ARLIS/NA 2014, Washington D.C.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
The Kress Historic Negatives Digitization Project at the National Gallery of Art - Melissa Lemke, Image Specialist for Italian Art, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library
IC + FA: Using Metadata to United Photograph and Archival Collections - Shalimar Fojas White, Manager, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
The Carol M. Highsmith Archive: A Case Study in Providing Timely Public Access to Contemporary Born-digital Photographs via an Online Catalog - Brett Carnell, Acting Head, Technical Services Section, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Moderator:
Katherine Cowan, Senior Reference Librarian, Maryland Institute College of Art

Missy Lemke will discuss the National Gallery of Art Department of Image Collections’ work with the Kress Collection of Historic Images. In addition to the histories of the objects themselves, these images and supporting materials tell the fascinating story of Samuel Kress’s collecting practices, including the role of prominent art historians and conservators. A grant from the Kress Foundation facilitated the scanning, cataloguing and physical preservation of this important archive. This talk will highlight examples from the collection which shed light on the Kress story and its significance for modern art history.

Shalimar Fojas White will present about the problems inherent to mixed collections like those of the Collections and Fieldwork Archives (ICFA) at Dumbarton Oaks, which include both extensive photographic and fieldwork collections. The presentation will describe the selection of a collection management system (CMS) that will serve as an integrated data repository, and outline the challenges of incorporating two different metadata schemas and importing disparate legacy datasets into the same database. It will also outline the commonalities and differences in professional practice among art information professionals, and how systems and metadata can be used to integrate related collections that are often managed by different units within the same institution. In addition, the paper will describe the potential for an aggregated dataset for mixed collections to be repurposed for further online distribution.

Brett Carnell’s presentation will focus on the Carol M. Highsmith Archive. The Library of Congress currently provides access through its online catalog to over 22,000 of Highsmith’s rights-free photographs documenting America. Starting with Highsmith’s first submission of digital images in 2002 the Library developed and then has continuously refined practices to efficiently deliver high quality photographs to the public. The work has involved creating methods for facilitating and tracking the rapid inflow of thousands of images, manipulating metadata provided by the photographer to create catalog records, and managing digital files.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:

Getting Users the Things they Want: Open Access, Artstor and DPLA - Gregg A. Silvis, Associate University Librarian for Information Technology and Digital Initiatives, University of Delaware Library

Making Collections Information Go: Different Forms of Sharing for Open Access - Kate Blanch, Administrator, Museum Databases, The Walters Art Museum

How Open Access Makes Free Global Learning Possible - Beth Harris, Dean, Art and History, Khan Academy and Steven Zucker, Dean, Art and History, Khan Academy

Moderators:
Siân Evans, Implementation Manager, Artstor
Ian McDermott, Collection Development Manager, Artstor

Open access content is one of higher education’s most pressing topics, from sharing image and print collections to massive online open courses (MOOCs). To this end, the Digital Public Library of America (www.dp.la) launched in April 2013 with the ambitious goal of making the nation’s museum, library, and archival collections freely available online. To date, dozens of institutions are participating by sharing their content through a network of service and content hubs that aggregate and share content with DPLA. The collection building model for DPLA relies on these hubs to aggregate large batches of content that are subsequently harvested by DPLA.

This panel will explore Artstor’s work as a DPLA content hub for museum content and its plans to enable libraries to share their special collections with DPLA via Shared Shelf, as well as other collaborative open access projects taking place at the institutions represented. The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore will speak to their longstanding commitment to making their collections available on the open Web on their own website, DPLA, and Wikimedia Commons. University of Delaware Library has published numerous special collections in Shared Shelf Commons, an open access portal that contains content for Shared Shelf subscribers; this content will soon be made available to DPLA, thereby increasing access to academic special collections through one search portal. Additionally, Beth Harris and Steven Zucker of smARThistory, a leading open access resource for art history, will discuss their plans to use DPLA content, and other open access content, in their open educational resources.

Recorded Session Available Summer 2014

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
Visual Arts: Copyright Registration, Problems, and Proposed Solutions - Robert J. Kasunic, Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Registration Policy, U.S. Copyright Office
The CAA Fair Use Project - Angelica Das, Associate Director, Center for Media & Social Impact, School of Communication, American University
Untangling the Ethics and Copyright of Appropriation Art in an Age of Piracy  - Alexander Watkins, Art & Architecture Librarian, University of Colorado Boulder

Moderator:
Amanda Bowen, Head of Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University

Art information and visual resources professionals continue to play a crucial role in educating artists, researchers, and professional colleagues about the nuances of copyright and fair use, as well as the ethical considerations as they apply to visual materials in education, publishing, and artistic expression.

This session brings practitioners and experts together to address three important aspects of image use in the visual arts. The ease of finding and reproducing images often obscures the complex legal issues; fair-use “best practices” guidelines have become one way to illuminate strategies for working within existing and changing copyright laws. What is legal under fair use, however, is not always ethical, and this session will address the state of current requirements for registering visual materials for copyright protection; issues of originality, cultural appropriation, and socioeconomic inequality as aspects of image use; and the ongoing development of new guidelines for using images for instruction and publishing.

