Holdings
In the context of libraries, the word holdings means materials owned by the library. The artist’s book Holdings, by Colette LaBouff, embodies the idea of holdings as the questions and needs a library can contain. LaBouff, who worked as a part-time reference librarian, writes, “The pieces in ‘Holdings’ began with my writing down patrons’ questions and phrases; I wrote these on small pieces of paper usually reserved for author names and call numbers. On my fifteen-minute breaks, I walked as far away from the library as possible and took pictures: images of my town filled with inhabitants wanting things to be different.” Designed and produced by Container, Holdings is presented as library check-out slips alongside color photographs, housed in an accordion-fold book with accompanying slipcase.
Colette LaBouff. Holdings. Baltimore: Container, 2019.