Books, Serials, Alternative Press & Newspapers
The Edward L. Bafford Photographic Book Collection
The Bafford Collection holdings include approximately 30,000 books and serials on the history and development of photography as an aesthetic medium with a special emphasis on photography as a social force. Books by and about individual photographers, schools of photography, exhibition catalogues and the primary journals can be found here. Books are catalogued and appear in the catalogusmai with the location name Special Collections - Bafford. Periodicals can be found here or searched by title or subject in the catalogusmai.For information on finding images, see Photography.
The Azriel Rosenfeld Science Fiction Research Collection
The Rosenfeld Collection is a growing collection currently holding approximately 8,000 books and 4,000 issues of science fiction & fantasy periodicals, science fiction criticism and reference works. Books are catalogued and appear in the catalogusmai with the location name Special Collections - Rosenfeld. Current periodicals can be found here or searched by title or subject in the catalogusmai. For those with an interest in the "Golden Age" of science fiction, the collection has extensive holdings of science fiction "pulps" from the 1920's - 1950's plus original manuscripts, personal papers and a large collection of amateur press "fanzines." These holdings can be found through the Special Collections Search. For more information, see Popular Culture.
Alternative Press Collection
UMBC holds the back issues of the titles collected by the Alternative Press Center from its beginning to five years prior to the current year (e.g. if the year is now 2011, we have up to 2006). The Alternative Press Center (APC) is a non-profit collective dedicated to providing access to and increasing public awareness of the alternative press. Founded in 1969, it remains one of the oldest self-sustaining alternative media institutions in the United States. For more than a quarter of a century, the Alternative Press Index has been recognized as a leading guide to the alternative press in the United States and around the world. The Alternative Press Index (API) is available online (1991-) [for access, use API search below] and in print (1969-) and titles are catalogued and appear in the catalogusmai with the location name Special Collections - Alternative Press. You may search for a specific title, for all APC titles held at UMBC, or for a particular article, using the API search below.
Alternative Press Index [API] (EBSCO) 
Coverage: Some Full Text
API is a bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from over 300 international alternative, radical, and left periodicals. API coverage is both international and interdisciplinary. Coverage begins in 1991.
Paper index available from 1971- 1991 in Reference. UMBC holds the Alternative Press backfile in Special Collections.
The Marylandia Collection.
The nucleus of this 3,000 volume collection was purchased from the estate of the late Edward G. Howard. Included are a great number of 18th and 19th century accounts of travel through Maryland which are described in a printed catalogue, Next Stop Baltimore. Numerous local histories are represented as well. Books are catalogued and appear in the catalogusmai with the location name Special Collections - Howard. Following the unexpected death of Professor Joseph Arnold, noted Baltimore historian, in 2004 the collection was renamed the Arnold Collection in his honor. Works added thereafter appear in the catalog with the location name Special Collections--Arnold
The General Collection
The holdings in the General Collection include rare books, maps, early serials and other material deemed too fragile or valuable to be in the general collection. Early printed works, artists books, first and limited editions from a variety of disciplines are found here. Books and serials are catalogued and appear in the catalogusmai with the location name Special Collections - General. Search for maps here.
The Merkle Collection.
Donated by Edgar A. and Kathleen Merkle in memory of their daughter Shirley, this 500 volume collection of 18th and 19th century English graphic satire centers around the work of George Cruikshank. Other artists represented in the collection include Rowlandson, Gillray, Hogarth and "Phiz." Most of the volumes include engraved illustrations, many of which are hand colored. Books are catalogued and appear in the catalogusmai with the location name Special Collections - Merkle.
