Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond: The Cleveland Public Library Exhibit
Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond: The World of Constructed Languages is an exhibit which was displayed at Cleveland Public Library (CPL) from May through August 2008. The exhibit was created by Donald Boozer, then a Subject Department Librarian in Literature and currently Coordinator of Ohio's statewide online reference service (KnowItNow24x7). Boozer contacted constructed language creators (i.e., conlangers) from Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and the United States who graciously responded with submissions of photographs and biographies as well as proofreading assistance. One of the highlights of the creative process was having an email exchange with Marc Okrand, creator of Klingon. A handout entitled A Conlanger's Bookshelf was also developed in conjunction with the show. The entire text of the exhibit is available for download by clicking here. For photos of the exhibit, see the slideshow at the right.
Subsequent to Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond's run at Cleveland Public Library, the display materials were bequeathed to the Language Creation Society (LCS) to act as custodian to help ensure that the exhibit continued to be seen by as many people as possible. The first LCS showing was at the 3rd Language Creation Conference held in Providence, RI, in March 2009.
As LCS is a non-profit, the exhibit is available for display for the cost of shipping to any public education institution (libraries, universities, etc.) with the only request being recognition for LCS and CPL, photos of the installed exhibit, links to any press coverage, and return shipping to LCS.
Encompassing the entire exhibit corridor of the second floor of the CPL Main Library building, the exhibit generated
both local and national publicity. Press coverage included:
- Are We Alone? (radio show): July 7, 2008 episode - "Speaking Klingon" (@ 21m35s ~ 37m00s)
- SETI Institute's Seth Shostak interviews Donald Boozer about conlangs, with mentions of (and samples!) of Dritok, Esperanto, Klingon, Quenya, LCC2, ZBB, and of course the Cleveland Library exhibit.
- http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Speaking_Klingon
- (Produced by SETI Institute, broadcast on PRX including BBC Radio 4, NPR, & more.)
- Cleveland Plain Dealer: June 08, 2008 - "Inventing own language, Don Boozer opened up another world" by Karen Sandstrom
For more information about Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond: The World of Constructed Languages or to inquire about hosting the exhibit, contact the Language Creation Society by email at lcs (at) conlang (dot) org.
The CPL exhibit could potentially be supplemented by additional materials - including a number of very attractive pieces exhibited as poster sessions or artwork at the 3rd Language Creation Conference as well. For samples of these pieces, click here and here.
For more information on the LCS and the field of conlanging, please see the Language Creation Society's Press Materials page..