The Locus Collection (the Charles N. Brown Memorial Collection) comprises a collection of historic photographs, ephemera, and correspondence – the Photo and Ephemera Collection – as well as over 30,000 volumes (roughly 20,000 book titles and 10,000 periodical titles) with many rare and first editions, manuscripts, and extensive runs of pulp magazines, audio interviews, slides, and more. The archive is currently housed in filing cabinets, and provides records for approximately 4,000 individuals, including virtually every author of note in the science fiction and fantasy field for the last 60 years, such as Isaac Asimov, Octavia E. Butler, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, etc, as well as editors, publishers, book agents, and convention organizers.

The aim is to preserve these historic and irreplaceable materials, by stabilizing the archive and at the same time digitizing the photos, letters, etc, and creating a viewable gallery of as many of the materials as possible. Funding is sought to cover the cost of archival and preservation supplies such as acid-free tissue for interleaving documents, plastic sleeves for preserving significant photographs, acid-free folders for organization, acid-free labels and pens, a mid-range document and film scanner, long-term archival storage boxes, and the cost of website construction to create a viewable gallery of the Photo and Ephemera Collection.

The original amount of funding sought has been reached in just a few days, and there are now several additional projects under consideration: namely, digitizing and storing Locus’ immense and historic collection of audio author interviews, currently only on microcassettes and in imminent danger of degrading; cataloging the current book, pulp, and periodical collection housed at Locus; and a fantastic but yet-to-be-announced project, one that would benefit many in the SFF community from authors to fans to publishers.

Anyone who would like to pledge funding to this project please visit the Kickstarter page HERE