Communications Design

A zine is a small publication, usually produced by an individual or small group of people. They are usually produced in small batches, often with a handmade original that is reproduced on a photocopier. 

The Libraries' zine collection support classes that include zine study and production, with a focus on locally-produced titles. Zines are selected for artistic merit as well as literary content, and represent a diverse range of voices and perspectives.

Pratt Institute Libraries Zine Guide

The Artists' Books collection encompasses books crafted, published, produced, or altered by an artist. The artists books we collect have been conceived as artworks in their own right and produced in open or limited editions, as well as democratic multiples.

Pratt Institute has both circulating and non-circulating artists' books, meaning only some are available for check out, while others must be viewed in the library. View the artists' books research guide to browse the collection and learn more.

Pratt Institute Libraries Artists' Books Guide

Special Collections encompass a wide range of formats, content areas, and time periods. Special Collections includes zines and artists' books, as well as:

Books and Ephemera

Special collections are used by all disciplines and programs at Pratt, so materials collected in this area span the full range of subjects, with an emphasis on art, design, and architecture. Types of materials retained and collected include rare and out-of-print monographs; early cookbooks; limited editions of seminal works in the fields of art, architecture and design; catalogues raisonne; special edition and pre-1950 art and architectural journals; broadsides and posters; and more. 

Pop Up Books

The Library's collection of pop-ups and movable books spans all genres and were originally created for children and adults.  While some pop-up books are housed in the regular Brooklyn Stacks, most of them do not circulate and are kept in the closed stacks.  Artists' Books that employ pop-up engineering are generally housed in the Artists' Books Collection

Children's Books

This collection consists largely of illustrated books and primarily serves students studying illustration and children’s literature in Communications Design. Current acquisitions include titles considered to be outstanding by prize-giving organizations or publications, works of Pratt-affiliated authors and illustrators, and selections reflecting trends in picture book publishing, or those noteworthy for their graphics, techniques, formats or topics.

Picture Files

The Picture File Collection consists of tens of thousands of analog images from magazine and newspaper clippings, photographs, and a variety of other picture resources organized in file folders by subject. Containing over 1,200 different subject folders, categories consist of anything from Accessories, such as Buttons and Goggles, to the YMCA.