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
Libby Dechman, Policy Specialist for Art and Kate James, Policy Specialist for RDA, Policy and Standards Division, Library of Congress

Moderator:
Alison Larson, Art Reference/Weekend Operations Librarian, Crouch Fine Arts Library, Baylor University

FRBR has changed how we think about bibliographic records, and RDA has changed how we approach descriptive cataloging. Library of Congress Policy and Standards Division staff have answered thousands of questions from LC staff and the wider cataloging world seeking direction and clarification. In this informal session, two policy experts from the Policy and Standards Division will provide updates on RDA developments at LC and recent changes in descriptive and subject cataloging policy that impact the art community. Time will be allotted for questions and answers.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Erin Dunigan, Sales & Marking Associate, D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers
Julia Klein, Publisher, Soberscove Press
David Senior, Bibliographer, The Museum of Modern Art Library
Brian Cassidy, Independent Bookseller, Silver Spring, MD

Moderators:
Amy Ballmer, Assistant Head of Research and Instructional Services, Gladys Marcus Library, Fashion Institute of Technology
Melanie Emerson, Head of Reader Services  Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago  Chicago, IL

There is growing agreement in the art library community that homogonous collections do not reflect the interests and experiences of our diverse community of researchers, students and artists. Small press, indie, and artists’ publications strengthen collections and support research through the alternative voices, practices, and experiences they present.  But how can we effectively integrate small publishers into collection development and acquisitions workflow? Publishers and authors need to know the best way to connect with librarians and make their books easy to purchase considering the byzantine and restrictive purchasing processes many libraries must go through. Alternatively, librarians and other Acquisition staff members need the freedom to move beyond traditional approval plans and attend book fairs and explore venues that allow direct access to those producing and distributing these unique materials in the US and abroad.    

Speakers on this panel will explore the ways in which librarians and non-librarians (artists, publishers, book sellers) collaborate to establish relationships that enrich collections and provide access to materials produced outside the mainstream publishing establishment. The panelists represent a diverse range of ideas and focus on different aspects of collection development. Each panelist will consider ways to navigate the challenges inherent to collecting and producing many types of non-traditional publications and resources from both sides of this exchange. They will also provide an overview of how they currently work with libraries, problems they’ve encountered that require solutions, and questions they have about the collection development process.

Sponsored by Michael R. Weintraub and Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Neal Turtell, Executive Librarian, National Gallery of Art
Mark Dimunation, Chief, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
Vanessa Haight Smith, Head, Preservation Services, Smithsonian Libraries

Moderator:
Bill Baxter, President, Washington Rare Book Group / Head, History and Culture Department, Smithsonian Libraries

The greater Washington DC region is host to a wide range of world-class libraries, many of which hold specialized and rare book collections. Taking advantage of the area's wealth of collections, specialists, and enthusiasts, this panel will address fundamental issues in special collections and rare book librarianship, including conservation and preservation, acquisition, security, and handling and use.

Presenters will also address issues and arguments regarding whether rare book material should be part of the library's collection or the museum's. The panel will also investigate the book as object vs. the book as information. Presenters will also focus on collections and materials that can later be visited by attendees at the respective libraries that are easily accessible in downtown DC. The session is intended to both provide an introduction to rare book collection issues by experts in fields while showcasing local collections.

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
Matthew Long, Project Coordinator, Ithaka S+R
Roger Schonfeld, Program Director for Libraries, Users, and Scholarly Practices, Ithaka S+R
Sandra Brooke, Librarian, Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
Heather Gendron, Art Librarian, Sloane Art Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Moderator:
Roger C. Schonfield, Program Director for Libraries, Users, and Scholarly Practices Ithaka S+R

‪Ithaka S+R, a strategic consulting and research service that focuses on the transformation of scholarship in an online environment, has conducted an in-depth study of research practices in art history.

This project is part of Ithaka S+R’s larger Research Support Services Program. The goal of this program is to examine the evolving needs of researchers on a field-specific basis in order to best understand how libraries, visual resource centers, publishers, database providers, and other information services providers meet these needs. The project in art history is jointly funded by the Getty Foundation and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Through interviews with faculty members, curators, museum professionals, graduate students, visual resource professionals, librarians, and others involved in the academic study of art history, Ithaka S+R has explored a wide variety of themes related to research practices. The project examines art historians’ work processes, their use of primary and secondary sources, their publication habits, and their adaptation to the digital environment. Special attention has been given to the impact of technology on research methodologies.

This session will provide an overview of the project findings and a discussion of their implications. The full findings will be published in early 2014 in a report that will be available on the Ithaka S+R website.

Recorded Session Available Summer 2014

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Trade Catalogs: Invaluable Resources - Mary Augusta Thomas, Deputy Director, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and Stephen Van Dyk, Head, Art Libraries, Smithsonian Institution Libraries and Librarian, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
Through the Looking Glass: a Medium-specific Collection - Gail P. Bardhan, Reference and Research Librarian, Rakow Library, Corning Museum of Glass
From Stickley to Sears: Material Culture and Trade Catalogs - Emily Guthrie, NEH Librarian, Printed Book & Periodical Collection, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Trade Catalogs as Objects of Fine Printing and Design - Jared Ash, Special Collections Librarian, Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Projects and Products: Building History in Architectural Trade Catalogs - Carolyn Yorke Yerkes, Curator of Avery Classics, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University 

Moderator
Linda Seckelson, Principal Reader Services Librarian, Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Politically, trade catalogs represent the industrial and commercial productivity and inventiveness of a nation – a measurement of its economic power in the post industrial world. They additionally promoted national styles that became adopted by countries as a form of identity and national pride. 

Trade catalogs are primary source materials for understanding the history and study of decorative arts and material culture. They are a specialized "genre" of art historical literature. Their care, acquisition, cataloging, organization and housing present particular challenges. There are large, recognized collections of them in some institutions, and smaller, scattered collections elsewhere. In some museum settings, they are considered "objects," and in other situations, they are in library collections. Their ambiguous status contributes to their complexity. Therefore, access to them is not always straightforward. 

