The Alternative Press Index

The Alternative Press Index began in 1969 as “wishful thinking” that fought its way into reality via a small group of students and faculty from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. This group came together at a conference sponsored by Vocations for Social Change, an organization that encourages employment in social change‐related jobs. The idea was to categorize and make available the mass of periodical information coming from alternative sources: the Left, women's liberation, gay liberation, the many underground movements that blossomed in the 1960s, and the struggle of minorities. The index was to make an express political statement. According to Mary McKenney, one of its founders, “Potentially, then, we cover a broad area, made broader by each new ‘liberation movement’ that gains a foothold in peoples' consciousness. What we do not cover are publications of the right wing, no matter how ‘extreme’ or ‘controversial,’ no matter how ‘radically’ right. The reason is that we are advocates, not necessarily bibliographical scholars.” (Library Journal, January 1, 1971, p.55.)The API had its first home at the Carleton College Radical Research Center, where some 20 volunteers compiled Volume One, which included 72 periodicals.