30 Years of Collecting in …

Science Fiction Award Winners

Nebula : World writers award; Hugo : World fan award; Ditmar : Australian fan award

SF has been a focus of the literature collections at Murdoch since 1974. The first enrolled PhD student in the humanities wanted to research contemporary SF ( Science Fiction, Literature Of The Socio-Scientific Age / by Maureen Beverley Smith, 1978).

In supporting this research we purchased widely in the genre including a near complete run of New worlds science fiction (J808.838761E N532 1 ) from Blackwells. A contact was also made with the SF Fan community which has proved invaluable in developing the collection particularly with respect to the critical reception of SF with the amateur press of fanzines widely published.

The ‘70’s were also early days for the integration of SF into the University curricular and Murdoch became Australian leaders in the field. A revamp of the key foundation course in the humanities to form STAR (A105, from 1979) saw the introduction of formal lectures on the nature of SF to all incoming students. With the formation of a course on Popular Literature (H290) in 1981 SF was introduced to literature students.

A decade later SF was used as a basis to reading and thinking in the key science foundation course Life and the Universe (A108, from 1990). This course was also picked up as the key introduction to science for Open Learning Australia (SCI13, from 1998). SF has also been used in the formation and delivery of ‘Futures’ and ‘Evolution, Revolution and Change’ to give these Foundation courses a contemporary flavour.

In recent years SF has been taught as a subject in its own right through Science Fiction and Cyberculture (H263, from 1998).

The SF collection at Murdoch is diverse with major holdings not only as print material but also on video, DVD and even research materials on microfilm/fiche.

Much of the more esoteric material, particularly the fan material, is located in the Library’s Special Collections.

To highlight the collection we display titles of the last 30 years that have been award winners. We have chosen books that have won either the Hugo, Nebula or Ditmar Awards.

The Hugo Award is voted on by members of the Annual World Science Fiction Convention. It is specifically the World Science Fiction Achievement Award and is given at the Convention. It is the ‘Fans’ award. (The nickname ‘Hugo’ is given in honour of Hugo Gernsback the founding editor of Amazing Stories the first SF magazine.)

The Nebula Award is given annually for outstanding achievement in the field and is voted on by members of the Science Fiction Writers of America. It is the peers award and has often over the last thirty years been the same choice as the fans choice for the same writing period.

The Ditmar Award is, like the Hugo, a fans award. It is voted on by fans at the Australian National SF Convention. It also is more properly titled The Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award. It has been given annually since 1968. The name honours a 60’s fan.

There are a number of titles on the list that have no location data, we do not at this time have a copy of these titles but they have been listed for completeness. These titles will be searched out and acquired in due course.