Featured Projects

ARLIS/NA Applauds

The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) has established ARLIS/NA Applauds, an annual award to honor outstanding achievements by an individual member or group in the preceding calendar year. The inspiration for this award was the extraordinary achievement of the first recipients, Carol Ng-He and Claire Payne, who acted decisively to support the successful recasting of the society’s 2020 annual conference as an entirely virtual event.

ARLIS/NA individual members in good standing, an ARLIS/NA Chapter, or a group of ARLIS/NA members at-large may make nominations. The current awards committee chair and members of this award’s subcommittee are not eligible to submit or receive nominations.

Qualifying contributions include participating in ARLIS/NA special projects, dedicating extraordinary time and energy to committee or advocacy efforts, advancing DEI initiatives, responding effectively or creatively to an unforeseen or urgent need of the society, contributing innovative or creative ideas to the profession, performing extraordinary volunteerism on the society’s or profession’s behalf, and promoting the society’s professional values.

Each award recipient will be recognized at the society’s annual conference convocation and receive a one-year complimentary individual membership to ARLIS/NA as well as a certificate of appreciation signed by the ARLIS/NA President and awards committee chair.

Approved: March 2021

ARLIS/NA 50th Anniversary Task Force

Lead: Lindsay King, Advancement Liaison

In 2022, ARLIS/NA will celebrate a milestone anniversary! The 50th Anniversary Task Force is being formed to help inspire initiatives and coordinate activities to mark the event. Chaired by the Advancement Liaison, the task force will include representatives from the Conference Planning Committee for the 2022 annual conference in Chicago, the Membership Committee, the Development Committee, the Documentation Committee, the Vice President/President-Elect, and a member-at-large. The task force will supplement the work of the Conference Planning Committee and other groups by encouraging and coordinating efforts across ARLIS/NA and throughout the anniversary year, not just at the Chicago conference. If you would like to share an idea for commemorating the 50th anniversary, please contact Lindsay King, Advancement Liaison.

Approved: December 2019

Collection of Art & Design Related Open Educational Resources

Lead: Research & Information Services Section

When the Research & Information Services Section met at the 2019 annual conference, a need was identified for a centralized open educational resource index where librarians and educators can find resources that are relevant to art and design curricula. RISS members will solicit links to OERs that ARLIS/NA members have found and used, and will evaluate the links received for applications to various library environments and patron populations. RISS will also do some independent searching for applicable OERs, and combine all resources into an index that will be placed on the RISS blog. Each OER indexed will be accompanied by a short description and potential uses relative to different types of libraries and programs. The index will be maintained by the project members, including the RISS moderators, in order to ensure all links are current and active and to add new ones as they are created.

Approved: June 2019

Humanities Commons Implementation Task Force

Lead: Editorial Director, Open Access Coordinator

At the 2019 annual conference, the ARLIS/NA Executive Board approved the recommendation of the Humanities Commons Planning Task Force Report that the society join the Humanities Commons network. An implementation task force will devise a timetable and detailed action plan in which representatives from all segments of the society’s membership will establish norms and policies for contribution, content, and metadata, programs for maintaining member engagement, and dedicated funding for sustaining ARLIS/NA participation.

Approved: March 2019

State of Academic Libraries 2019

Lead: Academic Library Division

Academic art collections support the research, teaching and discovery of art information in institutions of higher education. Art information professionals serve as teachers and research partners within the arts community on campus. Changes within academic librarianship and higher education have implications for academic art librarianship and the continuing needs of patrons. The ongoing need for subject expertise and liaison librarianship in arts disciplines is critical to the production of scholarly and creative works. This report examines the current trends and issues facing academic art libraries and provides recommendations for librarians and administrators.

The final report can be accessed under ARLIS/NA Research & Reports.

Notable Graphic Novels Review

Lead: Graphic Novels, Comics, and Zines Special Interest Group.

Beginning in summer 2019, the annual Notable Graphic Novels Review online publication will present the ten best member-nominated graphic novels that are “innovative, memorable, or significant in the field, especially in terms of their artwork.” We define a graphic novel as a form of sequential art that typically integrates image and text in book form; genre and exact length can vary. It can be a collection of comic issues originally published as comic books or a standalone publication.

The primary objectives of the review are to engage the ARLIS/NA membership in acknowledging and celebrating innovative examples of the genre and to assist art librarians with improving their institutions’ graphic novel collections by providing summaries, critical evaluations, and informed recommendations.

Approved: August 2018

The New Art Museum Library

Lead: Museum Division

The New Art Museum Library (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), edited by Amelia Nelson and Traci E. Timmons, addresses the issues facing today's art museum libraries through a series of scholarly essays written by top librarians in the field. In the decade since publication of Art Museum Libraries and Librarianship edited by Joan Benedetti, many technological and ideological changes have occurred in the field. In addition to representing current thinking and practice and celebrating the many innovative initiatives that are flourishing in this new landscape, this new publication addresses the need to articulate and define the art museum library’s value within its institution, documents the broad changes occurring today in museums and cultural heritage institutions, and highlights how these changes are impacting art museum libraries. The unique nature of these initiatives mean that they will be useful to librarians working in a wide range of special libraries as well as more broadly in academic and public libraries.

Approved: May 2018

Data & Assessment Committee (DAC)—Data & Assessment Coordinator

Lead: Executive Board

The executive board approved establishment of the committee and coordinator at the annual conference in New York. Individuals will be appointed following the implementation of the society’s membership in the Humanities Commons. This committee will oversee the creation and implementation of an assessment plan that will support regular data collection and assessments of the society’s activities and membership. The committee will regularly provide the executive board, the strategic directions committee, and other ARLIS/NA leaders with actionable data and analysis in support of programmatic approaches to decision-making. (Organizational Advancement)

Approved: February 2018

Digital Art History Directory (DAHD)

Leads: Michelle Wilson and Samantha Deutch in collaboration with Cataloging Section, Digital Humanities SIG, Web Archiving SIG, and Systems Librarian Working Group

A registry of digital art history (DAH) projects that provides access, discoverability, and pedagogical uses of DAH projects, the DAHD will also be concerned with sustainability (both intellectually and technologically) and diversity (projects from both large and small institutions/publications). Who better to create, curate, catalog, and conserve a DAHD than art librarians? We envision a directory of projects that would be catalogued, indexed, and annotated by ARLISLNA members seeking to resolve these challenges. This is a moment for ARLISNA to take the lead and providing a service, dataset, and possible best practices, all for future scholarship.

Approved: August 2017