The library collects many books and journals published by small, independent presses, which often support new, experimental, and/or interdisciplinary works that traditional and commercial publishers do not.

There is no specific way to identify small press books in the library catalog. You can search for a particular press using the "publisher" field, but not a group of publishers who qualify as "small presses"--the catalog doesn't know what counts as a small press!

If you are interested in looking at small press books and journals in the library's collection, search for specific publishers who were associated with Small Press Distribution, a now-defunct literature and poetry distributor. You can learn more about--and see some great covers of publications from--small presses, mimeograph periodicals, and the like at Granary Books' From a Secret Location.

"Spoken word" art is word-based performance art, which includes oral recitations of jazz and hip hop poetry, traditional poetry readings, prose monologues, griot and other forms of storytelling, and poetry slams, competitions of oral poets reciting/performing original work.

• The Academy of American Poets' "Brief Guide to Slam Poetry."
• Button Poetry promotes and produces performance poetry.
• Poetry Slam, Inc. oversees the international coalition of poetry slams.
• The Nuyorican Poets Cafe has provided a forum for innovative poetry and spoken word performance since 1973. See also the book Burning Down the House: Selected Poems from the Nuyorican Poets Café's National Poetry Slam Champions.
• Slam Nation, a documentary film about the 1996 National Poetry Slam.
• Poets of Generation X, a 2006 film anthology of poetry performances.  
• Listen up! Spoken Word Poetry, a 1999 anthology.
• Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry is a 2012 history and how-to book.

Electronic literature, or e-lit, refers to works with important literary aspects that take advantage of the capabilities and contexts provided by the stand-alone or networked computer.

• The Electronic Literature Organization website and collections.
• The Electronic Poetry Center website.
• Poem Viewer, a web-based tool for visualizing poems.
• Poetry Beyond Text, a digital gallery of images of artist's books, concrete poetry, digital poetry, and text film.
• The Exquisite Corpus: Issues In Electronic Literature, a video essay.