Academic Division
April 28, 1996
Susan Beelick, moderator of the Academic Division, opened the meeting with nominations for two incoming positions. Members unanimously agreed on Ray Anne Lockard for vice-moderator and Beelick for Update column editor.
Timely communication with Academic Division members was problematic this past year, especially in trying to solicit input on the Strategic Plan, but we hope that we can create an e-mail distribution list for Academic Division members in the future. In the meantime, we can send out communications on the ARLIS-L listserv, and we will continue to send out communications in printed format to division members who do not have access to e-mail. The ARLIS/NA Web Site has on ongoing list of "News" for all ARLIS/NA members, and there is also a section that lists the guidelines for the Academic Division and officers.
Conference proposals were the next discussion topic. Beelick distributed a list of the program proposals that people had sent in via e-mail prior to the conference. Some of the proposals discussed at the meeting were: Cooperative ventures/collection development consortia; Libraries and distance learning; Pre-conference workshop on basic art library reference sources; Pre-conference workshop on BI presentation techniques; Art librarians as curators; Art histories and the art librarian as historiographer; Art history as area studies and visual culture studies; Keeping academic standards in the digital universe; Why the book is still an important medium; Joint sponsorship with GLIRT of a panel on access to information on lesbian and gay artists and art history; Hands-on workshop on art resources on the WWW.
Roger Lawson, incoming vice-president of ARLIS/NA, dropped in briefly to say a few words encouraging input on the Strategic Plan Draft and about the ARLIS/NA Web Site.
Beelick distributed a handout listing the sections of the Strategic Plan dealing with divisions, sections, and round tables: strategic issues #36-#50. Issue #37 was deleted since the subcommittee for the "Electronic Clearinghouse for Art & Architecture Reference Guides" has disbanded in favor of mounting this information on the ARLIS/NA web site. After reviewing the list of strategic issues, the group tried to prioritize them:
The division thought #36 dealing with multi-group involvement among divisions, sections, and round tables was important. Marilyn Russell-Bogle (Professional Development Committee) spoke eloquently in behalf of issues #39 and #41, which deal with instructional programs and teaching; people were encouraged to submit instructional materials to LOEX. Lorelei Tanji and Ray Anne Lockard volunteered to develop the Academic Division home page materials The division agreed to share materials and information relating to issue #43 (works-in-progress, publications and surveys dealing with the management and administration of art and VR collections).
Lorelei Tanji, University of California Irvine
Art and Design School Libraries
April 28, 1996
Sara J. MacDonald was introduced as the incoming division moderator. Her term of office was defined as beginning at the end of the Miami business meeting and ending with the San Antonio business meeting. Two new members were welcomed to the division: Claire Eike (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and Judy Donovan (Moore College of Art and Design.) Nadene Byrne, director emerita of the Flaxman Library, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, retired this year and was given a warm round of applause.
Members were requested to consider contributing to ARLIS/NA publications. It was noted that the ARLIS/NA Publications Committee is planning to emphasize the opportunity for publication of ARLIS/NA Occasional Papers. Members were also reminded that ARLIS/NA Update notes members' publications and they should send in titles of professional articles published elsewhere.
The location--unknown--of the division notebook was discussed. The notebook was in the mail and the question was whether it merited the effort necessary to reconstruct it. There was some doubt about the continuing usefulness of print resources in the electronic environment, but the consensus was that is still a useful resource for members. MacDonald volunteered to reconstruct the notebook: members were asked to send materials to her before the San Antonio 1997 conference or bring them to the conference to be added to the notebook. Members were reminded of the content and intent of the notebook: it is to contain handouts, finding aids, and special bibliographies prepared by division members for use with their library patrons. There is also a section for administrative documents such as collection development and access policies, student worker manuals, circulation and reserve policies, statistical reports, and the like. There was some interest in collecting and sharing information on electronic resources and automation in division libraries, in the notebook or some other format. Greta Earnest offered to serve as the clearing house for this project. Members who would like to discuss it further are encouraged to contact her (e-mail: gearnest@acnet.pratt.edu).
The nomination of Deborah Johnson as moderator for 1997/98 was unanimously approved. Nancy Lundgren has accepted the position of division Update column editor.
A round table discussion of ideas for future conference programs followed with many members contributing ideas and suggestions. It was noted that successful programs should be repeated in some manner over the course of several conferences so that more ARLIS/NA members could take advantage of them.The ongoing need for a workshop on basic art information resources for newcomers was mentioned. There seems to interest in this from the Academic Library Division as well. Art school accreditation was mentioned as an ongoing concern for division members, but no concrete proposal for a session has yet been made. Informal exchange of accreditation information and experience may be more effective.
