blogis librorum. A blog about books. Rare books.

There are many ideas about what constitutes a library and what should be contained in a special collection library or archive. Naturally, different people have their own opinions about what is and isn’t worth preserving, what constitutes a collection of rare books and ephemera, or what kinds of materials should be housed in research centers.

While the subject matter at one time might have fallen squarely outside the bounds of academic subject matter, punk in general has become a target for collectors and researchers in the US, the UK, and various other parts of the world.

While you can’t buy any of the materials for your own collection, if you're hoping to expand the boundaries of your collecting knowledge or you want to think about ways to organize and develop your own collection of music, zines, handbills, books, and other materials, the DC Punk Archive could be the perfect place for you to get started.

Learning More About the DC Punk Archive

The DC Punk Archive is housed within the People’s Archive at DC Public Library. It is now part of “the Washingtoniana mission to collect, preserve, and provide access to primary source materials that document the history and culture of local D.C.”

Unlike certain other library archives, the DC Punk Archive is largely funded by donations from otherwise ordinary people whose experiences were shaped by punk—as a DIY movement, through music, and in art and culture more broadly.

In fact, if you have materials you collected yourself that you’d be interested in sharing with the public, the DC Punk Archive continues to accept donations.

The collections are wide-ranging in terms of format, and materials are in many different formats. Researchers can explore rare print material like books, zines, posters, and handbills for shows. The archive also contains audio materials like cassettes, records, CDs, video formats including VHS tapes and DVDs, and photographs.

There are also varied examples of ephemera and punk fan culture, such as gig setlists, buttons or badges, and ticket stubs. As the curators of the archive underscore, “subject content is not limited to the music itself, but could include anything pertinent to the cultural context, such as organizations, record labels, houses, venues, festivals, record shops, radio stations, and tours.” Indeed, the archive was designed to be “intentionally broad” in its scope, preserving all things punk from 1976 to the present.

Collections, Community, and the DC Punk Archive

As you’ve now learned, the DC Punk Archive houses a wide range of materials in varied formats. Some of the collections come from ordinary people who collected zines and fliers from punk shows in and around DC or made video recordings of gigs at venues like the 9:30 Club, while others have come from names prominent to the DC punk scene.

For example, specific and general collection pieces include donations that have come directly from the 9:30 Club, Positive Force DC, Ian MacKaye and Dischord Records, and the makers of the documentary film Punk the Capital. 

Speaking of involving the broader community and turning this archive into a communal collection in so many ways, the DC Punk Archive invites community archivists to assist with material processing and digitization, making clear that having a passion for the subject matter can be enough to get involved and to do something significant, reflecting the DIY ethos of punk itself. The archive also offers community programming, including schedules of gigs—the Punk Archive Library Shows—in which local DC bands perform.

Thanks in part to those community archivists, some of the rare materials in the collections have now been digitized. They’re available to researchers across the globe through DigDC, which houses an enormous range of digital materials related to Washington, D.C. Like other archives if you want to conduct research in the DC Punk Archive in person, you should get in touch with the library to learn about scheduling a visit and handling the original materials in the collections.

Adding to Your Own Punk Archive

Whether you visit the DC Punk Archive and get inspired, or you’re already well on your way to having your own enviable punk collection, there are so many different materials you can seek out and infinite ways to organize a collection of rare books and ephemera centered on punk. While the punk scenes in the US and the UK are particularly well-documented, don’t forget about punk and DIY music scenes in other parts of the world, including in Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. 

If you’re not yet ready to travel and seek out books, zines, records, and other ephemera for your own archive, the internet remains a great place to look. Yet it’s important to know what it is you’re buying and to make sure you’re getting what you think you’re getting. It’s relatively easy to reproduce punk fliers and handbills, in particular, so do your research!