The original purpose of trade catalogs was to illustrate and promote the use of manufactured products. Small mills and large corporations alike publish them as marketing tools for wholesalers, retailers and the public. Trade catalogs document existing products, new technologies, innovative design in products and packaging, and marketing methods. In addition, they chronicle diverse methods of printing and advertising layout. They are portable and accessible resources for disseminating new inventions and designs all over the world. They are important research tools for verifying manufacturers of objects, as visual resources for restorations and creation of facsimiles and as a means of understanding the style and taste of a place or time period. They document material culture in a way that links commerce, industry, design, taste and scholarship, and as such, are essential tools for the increasingly interdisciplinary study of art history, decorative arts and material culture. 

Each panelist will talk briefly about the collection at his/her institution and will emphasize important or unique contributions to study and research, as well as addressing any issues relating to cataloging, organization, digitization and collecting challenges for the future.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Objectifying the Archive: Preserving the Physicality of Photographic Collections for Enhanced Access - Shalimar Fojas White, Manager, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
Enhancing access to photographic Collections at the GRI - Isotta Poggi, Assistant Curator, Getty Research Institute

Moderator: Emily Una Weirich, Access Services Supervisor/Student, Harvard Fine Arts Library/Simmons

Though online access and digitization are often the focus of discussions surrounding photographic archives and special collections, a great deal of information can still be gained from the original photographic items themselves. Many institutions provide access to their collections online, through online presentations and bibliographic records (among other things) to encourage remote use of these materials. These papers will present examples from two collections - the Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives at Dumbarton Oaks and the Photographs in the Special Collections at the Getty Research Institute - and discuss issues relating to access to the photographic materials held by these two institutions.

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
The Tile Industry, Government Art, and The White House 'Restoration': The Brief Life of the White House Library's Fireplace Surround - Sally Stokes, Adjunct Lecturer, Cultural Heritage Information Management, School of Library and Information Science, The Catholic University of America and Interim Head, Art and Architecture Libraries, University of Maryland
Coinage, Politics, and Power: Preservation Grants and Fundraising at the Library of the American Numismatic Society - Elizabeth Hahn, Librarian, American Numismatic Society

Moderator:
Susan Reyburn, Senior Writer-editor, Publishing Office, Library of Congress

This session will address the complex connections between politics and cultural heritage preservation from two different perspectives.

Drawing from the fascinating story of the Franklin D. Roosevelt fireplace surround in the White House library, Sally Stokes of the Catholic University of America will discuss the role of government policy – or lack thereof – in the decoration, renovation, restoration, and documentation of government buildings. She will explain the challenges of conducting research on architectural elements within the White House when records are scant, scattered, and, in some cases, closed to researchers for security purposes. Stokes will also describe the efforts of a community of art librarians and historians to study the history of the ceramic tiles in the fireplace surround.

Presenter Elizabeth Hahn, head librarian for the American Numismatic Society, will describe her experience securing funding for preservation and access projects through private and government agencies. The example of coinage as propaganda will underline a continuing theme of the connection of art, and the institutions that preserve art, and politics, from the past to the present while also demonstrating how our actions often repeat the past. Hahn will also discuss the importance of exploring new ways for libraries and museums to attract donors to projects that may be perceived as unexciting, though necessary for the preservation and study of our cultural heritage.

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
Culture/History Wars in Canada: a Museum Library Perspective - Jonathan Franklin, Chief: Library, Archives and Research Fellowships Program, National Gallery of Canada
The Campaign to Save Canada's Documentary Heritage - Mary Kandiuk, Visual Arts Librarian,
Scott Library, York University

Moderator:
Jennifer Garland, Assistant Librarian, McGill University

What are the priorities for national collection building by government institutions in the face of dwindling resources? What strategies can be used by stakeholders to ensure that artistic, historical and cultural heritage is preserved? The national institution, Library and Archives Canada, has embarked on controversial directions and undergone abrupt changes of leadership. Stark reductions in funding have affected it and many smaller federal libraries as well. At the same time, Canadian history has loomed large in political discourse. A political campaign is being waged by librarians, archivists, academics, curators, artists, and a myriad of other citizens across the country in response to what is perceived as the dismantling of Canada’s documentary heritage.

Mary Kandiuk from York University will provide a chronology of the events leading up to the current crisis, a deconstruction of a political rhetoric that threatens the fabric of cultural institutions everywhere, and an overview of the collaborative efforts that are being used to influence government policy making. It will also highlight the successful multimedia strategies that are being used in a highly visible campaign resulting in hopeful signs that the tide may be turning.

Jonathan Franklin from the National Gallery of Canada will investigate whether there are particular lessons to be learned for art museum libraries as their role in general seems increasingly under threat. Is this an opportunity to be seized, or a trap to be avoided? Should the library ramp up its collecting and programming in related areas or maintain a steady course with no deviation?

Sponsored by Society Circle

Moderator:
Nedda Ahmed, Arts Librarian, Georgia State University

Modeled after the Social Media Sewing Circle that was held in Pasadena, this session will be a moderated "unconference" session devoted to social media. We'll cover some of the recent literature on social media in libraries (and beyond), then have ample time for open discussion about trends and ideas, sprinkled with attendees' show & tell.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Collaborative Collection Development for the Getty Research Portal- Kathleen Salomon, Assistant Director, and Alyx Rossetti, Metadata Librarian, Getty Research Institute
New Direction in Web Archiving and Collaborative Partnerships- Carole Ann Fabian, Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University
WorldCat Art Discovery Group Catalog: an International Network- Geert-Jan Koot, Director of the Research Library, Rijksmuseum
Working Together: Decision Support for Developing Digital Collections- Carole Ann Fabian, Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University

Moderators:
Kathleen Salomon, Assistant Director, Getty Research Institute
Carole Ann Fabian, Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University

Over the past five years, the Future of Art Bibliography (FAB) Initiative has served as a vehicle to develop collaborative efforts that aim--via discipline-specific open-access projects--to facilitate 21st century art historical research. The ensuing complementary and collaborative initiatives have been moving toward a shared ideal of making art historical literature in its many formats accessible to scholars worldwide, facilitating research, and furthermore encouraging a new kind of scholarly engagement with the materials.

