job that felt more fulfilling and had better hours. In addition, I had a friend who worked at Spencer who enjoyed the work.

When my friend recommended the position to me, I was reminded of my previous desire when I was a teenager to work at my local public library. The library held a special place in my heart, as I would frequent it over the summers as a third place to go that was separate from my home and school. I would meet up with friends and do research for upcoming debate tournaments there. I always thought it would be nice to give back to my community by also working at a library and supporting one of the few remaining institutions in the U.S. that provides free resources, education, and entertainment.

What has been most interesting to you about your work?

I would definitely say that sorting and cataloging donations is the most interesting part of my job. My first project working at the library, in fact, was sorting 20th-century Star Trek zines. Zine culture is very interesting, and it was wonderful to peek into another world. In addition, it was really cool to see all of the various pieces of art and read the stories that were contained inside.

In addition, I love exploring the different collections and talking with the curators about how we started some of them. For instance, the Literary Ephemera collection in Special Collections is always fascinating to browse because it is mostly comprised of outsider art and poetry. They’re not only interesting to read in a vacuum, but they also provide interesting commentaries on the times they were created in.

What are you studying, and what do you hope to do in your future career? Has your work at Spencer changed how you look at your studies or your future career plans in any way?

As mentioned previously, I am currently studying mathematics, physics, and computer science. Originally I planned on going into graduate school in order to pursue a Ph.D. in physics, but working at the library has made me consider going into library work as well. It would be interesting to get a master’s degree in library science and work at a library after graduation. In addition, I have also considered using my computer science degree and going into the field of digital archives – archiving material which is only digital. For example, I was considering working at the Internet Archive, which houses numerous websites, books, recordings, videos, and software.

What piece of advice would you offer other students thinking about working at Spencer Research Library?

Never assume that any resources available to you will always be available to you. First get familiar with what resources are provided by your local community, government, and university. Second, never stop fighting for those resources. In the context of the library, never stop fighting for the open access of information, funding, and a place to study and relax without having to pay first. Also please donate to your local library if you are in a position to do so.

Ceres Botkin
Public Services student assistant

Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov, Octavia E. Butler, Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Joanna Russ, William F. Wu, John Kessel, Mary Shelley, and KU’s own James E. Gunn and Kij Johnson are just a few of the writers featured in Spencer Research Library’s new exhibit, Imagined Worlds: Writers and the Process of Speculative Fiction.

While it’s true that all fiction is imagined (at least in part), writers working in the genres of science fiction and fantasy achieve their dramatic interest, pose their philosophic and scientific inquiries, and address social and political issues by playing with and re-configuring the confines of reality. In writing of other worlds, different times, alternate societies, new technologies, and fantastical circumstances, these writers can transfix readers and, in the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, offer a “convincing picture of alternative ways of doing and being, which can shake readers out of fixed mindsets, knock the blinkers off them.”

But how do they do it?

Imagined Worlds offers a peek behind the scenes to explore the messy, impassioned, deliberative, contentious, and inventive processes of speculative fiction (an umbrella term for those genres–including science fiction, fantasy, and horror–that diverge from reality and realism). Materials drawn from Spencer’s collections offer various points of entry into the writer’s experience. There are cases dedicated to:

• conversations on the page (correspondence between authors)
• influence and inspiration
• from idea to book: the process of writing
• page to screen (adaptation and writing for film and television)
• the business of speculative fiction

There are also additional cases devoted to awards in speculative fiction and reading recommendations from KU faculty members, addressing SF books that have been significant to them. There are also paintings by two of the best-known science fiction and fantasy artists of the 1950s and 1960s, Ed Emshwiller and Frank Kelly Freas.

The books and manuscripts on display reflect Spencer Research Library’s historic strength in the science fiction of the 1930s-1960s, with the addition of materials from more recent collections of writers’ papers. Since the exhibition focuses primarily on correspondence and manuscripts, a slideshow in the exhibition gallery also shares over 50 covers of speculative fiction volumes from Spencer’s collections.

 

Left: Clarke, Arthur C. Childhood’s End. New York: Ballantine Books, ©1953. Call #: ASF B294; Right: Okorafor, Nnedi. Lagoon. London: Hodder, 2014. Call #: ASF C1260

To give a sense of the exhibit, we share something we had we couldn’t quite fit, a memo from Star Trek creator and producer Gene Roddenberry to writer Theodore Sturgeon about Sturgeon’s script draft for “Shore Leave.” One of the more surreal episodes in Star Trek‘s original TV run (1966-1969), “Shore Leave” sees the thoughts of crew members come to life when they beam down to a planet for some rest and relaxation. Roddenberry’s memo suggests the collaborative process involved in making the episode, and it reveals the mix of frankness, humor, and knowing cynicism he employed in guiding his writers.

He balances praising Sturgeon for his successes, with addressing logistical matters—such as the necessity of breaking down the script shot by shot for the sake of the costume, casting, and special effects departments—and then pushes Sturgeon toward what he judges will connect best with viewers. “Wouldn’t your teaser be richer if just one person saw Alice and the rabbit, say McCoy?” Roddenberry asks, “When two people see it, you’ve got a witness. But the poor devil who sees it alone, he’s got trouble.”

Of course, writers like Sturgeon might also push back regarding script changes. During the shooting of “Shore Leave,” Sturgeon would complain about a scene in which the resurrected Dr. McCoy enters with a woman on each arm. This is a “first order vulgarism,” Sturgeon wrote to Roddenberry, arguing that it undercut the emotional development of McCoy’s relationship with the character of Tonia. Roddenberry’s own memo to Sturgeon ends with a serio-comic sign-off that highlights the blend of art and business that television entails: “You’re lovely, inventive, wonderful. Now be commercial.”

Founded in 1969 by a financial gift from a student who thought KU should be collecting science fiction, Spencer Research Library’s SF collections continue to be built largely by donation. Over the decades, they have grown appreciably thanks to the support of James E. Gunn (writer, critic, Professor Emeritus, and founder of KU’s Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction). He has not only donated books and periodicals, but has encouraged others to make gifts as well, including fellow writers, whose papers now reside at KU. These efforts have been continued in recent years by writers Chris McKitterick and Kij Johnson (the current Director and Associate Director of the Gunn Center, respectively). We hope to continue to grow our science fiction and fantasy collections to better reflect the diversity of voices writing in the field.

Imagined Worlds: Writers and the Process of Speculative Fiction is free and open to the public and will be on display in Spencer’s Gallery through July 31st, 2020. We invite you to visit and explore the forces at work as writers imagine worlds!

Elspeth Healey
Special Collections Librarian