SoCalMWA Library at CSULB

The University Library at California State University, Long Beach has agreed to house a special collection of works by members of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. SoCalMWA sought this agreement with CSULB in an effort to heighten public awareness of its members' works, to make our writers' works available to readers and researchers, and to increase our membership's sense of continuity, history, and identity with the organization.

SoCal MWA is more than a roster of names. One measure of our chapter's strength is in the writing members of our chapter produce. Until now, that writing has not been available in a single collection. We don't own a building, so we can't house a library of our own. Fortunately, the library at CSULB, already known for its mystery collection, is willing to work with us to provide a home for our members' books, scripts, articles and short stories.

Long after any group of officers has left office, or any single chapter event has passed, this collection will remain. With the cooperation of the membership, this will become a collection that will reflect the breadth and depth of talent in SoCalMWA.

Some members may discover that their work is already part of the CSIJLB mystery collection, which was started in 1994 by CSULB librarians who were mystery fans; they donated time and books, the university allotted space in a special reading room. Relying strictly on donations of books and magazines by librarians, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends, the collection now numbers in the thousands. It is available to the public, and most materials are also available to patrons of other libraries through Interlibrary Loan. The library also sponsors at least one mystery-related event each year.

If you would like to visit the campus to see the collection, contact the library to arrange parking. The collection is in room 322W of the south campus library, the library nearest Seventh Street.

We urge members whose work in the mystery field has been published or produced to donate one copy of up to five of their works to the collection. These may be books, magazines containing short stories, or scripts.

How to submit material to the SoCalMWA Collection

1. Check to see your work is already in the collection. You can do this
on-line by going to COAST, the library's on-line catalog, which is at http://www.coast.csulb.edu. Once at the site, click on Author and then
enter your name (lastname, firstname).

2. If the works are not yet in the collection, send them to:

Leslie Swigart
University Library
CSULB
1250 Bellflower Blvd
Long Beach, CA 90840-1901

Please enclose a note indicating that the books are for the SoCaIMWA Collection.

3. For your tax purposes, the library can acknowledge the receipt of items donated, but cannot establish or state the value of the items.

4. For other formats, or if you wish to donate more than five works, or if you have questions about the collection, please contact:

Leslie Swigart - 562-985-8327 - lswigart@csulb.edu
or
Alice Littlejohn - 562-985-2337 - alittlej@csulb.edu

URL: http://socalmwa.com/library.htm
Last updated: January 18, 2005