The politics and diplomacy necessary to engage collaborators and scale such projects will be this year’s focus. Common to all of these projects is an urgent need to productively engage institutions both locally and internationally in a dialogue about the focus of current projects that will foster more collaboration and cooperation. Following this thread, the session will conclude by providing time for presentation and discussion of a proposal for a collective tool for “decision-support” that will assist in identifying both overlapping digital projects and lacunae in order to encourage the development of collaborative as well as unique projects that will further FAB’s overarching goal for the field.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Tony White, Director, Decker Library, Maryland Institute College of Art
Sue Maberry, Director of the Library and Instructional Technology, Otis College of Art and Design
Jennifer Friedman, Instruction and Research Services Librarian, Ringling College of Art and Design
David Pemberton, Reference and Periodicals Librarian, School of the Visual Arts
Carrie Saarinen, Senior Instructional Designer for Canvas Network, Instructure, Inc.

Moderator:
Diana Harter, Humanities Department Assistant, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University

Under the theme of "Power and Agency" this session will focus on Inter-Institutional collaboration. We don’t all have to reinvent the wheel. This session will focus on a case study of an inter-institutional collaboration among the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) to create an information literacy MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) for students in art and design. 

The idea for a MOOC was suggested at the AICAD Library Director’s meeting in Pasadena. The initial goal was to provide a MOOC for AICAD students in their first year of study, but also open for anyone to enroll in. Lessons learned from our efforts may have broader impact and importance for other libraries and institutions, and consortia, and may provide a new model for collaboration with regard to library instruction. The MOOC provider Canvas.net expressed interest in the concept and requested a syllabus and course draft by August 2013.  The course was broken down into asynchronous modules, and included interactive learning objects, videos, assignments, quizzes, handouts, and an assessment instrument.  Modules included: Why is research important; search terms and concept mapping; beyond Google (i.e., databases); All Information Is NOT Created Equal; and Copyright and How to Avoid Plagiarism.  In this session AICAD directors and Librarians will report on how successful (or not) the MOOC was, recommend improvements, next steps, as well as the discussion of the process of collaboration.

Sponsored by Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC)

Speakers:
Mapping Cultural Exchange: Strategies for Locating the Narrative in the Digital World - Dr. Michele Greet, Dept. of History and Art History, George Mason University
Partnering for Agency: Empowering Users in the Creative Teaching and Research Process - Kristina Keogh, Head, Fine Arts Library, Indiana University at Bloomington
Hidden from Sight: Exposing Local World War I Collections for a Centennial Exhibition - Kathleen Lonbom, Art, Theater and Dance Librarian, and Angela Bonnell, Head of Liaison and Reference Services, Milner Library, Illinois Sate University

Moderator:
Sarah Falls, Head, Fine Arts Library, Ohio State University

Digital Humanities interprets the cultural and social impact of new media and information technologies—the fundamental components of the new information age—as well as creates and applies these technologies to answer cultural, social, historical, and philological questions, both those traditionally conceived and those only enabled by new technologies.” (UCLA Center for Digital Humanities). Digital Humanities (DH) includes such activities as curating online collections, mining large cultural data sets, data visualization, information retrieval, digital publishing, gaming, multimedia, peer-to-peer collaboration, and GIS and mapping. Visual arts DH projects draw on one or many of these components, as well as incorporating content and methodologies from related humanities, or science and social science, disciplines. In this new collaborative, interdisciplinary digital environment, librarians and visual resources specialists work side-by-side with faculty and students to develop and support DH projects for teaching and research.

This session seeks to highlight the issues and politics of change surrounding the support, development, dissemination, and preservation of DH projects in the arts and humanities. Panelists will address the issues surrounding the transformational changes brought about by introducing the concepts of Digital Humanities into the arts disciplines -- empowering new modes of research in the visual arts, intra-institutional collaboration, preservation and access (new technologies, organizational models, collaborative projects), copyright, and scholarly publishing.

Recorded Session Available Summer 2014

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Jennifer Friedman, Instruction and Research Services Librarian, Ringling College of Art & Design
Sarah Carter, Assistant Professor and Director of Bridwell Art Library, University of Louisville
Carrie McDade, Head Librarian, Lesley University College of Art & Design
Gary Ginther, Fine Arts Librarian, Ohio University
Robin Potter, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Santa Fe Community College

Moderator:
Greg Hatch, Head of Fine Arts and Architecture, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah

In October 2011, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) published its Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. The 10-page document identifies seven standards (modeled on ACRL’s own Information Literacy Competency Standards) and prescribes performance indicators and learning outcomes for students in higher education. However, the guidelines did not include librarian users in its scope nor did it offer practical examples of how to apply the standards in real-world situations.

During the first half of this panel session, the speakers will present a wide variety of visual literary projects and initiatives, which will inspire attendees—from academic, art school, and museum libraries alike—with real-world examples of how ACRL's visual literacy guidelines have been implemented. The speakers will note which ACRL Visual Literacy Standards correlate to their examples, as well as comment on the financial costs, time investment, and the technology and skills required to implement them. The second half of this session will engage attendees with interactive discussions on developing and embedding visual literacy into their own library work.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
The Ar(t)chive: The Intersection of Artists and Archives through Collaboration - Marcie Farwell, Collections Assistant, Cornell University, and Jessica Rozler, Independent Researcher
Visiting Artist Lecture Series: An Academic Library, Civic, and Community Partnership to Advocate and Educate about the Arts- John Burns, Reference Librarian, Dixie State University
The People's Library: Libraries Designed, Built, and Authored by Community Members - Mark Strandquist and Courtney Bowles, Co-directors, The People's Library

