Otakou Press

The Press

Otakou Press (formerly The Bibliography Room Press)

Proprietor

English Department, University of Otago

The Press had its origins as a bibliography press under the control of the English Department. It is still used in a similar vein for the Department's 3rd year paper ENGL 368: Approaches to Writing about Literature

Location

The presses are located in the Otakou Press Room on the 1st floor of the University Library.

Postal Address:

c/o Department of English,
University of Otago,
PO Box 56,
Dunedin,
New Zealand.

History

The press was established as a bibliographical press in 1981 by David Esplin and Keith Maslen.

Keith Maslen has published a leaflet on the press: The Black art: handprinting in the Bibliography room, 1961-2005 : exhibition list, Special collections, University of Otago Library. Maslen, K. I. D. University of Otago Library, 2006.

The University of Otago library holds a copy of a Radio New Zealand interview with Keith Maslen from 1995 Wordstuck: Interview with Keith Maslen. As at April 2007 this interview was not listed as one available from Sound Archives (New Zealand's radio archive).

Equipment

A Colombian, an Albion and a Vandercook. The Vandercook is that formerly used by John Holmes at the Frayed Frisket Press. The Otakou Press also has an etching press.

Publications

An exhibition in the University Library in 2006 displayed some of the publications of the Press. There is an on-line representation of the exhibition here.