A suggestion for the 1998 ARLIS/NA conference in Philadelphia is a panel discussion involving the University of the Arts humanities course, "The Artist as Writer," an interdisciplinary writing course required of most first-year students. Description of this course sparked some interest in discussing the general topic of library instruction and the importance of information literacy for art students. Evy Horigan described a library resources course being taught at her institution, and MacDonald mentioned a library "workbook" required in the "Artist as Writer" course. A possible future AskARLIS session could come from this discussion. It would involve sharing information on how to go about creating course proposals for library instruction and information literacy, and also include advice on how to go about getting these courses accepted into the institutional curriculum.
For the 1997 conference, the division will join the Reference and Information Services Section as co-sponsor and propose a pre-conference workshop on presentation skills and speaking with a focus on bibliographic instruction. This was proposed by MacDonald and Laurie Whitehill and enthusiastically accepted by the members present at the meeting. Barbara Polowy offered the name of a potential presenter and several other members offered suggestions and support.
Incoming ARLIS/NA president, Roger Lawson visited the meeting as board liaison with information on procedures, invitations to participate, and a reminder that the deadline for program proposals and requests for funding is May 31.
A member of the ARLIS/NA committee on professional affiliations requested names of organizations which are relevant to the division. The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), and Library Orientation Exchange (LOEX) were mentioned.The ARLIS/NA Strategic Plan draft was discussed and several points of clarification were raised.
Mary Manning announced the she has accepted the position of library director at California College of Arts and Crafts. She encouraged members to consider applying for the directorship of the library at Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Barbara Hutsell, Atlanta College of Art
Museum Library Division
April 28, 1996
Elizabeth O'Keefe, moderator of the division, began the annual business meeting with a discussion of the division's concerns about museum library staffing issues. Stephanie Sigala, the Midwest regional representative reviewed the history of the resolutions issued two years ago at the Providence conference which censured the Guggenheim for closing its library and dismissing its staff. The resolution included a ban on participating in exchange or interlibrary loan arrangements with the Guggenheim.
Sigala polled members on whether their institutions are adhering to the resolution. Several division members replied that they would serve Guggenheim staff on the same terms as any other member of the general public, but would not engage in exchange or interlibrary loan with the Guggenheim, since these programs are limited to other libraries and the Guggenheim no longer has a library. At the same time, several members thought it important to note that the action taken against the Guggenheim was in response to the sudden closing of a well-established library. They would be reluctant to impose similar sanctions on smaller museums, which, for lack of funding, might be unable to maintain libraries, or to staff them with accredited librarians. Sigala asked for a show of hands to see whether the division should still adhere to the resolution against the Guggenheim or whether it should explore other methods of handling this issue. She concluded on the basis of the vote that the division does not wish to rescind the action taken two years ago.
The moderator encouraged anyone interested in serving as liaison to the American Association of Museums to get in touch with Claire Eike, chair of the North American Relations Committee. She reported that the division's proposal that museum library internships be created was being considered in the wider context of internship within art libraries in general, and had been incorporated in the draft of the Strategic Plan.
Since Ann Abid, chair of the Museum Library Statistics Group, was unable to attend the conference, Ross Day gave a brief report on the group's work. Elizabeth O'Keefe reviewed the charge of the group and asked for volunteers to revive the project, which would create a useful tool for museum library administrators.
Incoming Vice-President/President-Elect Roger Lawson introduced himself as the division's liaison to the board and encouraged members to keep the channels of communication to the board open. He also suggested that in addition to conference programming, the division's plans for the next year should include other activities, e.g. organizing traveling workshops or creating instructional packages.
The moderator called for conference program ideas for next year. Those underway included a session on auction catalogs developed by Stephen Van Dyk and Lee Robinson, a program on gifts and exchanges organized by Cecilia Chin, and a session on promoting museum libraries as community information centers (proposed by Ursula Kolmstetter). Ross Day, the incoming treasurer of the Society, commented that program organizers should not stop working on a topic once a session was over, but should follow up on it afterwards. He reminded members of the availability of special funds for ongoing or product-based projects, such as the development of a standardized form for exchange programs.
Elizabeth O'Keefe conducted an informal survey on the means of communication open to division members. A show of hands indicated that the majority of members have ready access to the Internet, while about a dozen could provide a home page site. The moderator announced that creating a division home page would be among the tasks for the next year.