Moderator:
John Burns, Reference Librarian, Dixie State University

While artists have used archival and bibliographic materials as inspiration for years, today a growing number of libraries and archives are fostering relationships with artists via artist-in-residency programs, classes, workshops, and exhibitions. This session will discuss three distinctive ways to encourage collaborations between libraries and archives and their constituencies.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Art and Recreation: The International Garment Workers' Union, Unity House, and Diego Rivera - Kathryn Dowgiewicz, ILGWU Project Archivist, Kheel Center, Cornell University

Shooting Back: Labor Portrays Itself and the World (in the collections of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives) - Erika Gottfried, Curator of Nonprint Collections, Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives/Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, New York University

Black and White and Red All Over: Bernard Kassoy’s McCarthy Era Political Cartoons in the New York Teacher News - Barb Morley, Digital Archivist, Kheel Center, Cornell University

Opportunities and Challenges: Collecting and Managing Activists' Photos Available on the Web - Anna Perricci, Web Archiving Project Librarian, Columbia University

Moderator:
Elizabeth Berenz, Senior Implementation Manager, Artstor

Art and politics collide in the documentation of the history of the labor movement. Several speakers from Cornell University and New York University will present their special collections of documentary photographs, political cartoons, and labor movement ephemera across a century. An additional speaker from Columbia University who is also a member of the Occupy Wall Street Archives Working Group will present about the work of that group, including how Bulkr and the use of Creative Commons licensing helped the working group with the challenges they faced collecting material outside of an institutional setting.

Recorded Session Available Summer 2014

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
Jennifer Henel, Curatorial Associate, Department of Northern Baroque Paintings, National Gallery of Art
Nancy Thomas, Senior Deputy Director, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Michele Miller, Registrar and Museum Database Specialist, Seattle Art Museum
Nancy Micklewright, Head of Scholarly Programs and Publications, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution

Moderator:
Anne Helmreich, Senior Program Officer, Getty Foundation

Publishing scholarly collection catalogues is a critical part of a museum's mission. Based on meticulous research, these catalogues make available detailed information about the individual works in a museum's collection, ensuring the contents a place in art history. Yet printed volumes are costly to produce and difficult to update regularly; their potential content often exceeds allotted space. One could say they are like thoroughbred horses confined to stock pens. Digital publishing presents an alternative, and the Getty Foundation's Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative (OSCI) is helping museums make the transition from printed volumes to multimedia, web-based publications freely available to anyone with a computer, tablet, or smartphone.

The Foundation launched OSCI in 2009 in partnership with the J. Paul Getty Museum and eight other institutions: the Art Institute of Chicago; the Arthur M. Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Seattle Art Museum; Tate; and the Walker Art Center. The consortium's goals are to create models for online catalogues that will dramatically increase access to museum collections; make available new, interdisciplinary, up-to-date research; and revolutionize how this research is conducted, presented, and utilized. The panelists will discuss the different approaches taken by their respective institutions to implement this innovative concept.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Sara Snyder, Information Technology Specialist, Archives of American Art
Elizabeth Botten, Archives Specialist, Archives of American Art
Kraig Binkowski Chief Librarian, Yale Center for British Art
Elizabeth Morris Assistant Librarian, Yale Center for British Art
Fran Scott, Director of Library Services, Georgian Court University

Moderator:
Emilee Mathews, Research Librarian for Visual Arts, University of California Irvine

In the perennial struggle to improve library collections, policies, and services with rapidly changing user needs, the reference transaction is a powerful encounter that can be mined for data to improve, streamline, and innovate existing practices. The papers below demonstrate ways that each speaker has capitalized on this interaction to make a positive impact on their institution’s relationship with its constituency.

Elizabeth Botten and Sara Snyder of the Archives of American Art have created an innovative program to improve their institution's digital collections interface. By retooling real-life reference questions into tasks for web-usability testing, they have devised a practical, low-budget methodology that informs the Archives’ design and information architecture. This strategy has forged a close collaboration between reference, processing archivists and information technology, and has bolstered the belief that supporting researchers is everyone’s job.

The Yale Center for British Art’s Kraig Binkowski and Elizabeth Morris have created an innovative and powerful reference tool with the creation of comprehensive, object-focused bibliographies for their museum’s permanent collections. Culled from contemporary literature and historical documents and created with the collaboration of several museum departments, these tools enhances the on-site and online research experience for both the general public and scholars.

Fran Scott, formerly Manager of the Architecture Library and Reference and Instruction Services at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discusses the successes and challenges of the implementation of a new reference model. Created to be on-call as well as offer tiered service, the objective of this new model was to free up desk time for new projects and the required collaboration of staff and librarians outside of the reference and instruction services department.

Together, these papers provide guidance and inspiration to think critically about leveraging and promoting user empowerment in the art library across a broad spectrum of museum, academic, and art and design school libraries serving a wide variety of users and needs.

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
Digital Activism: Manifestos and Protest Ephemera in the Library- Hannah Bennett, Librarian, Princeton University School of Architecture

Telling the Story of the Lions: A Collaborative, Community-Based Approach to Documenting and Preserving Political Graphics Collections- Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez, Project Archivist, Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) and Bolton Doub, Project Archivist, Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG)

Moderator:
Greta Suiter, Processing Specialist, George Mason University Libraries

Preserving and collection social movements presents myriad challenges for archivists and information professionals. This session pairs a fervent call to action with an exemplary case study.

Hannah Bennett of Princeton University will challenge art and architecture libraries to identify, collect, catalog and preserve the manifestos and ephemeral productions created by today's Design Activists. Tracking and preserving such material is especially difficult since it appears in the fugitive forms of email, microblogs, Wikileaks, social media sites, and so on. Simply recognizing activist productions can be problematic in the digital age, let alone collecting, cataloging and preserving them. They can appear--and disappear--instantaneously; they emerge at points along a network rather than on discrete sheets of paper. This paper will address the vital struggle to curate creative audacity in all its forms for the use of generations to come.

