PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 16, 2007

CONTACT: Chuck Howell
(301)314-0401
chuckh@umd.edu

Recent Gifts Aid Cataloging at Library of American Broadcasting

College Park, MD -College Park, MD -The Library of American Broadcasting at the University of Maryland recently received two $50,000 donations to catalogue a personal collection of mass media-related materials, and a collection of humor-related content.

Douglas Gomery, renowned author and media economist, and Art Gliner, founder of the Gliner Center for Humor Studies at the University of Maryland, each donated the money to catalogue their collections.

The Gomery Collection
The Gomery Collection arrived in October this year, a welcome and distinguished gift from Douglas Gomery. It is extensive, consisting of 250 boxes of books, journals, research materials, book drafts and galleys, and correspondence. The LAB staff has been unpacking the boxes to explore this diverse addition to the Library. Gomery has written on such a wide range of media-related topics that it is not unusual to find a volume of early 1900's "Little Nemo" cartoons next to a copy of Gomery's own work, "Who Owns the Media" (2004). It is the second largest collection ever received by the LAB from one person, exceeded only by the Arthur Godfrey Collection.

There are several items in the collection of which Gomery is particularly proud; original copies of the “Film Daily Yearbook” from 1926, and a personal signed copy of “Story of Films” published in 1927 by Joseph Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy’s father.

Gomery has published a number of books and over 600 articles which have been translated into eight languages. He was a professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland for 14 years and retired in 2005 (Confirm date with Chuck). Douglas Gomery is the Scholar-in-Residence at the Library of American Broadcasting.

The Gliner Humor Collection
The Gliner Humor Collection contains material that the Gliner Center for Humor Studies began collecting in 2001. Various humor scholars began donating humor-related material to the Center, and before long there was no more space. The Library of American Broadcasting agreed to house the collection because so much of it related to broadcasting (either in front of or behind the curtain). The collection itself is an eclectic mix of scholarly books and journals, Playboy, MAD Magazine and National Lampoon compilations, mass market paperbacks, children's joke books, audio and video tapes of stand-up comics, bio and subject files composed of newspaper clippings, and articles from magazines. There are items in German, French, Russian and Spanish and books by Mark Twain, Josh Billings and Irvin S. Cobb, as well as Woody Allen and Steve Martin. Books, journals, audio, video and research files in the collection were contributed by Gliner, Professor Larry Mintz, the first director of the Gliner Center for Humor Studies, as well as professors at Duke and Ohio University.

“It’s going to be a valuable resource for anyone who does research with humor,” said Gliner. “I like to see people improve their lives or other people’s lives by applying practical uses of humor.”

Gliner says the collection consists of over 1500 books and somewhere between 500 and 1000 audio cassettes with over 60 hours of comedian recordings. He says the quantity of video tapes is unknown as they are still being edited.

Gliner has been a humor practitioner since 1959 in radio, TV and theater. He has been speaking about the practical values of humor to the general public since 1976. He specializes in entertaining and informative speeches, and workshops about how humor enriches people’s lives.

More Information
For more information please contact Chuck Howell, curator at the Library of American Broadcasting, at 301-314-0401.