Evalyn Stone was elected the new moderator of the division, and Barbara Math» was elected vice-moderator. Emily Roth was introduced as the newly appointed editor of the division's ARLIS Update column; members were reminded of the August 10 deadline for the next column, and encouraged to submit column ideas or articles to the new editor.
Elizabeth O'Keefe, Pierpont Morgan Library
April 29, 1996
Ten enthusiastic members attended the Public Library Division business meeting at the ARLIS/NA 1996 conference. Members introduced themselves and spoke briefly about their institutions, recent events, exhibits, or projects with which they were involved. William J. Dane, Newark Public Library, was co-curator of his institution's exhibit, Modern Traditions: Japanese Art in the Twentieth Century. Jane A. Devine, Vancouver Public Library, was recently elected to the ARLIS board as the Canadian regional representative. Ann Ross, Tampa-Hillsborough County, was conference co-chair for the Miami Beach conference. Robert Beebe, San Antonio Public Library, is busy as co-chair for ARLIS' 1997 conference in San Antonio. Ruth Games contributed an introductory biography on Frank Lloyd Wright to the exhibit catalog for the Dallas Theater Center exhibit at the Dallas Public Library. This group is small, but active!
Moderator Mary Ashe announced that Suzy Frechette of the Saint Louis Public Library agreed to serve as moderator for the coming year. This created a vacancy for the division's Update editor and Ruth Games, Dallas Public Library agreed to assume this responsibility. Roger Lawson, incoming vice-president, visited the meeting briefly to introduce himself and urge members to read and to think about the proposed Strategic Plan. He asked members to contact Amy Ciccone--or any member of the Executive Board--to make suggestions. Lawson reminded the group that ideas discussed within the divisions, sections, and round tables can turn into programs at future conferences and that the deadline for next year's session proposals is May 31, 1996.
The members discussed several subject of concern. Mary Ashe noted that the division had sponsored no sessions at the last two conferences. Discussion of programs the division could sponsor at the next conference follows. Suggestions included: Fee-for- service library policies; electronic reference service; issues related to employing part-time librarians; a lecture on some aspect of Southwestern art; and using the new San Antonio Library building as the subject of a program or the site for a social event. Members also mentioned the possibility of sponsoring an AskARLIS panel, or co-sponsoring a session with another division, section, or round table.
Division members were enthusiastic about organizing a program for the San Antonio conference.
Another concern is the small number of members in the division. A number of reasons for this situation were offered, including the lack of funding to attend national meetings and lack of e-mail connections. Most of the members at this business meeting now have e- mail, although many libraries and librarians still lack full electronic access. Members were unable to devise a plan to increase membership, but the meeting was a productive one and everyone is looking forward to meeting again in San Antonio.
Ruth Games, Dallas Public Library
Visual Resources Division
April 28, 1996
Thirty-one members and visitors attended. Moderator for 1996/97 is Linda Bien (Concordia University). Vice moderator/ moderator-elect is Martha Mahard (Harvard University). Roger Lawson (ARLIS/NA vice president/president-elect) is VRD liaison to the Executive Board. VRD members Maryly Snow (UC Berkeley) and Betsy Peck Learned (Rogers Williams University) continue on the Executive Board. Outgoing moderator Adina Lerner (Walt Disney Archives) was thanked for her service, noting the great number of sessions sponsored and co-sponsored by VRD, and organized by Lerner.
A VRD page for the ARLIS/NA Web Site (http://afalib.uflib.ufl.edu/arlis) was composed by Adina Lerner. Basic VRD membership and Update column information is included. Lerner will continue to maintain and update the site; comments and information should be sent to her (adina_lerner@studio.disney.com.).
Margaret Webster (Cornell University) will chair the board-appointed Visual Resources Issues Task Force, charged to clarify the role of visual resources in ARLIS/NA. The board will use the task force report to integrate visual resources professional practices and concerns into ARLIS/NA's planning agenda and management structure. The task force will include selected VRD members and one or more commercial vendors.
Session proposals and ideas for the San Antonio conference were solicited. Jean Hines, moderator Decorative Arts Round Table, discussed the possibility of co-sponsoring a session on terminology. The membership voted that the moderator/moderator-elect submit a request to the board for a joint ARLIS/NA-VRA conference, or conference session within the foreseeable future.
A discussion of the role of VRD within ARLIS/NA ensued. While no specific agenda was proposed, it was agreed to continue discussion of this topic through Update and ARLIS-L was agreed upon. Changing the length of service was mentioned, as it now seems longer than most people are willing to commit to.
Peter Grewenow, University of Washington