A second paper by Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez and Bolton Doub from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) will show how a grassroots archive independent of a parent institution, was able to successfully establish long-term relationships with the communities it documents, while providing access to archival collections through grants, public programming, and collaborative projects. The paper will detail examples of CSPG’s community-based and inter-institutional collaborative projects, with a particular focus on a current two-year National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grant-funded project to arrange, describe, process, catalog, and partially digitize its entire holdings.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Provenance, Pedigree, and Poverty: Challenging Museumologists Discourse on Navajo Textile History- Kathy M'Closkey, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Windsor (presented by Kathy Edwards)
Indigenous Visual Culture at OCAD University Library: Diffusing the Discourses of Power- Daniel Payne, Head Instructional Services, Dorothy H. Hoover Library, OCAD University

Moderator:
Kathy Edwards, Research & Collection Development Librarian, Gunnin Architecture Library, Clemson University

This session will discuss ways in which libraries can facilitate discovery of unknown primary and secondary resources relevant to research in indigenous material culture collections.

In 1996, the Heard Museum (Phoenix, AZ), sponsored the symposium and exhibition “Inventing the Southwest: The Fred Harvey Company and Native American Art.” Founded in 1876, the Company managed the restaurants and dining cars for the Santa Fe Railroad. A publication featuring essays from twenty contributors accompanied the show. Although sixty percent of the papers dealt with important stakeholders involved with marketing Native American collectibles, none of the authors accessed information from the Company’s Indian Department ledger books containing thousands of entries related to the purchase and disposition of Native American creations acquired after 1900. Yet these primary documents were housed directly above the symposium’s location--in the Museum’s library.

Can post-colonial voices be heard within an institutional forum founded in a colonial past? Michel Foucault’s Archaeology of Knowledge (L'archéologie du savoir, 1969) offers an indictment of hegemonic environments constructed by institutions that use codified discursive practices to arbitrarily impose a hierarchical order onto the world of knowledge based on values, norms and assumptions unique to their own cultural vantage point. For libraries using subject classification schemes such as Library of Congress system, criticisms of this nature seem deeply provoking. Concerns of this nature became prescient at OCAD University with the introduction of the Indigenous Visual Culture (INVC) program, a degree stream that offers either major or minor courses of study. Founded by the university’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies, the INVC curriculum encompasses courses from all three OCAD U faculties of Art, Design and Liberal Arts & Sciences. In addition to new course offerings, each faculty has revised selected pre-existing courses to include components of aboriginal ways of understanding and knowing, leading to a meaningful integration of course objectives where indigenous perspectives permeate all aspects of the university’s curriculum.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Partners in Preservation: Documenting the Nation's Oldest City- Tom Caswell, University Librarian, University of Florida
Documenting a City's Past, Present, and Future: or, How a University Library Can Work with Local Civic Entities to Preserve and Protect the Built and Planned Environment- Viveca Pattison Robichaud, Visiting Librarian, University of Notre Dame, and Jennifer Parker, Associate Librarian, University of Notre Dame

Moderator:
Courtney Baron, MLIS Student, Valdosta State University

Tom Caswell will present about "Unearthing St. Augustine’s Colonial Heritage," a federally funded collaborative project which draws together four different repositories of hidden and fragile archival material which have been previously inaccessible to researchers worldwide and is now freely available in an open source database. By partnering both public and private institutions, this initiative digitally preserves and provides access to thousands of maps, drawings, photographs and documents which help in telling St. Augustine’s unique “story” as the United States’ oldest city on a global scale. Among the important archival items to be “unearthed,” which date from the 16th century to the present, include maps and overlays of the city, architectural drawings of historic structures, Spanish and British colonial government documents, as well as records, photographs, and site summaries from key archaeological excavations.

Viveca Pattison Robichaud and Jennifer Parker will speak about a project to create an online resource to study past, present and future architecture in the city of South Bend, produced by the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame’s Architecture Library and South Bend’s Center for History and the Historic Preservation Commission of South Bend and St. Joseph’s County. This resource is intended to provide access to historic architecture that has been demolished, historic architecture and historic districts that currently exist which we have documentation and/or blueprints of, and student proposals for the revitalization of undeveloped urban districts and locations within the city. This project includes creating a preservation plan for the blueprints, maps, and photographs, a digitization plan, and a catalog of the historic blueprint collection.

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
Ask Not What Your Profession Can Do For You: Surveying Art Librarian Career Paths and Attitude- Eamon Tewell, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Long Island University, Brooklyn
The Problem with Leadership Training for Librarians- Rachel Resnick, Librarian, Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Moderator:
Alison Huftalen, Head Librarian, Toledo Museum of Art

As many can attest, the path one takes to art librarianship is not always a direct route with clear goals and strategies. Additionally, once in the profession, support for development in leadership skills is often lacking. Eamon Tewell from Long Island University, Brooklyn, will present the results of an international survey of art librarians' motivations for selecting the field, as well as their educational backgrounds, previous and current employment, and advice for graduate students and prospective librarians seeking to enter the profession. The survey results, accompanied by illustrative quotes from respondents and charts to visualize the data, will be reviewed and critically evaluated.

Attendees will learn more about the demographics and career paths in the profession as voiced by respondents in two dozen countries, and be able to identify core values of art librarianship expressed of, by, and for the profession. Rachel Resnik from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design will examine the scarce opportunities for art librarians to hone their leadership skills. Librarians need to be savvy negotiators, excellent bridge builders, and creative agents of change.   

