WSU has a very good SF collection, but it can be hard to explore for several reasons. Until recently fiction was not assigned subject headings in our catalogue, and if you do search the catalogue using "science fiction" as a term you'll get mostly books about science fiction. Also until recently, most SF was given a PZ recreational reading classification and shelved together in a special area, adjacent to another group of mysteries. Now the PZ SF and the PZ mysteries are all mixed together. There is a substantial number of SF novels with Dewey Decimal numbers of 823.08...; and all new SF is being given numbers which place it in the contemporary literature of the author's homeland, like PN or PS. In other words, the SF is scattered all over, and there's no easy way to find it.
In addition, even in the PZs it's hard to tell what we've got since the most interesting books are usually checked out; so browsing the shelves is frustrating. A large chunk of books is in compact storage as well, most of them action-oriented postholocaust novels. They are part of the nuclear war fiction collection in Holland, built to support research on the subject, and the most comprehensive in existence. Keep that in mind when you notice the preponderance of nuclear war themes in our collection.
This is a research collection with an emphasis on literary quality; not a comprehensive fan-oriented leisure reading collection, so some popular writers are not represented. Try looking at Neill Library in downtown Pullman if you don't find what you're looking for here. But you will find a lot of fine SF here, of all kinds. Try using the "Find" button on your browser to look for specific titles. Note that "Educ" indicates that the book is in the Education Library in Cleveland Hall in the juvenile fiction collection, where volumes may only be checked out for three days.
I have put in ALL CAPS the titles of books I especially admire as literary works and which I would recommend as reading to people who claim not even to like SF. I have marked others (rec) for "recommended." These are books I have read and liked and would recommend to others with similar tastes. There are many fine books unmarked here: I just haven't read them yet. No particular authority is claimed for these ratings, but you may find them helpful.
This bibliography, which used to be a simple text file, is now available in a searchable database from the index page of my FileMaker Pro Web Companion home page. Click here to open this page and then click on "Science Fiction Bibliography."If you cannot get in, my office computer, which serves the bibliography, is probably down. Try again later. This application requires a Java-capable browser. If you have a slow connection it may take a minute or two to load. Please wait until the bibliography screen is completely downloaded before attempting to do searches or sorts. Right now almost half of the titles have no call numbers because they are recent acquisitions which are being catalogued. I will enter call numbers as I get them.
Users will note that a very high percentage of the SF in the library belongs to the Colwell Collection. Dr. William Colwell, and his wife, Leanne, are benefactors to WSU and have provided scholarship support for student athletes for last 25 years. Bill is an oral surgeon in Seattle, where he has had a private practice for 27 years. He is a former Trustee of the WSU Foundation, 1984 WSU's Dad of the Year, and president of The Book Club of Washington. He is a true bibliophile, a collector of all types of books--especially science fiction. He and Leanne just recently donated over 4,000 science fiction books to the Holland/New Library that now constitute the William C. and Leanne Colwell Science Fiction Collection.
Help me find my typos and omissions. Write brians@wsu.edu.
My other science fiction pages.
Other study guides
Revised 2/5/99
This page has been accessed times since June 6, 1997.