When Charles D. Abbott imagined the Poetry Collection in 1937, he intended the Collection to be poetry's library of record. This imagination extended beyond collecting first editions of books of poetry, the little literary magazine and manuscripts, working papers and literary letters of living poets. Abbott also began to collect poetry's ephemeral items, which were publication notices, small press catalogs, small press post cards that advertised available titles, little literary magazine subscription forms, and any and all materials generated by the publishing and the distribution of poetry. This pattern of collecting has continued over the decades and it is sensitive to the ever-changing map of contemporary poetry. To provide an accurate map of poetry's evolution, an understanding of poetry's many networks and the interconnectedness of all poetry and poets, this ephemeral small press collection augments and illuminates the other facets of the Poetry Collection by documenting who published the poets, in what fashion poets came to the attention of other poets and how books and magazines shaped poetic taste, how and when they flourished and when, finally, they succumbed to subsequent waves of poetic thought.