For the sake of their careers and the Society, ARLIS/NA members need to become power brokers within their institutions. The presentation will investigate why a profession that is traditionally so effective and proactive in training, is failing to satisfactorily provide training opportunities in regards to leadership.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Reaching Across the Aisle: The Library as Bridge Between Science and Art- Shannon Marie Robinson, Fine Arts Liaison Librarian, Denison University
Dr. Strangetune, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Merge- Ann Lindell, Head, Architecture & Fine Arts Library, University of Florida
Ask the People, Serve the People: A Collaborative Assessment Project at UCLA- Allison Benedetti, Librarian for Advanced Research and Engagement, UCLA Library

Moderator:
Lyndsay Bratton, Kress Fellow in Art Librarianship, Yale University

Collaboration in higher education is becoming increasingly crucial with ever-increasing demands on resources and widening ranges of expertise. As a result, academic libraries are becoming more enterprising by finding new ways to collaborate more effectively and creatively. The three presenters in this session all faced different challenges where collaboration provided an effective means for successful innovation.

Ann Lindell, at the University of Florida will discuss the decision that was made to close the Music Library facility and merge its collections and professional staff with the Architecture & Fine Arts Library. This change involved many departments and multiple facilities and her paper will address the topics of advocacy and communication during times of change, patron activism, and strategies for managing expectations both internal and external.

Allison Benedetti will discuss how renovated space at the UCLA Library resulted in bringing in users from diverse subject areas. A team of librarians launched a multi-modal assessment project in order to better understand the complex needs of varying disciplines and students and to be proactive in addressing and scaling responses to newly arising challenges. The initiative provides an opportunity to collaborate with colleagues on campus to promote this project and guide it through to implementation.

Shannon Robinson, a fine art liaison librarian at Denison University, will discuss how she and a science liaison librarian are implementing intra-institutional collaborative activities between science and art faculty members to support the STEAM movement, which champions adding Art to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. Successes, failures, and future efforts will be addressed, reflecting on how librarians can foster the STEM to STEAM movement at their institutions.

Sponsored by Society Circle

Moderators:
Caley Cannon, Reference Librarian, Savannah College of Art and Design
Kimberly Detterbeck, Art Librarian, State University of New York at Purchase

Speakers:

The Politics of Distributed Learning: Outcomes of the Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2014 - Siân Evans, Shared Shelf Implementation Manager, Artstor, and Jacqueline Mabey, The office of failed projects

Teaching the Hipsters: Incorporating Art and Politics into Creative Library Instruction - Diana Harter, Humanities Department Assistant, Brigham Young University

Artists’ Books DC: Developing Access, Promoting Research and Fostering Community from outside the Library - Michelle Strizever, Archivist, SEARCH, Inc.

Gerd Muehsam Award Winner:

Digital Facsimiles and the Modern Viewer: Medieval Manuscripts and Archival Practice in the Age of New Media - Jasmine Burns, MLIS Candidate and Digitization Assistant, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Returning for an eighth year, the New Voices in the Profession panel provides new Art Librarianship and Visual Resources professionals the opportunity to present topics from exceptional coursework, such as a master's thesis, or topics with which they are engaged early in their professional life. New professionals are defined as either students in MLIS or Master's programs leading to a career in librarianship or visual resources, or those 5 years post Master's level study. For many, this is their first professional speaking engagement.

This panel began at the ARLIS/NA 2006 conference in Banff and has received wide attention and praise since. Topics presented reveal new ideas, as well as different ways of thinking about established concepts, and give the conference attendees a glimpse of the academic interests and current discourses of the newest ARLIS/NA members. The New Voices session is organized by the Professional Development Committee, ArLiSNAP, and the Gerd Muehsam Award Committee.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Gary Ginther, Fine Arts Librarian, Frederick & Kazuko Harris Arts Collection, Ohio University
Judy Donovan, Art Librarian, Honickman Art Library, The Barnes Foundation
Jamie Lausch Vander Broek, Learning Librarian/Exhibits and Programming Librarian, University of Michigan
Amanda H. Brown, Special Collections Instruction Librarian, University of Colorado Boulder Libraries
Megan Lotts, Art Librarian, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Jill E. Luedke, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Art Subject Specialist / German Studies, Temple University Libraries

Moderator:
Annette Haines, Art & Design Field Librarian, Art, Architecture & Engineering Library, University of Michigan

One of our primary goals as librarians is to stimulate and engage people with our services and collections toward furthering creative and scholarly work. Traditionally we do this through library instruction, exhibits, and hosting events. One of the distinct challenges art librarians face is getting studio artists and designers through our doors. The work of an art history scholar seems more adapted to the scholarly atmosphere of quiet book stacks, but for many reasons the studio artist or designer, particularly the undergraduate student, is less inclined toward engaging with libraries. One recent phenomenon in the library world involves empowering users by giving them opportunities to shape their libraries collections through patron-driven acquisitions.

This panel session will explore ways in which art librarians use similar strategies of engagement to empower artists. Panelists will present the innovative means they have used to interact and connect with studio artists by tapping into their creative nature and empowering them to contribute their energy and unique talents toward transforming library spaces. Librarians are not just opening up the library as exhibition areas, but getting students to engage with the collections and spaces by curating exhibits from library collections, displaying library materials in conjunction with their own art and design, and using their design talents to enliven library environments. Panelists will discuss their experiences working with students, the problems they may have encountered, and ways in which librarians can encourage creative student involvement with the library to the benefit of all parties.

Sponsored by Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)

Speakers:
Deborah Kempe, Chief of Collections Management & Access, Frick Art Reference Library
Billy Parrott, Managing Librarian, The Picture Collection, New York Public Library
Patricia Fidler, Editor, Art and Architecture, Yale University Press

Moderator:
Clayton Kirking, Chief, Art Information Resources, New York Public Library

As an engorged wave of digitization washes over the library and information landscape, some in the profession find that they have weathered this tempest before. The rush to produce microfilm and discard paper originals that senior librarians experienced the 1970s and 1980s produced an enormous amount of film and sometimes created significant voids in physical print collections. The last ten years have seen an enormous rise in the popular mandate to digitize. This, coupled with the limitations posed within the disciplines of Art History, Architectural History and Design History, i.e., images, has resulted in a generalized stall of the process, especially when compared to other fields, e.g., fiction and the sciences. This "anomaly" in the field raises questions about priorities: What gets digitized and what does not? What is digitally sexy? What gets left behind? 

This session, prompted in part by the colloquium "From Wunderkammer to eResources: Promoting Art Information Across Borders in the 21st Century", held in Berlin June 13, 14, 2013, will continue discussions begun there and open the conversation to larger representation of the art library community. The session will address three primary topics: initiatives engaged in the creation of high-quality digital publications in the arts, such as catalogues raisonnés and exhibition catalogs; priorities for electronic publishing among academic presses; and, the little discussed subject of collections that are at the virtual bottom of the digitization hit list. The underlying intents here are to take the metaphorical temperature of the level of digitization in the Arts, to begin to more generally assert pressure upon the publishing industry to address the needs of the above fields, and to more aggressively identify collections that are recognized by the Society as important art historical resources collections that are at the virtual bottom of the digitization hit list.

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
Charlene Maxey Harris, Associate Professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Mark Pompelia, Visual Resources Librarian, Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design
Eumie Imm-Stroukoff, Director, Research Center, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Jina Park, Archive Assistant at Fairchild Archive & Library, Condé Nast

Moderators:
Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez, Project Archivist, Center for the Study of Political Graphics
Kai Alexis Smith, Adjunct Reference Librarian at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center

Enrollment in arts programs are changing and slowly so are the faces of the art library profession. New art library professionals entering the field are more diverse than ever. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) from 2007-2018, enrollment of Hispanic/Latinos in institutions of higher learning will increase by 38% and projections include 32% for American Indian/ Alaska natives, 29% for Asian/ Pacific Islanders and 26% for African Americans or Blacks. In the National Endowment for the Arts 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, about 26% of non-Hispanic whites, 15% of Hispanics, 12 % of African Americans, and 23% of adults in other racial/ethnic categories (largely Asian Americans and Native Americans) visited an art museum or gallery in that year.

With this increase will the staff become more blended to serve the more diverse population in art libraries? What about LGBT students and professional staff? Are they represented in the art library profession? In 2012, the ALA Demographic survey indicated that approximately 11.3% of all LIS graduates claim minority status, while a 2009-2010 study showed that the total minority representation of “credentialed” librarians was 12.1%. A 2009 ARL report indicates that minorities represent 14.1% of professionals working in research libraries. What percentage pursued the art librarian track? What about the early minority art librarian pioneers? What was it like for them to break into the field? This session topic will address the history of diversity in the art library profession as well as new diversity initiatives.

Sponsored by George Mason University Libraries

Speakers:
Artists’ Books as Catalysts for Ecological Transformation- Mo Dawley, Art and Drama Librarian and Senior Librarian at Carnegie Mellon University
Power of the Arts to Speak: The Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Project at IUPUI- Sonja Staum-Kuniej, Director, Herron Art Library, IUPUI
Artists' Books and Zines on Wheels: How Read/Write Library Promotes Our Non-Circulating Collection- Amanda Meeks, Chicago Read/Write Library and Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Moderator:
Michelle Strizever, Archivist, SEARCH

Artists’ books are inherently radical, political objects, transforming expectations of what a book can be. Book art collections also challenge accepted bibliographic standards and subvert conventional systems of access, reference, and preservation. As librarians build and provide access to book art collections, they may also take on the subversiveness of their acquisitions.

This panel will explore the ways that librarians are practicing activist collection development, access, and outreach strategies for artists’ books. It will ask: How are librarians and curators honoring, encouraging, and building upon the radicalism of their collections? An exploration of BiblioTreka, a cargo bike that provides access to books and zines through pop-up events, a view into the collaborative, interactive, and cross-cultural Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Project, and a discussion on artists’ books as the impetus for political and environmental change will lead this conversation.

Sponsored by Society Circle

Speakers:
Library as Laboratory: A New Role in a Changing Landscape- Rebecca Price, Architecture, Urban Planning and Visual Resources Librarian, University of Michigan
Serving the Studio through Innovative Services- Patricia Kosco Cossard, Research Commons Librarian, University of Maryland

Moderator:
Cathryn Ziefle, Librarian, Woodbury University

Changes in academia and the museum world, driven to a large extent by a focus on budget and measurable outcomes, are requiring libraries to redefine their mission, their purposes, and their services. Many point to the increasing number of resources available online and suggest that the so-called traditional library is losing relevancy. Librarians know this to be false, but also understand that the necessary response requires a new approach to services the library can offer.

An emerging model for a repositioning of the library is that of the laboratory. Students and researchers need a place for active learning, for creating, for making, and for collaboration. Our administrators call upon us to envision a new library that provides for these activities. We are asked to develop new collections (e.g., Materials Collections), to imagine new spaces (e.g., media conversion centers, technology-rich workspaces), and to provide new services (e.g., 3-d modeling). The library is perfectly positioned to be an open laboratory for researchers and students; the resources and experts are available and the place is a neutral zone for creativity and learning. How can we embrace this new role and anticipate accompanying expectations? What are the steps necessary to move into this arena? How does the library maintain its current role fostering the research and scholarship of the individual scholar, while also addressing the needs of the collaborative group? How can you engage students and faculty in collection development? This session will frame the discussion about ways to create library services that better serve a variety of learning communities in the arts by presenting two distinctive approaches.