Art Libraries Society Research Articles

“And That Is the Basis of ARLIS/NA”: Enduring Values across the Fifty-Year History of the Art Libraries Society of North America

Since its founding in 1972, the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) has helped art information professionals develop, promote, and improve library and information resources and services. For the society’s fiftieth anniversary, a group of members who previously served on the Strategic Directions Committee reflect on the society’s initiatives—past and present—that highlight the values of collectivity, inclusion, and transparency. The authors make recommendations as possible ways for ARLIS/NA to continue building on its history over the next fifty years, particularly that of documentation, so that members can better draw on the society’s history.

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Next article FreeCoverPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmailPrint SectionsMoreCover image credits: (Top) Ghana, Bonwire town, Asante peoples. Textile (kente). c. 1925. Silk and dye. 67 × 125 inches (1 m 70.18 cm × 3 m 18.771 cm). Dallas Museum of Art, African Collection Fund (2006.45). http://www.dma.org/. Image © Dallas Museum of Art. https://library.artstor.org/asset/ADALLASIG_10313601177. (Left) Hopi. Sa’lakwmana (Shalako Maiden) figure, front. Kachina doll. Early 20th century. Cottonwood and pigments. Height: 38.4 cm (15 1/8 inches). RISD Museum, Ethnology Art Collection, Museum Works of Art Fund (44.615). Image © Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. https://library.artstor.org/asset/AWSS35953_35953_32667163. (Bottom) Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858). Enjoying the Evening Cool with Fireworks, Ryogoku Bridge (Ryogoku noryo ohanabi). 1847–1852. Polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e), triptych. 37 × 74 cm (14 9/16 × 29 1/8 inches) Yamadaya Shojiro, publisher. RISD Museum, Asian Art Collection, Gift of Marshall H. Gould (46.293.11). Image © Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. https://library.artstor.org/asset/AWSS35953_35953_32667275. Next article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Art Documentation Volume 41, Number 2Fall 2022 Published for the Art Libraries Society of North America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/726330 Copyright 2022 The Art Libraries Societies of North America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Who Were We? Where Did We Go? Voices from the Early Years of the Art Libraries Society of North America

The first Art Libraries Society of North America conference was held in New York City in 1973. The final session of the conference posed the questions, “Who are we? Where are we going?” Now in 2022, five long-time members of the society reflect on those questions, providing some perspective on the origins, early years, and accomplishments of ARLIS/NA. What was the impetus for a stand-alone organization, given the many other library associations with art librarian members? Who were the leaders who made it happen? How did regional chapters develop? Who were the exhibitors and sponsors? How did the publications advance the profession? What were some of the highlights along the way?[This article presents the talks from a special panel at the fiftieth anniversary ARLIS/NA Conference held in Chicago, Illinois, in April 2022.]

An overview of recent digital humanities initiatives in US art libraries

As producers and mediators of digital resources, art librarians frequently interact with the digital humanities in a broad sense. In the following brief overview of recent DH work undertaken in US art libraries, engagement with digital humanities is evidenced by the development of open access projects, the creation of linked data sets and the innovative sharing of art and archive collections to support digital pedagogy. Related activities of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), its Digital Humanities SIG and the ARLIS/NA in the Humanities Commons are also discussed.

Front Matter

Previous articleNext article FreeFront MatterPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Art Documentation Volume 40, Number 1Spring 2021 Published for the Art Libraries Society of North America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/715697 Views: 83 Copyright 2021 by the Art Libraries Societies of North America. All rights reserved. Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

News, Programs, Publications, and Awards

News, Programs, Publications, and Awards

It’s About Time

The price of textbooks and other learning materials hinder students’ ability to pursue higher education. Open educational resources (OER) provide one answer to this problem. Though well established in STEM disciplines, OER are less common in art history and other arts courses. The College Art Association (CAA) and the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) hosted panels on OER at their 2019 annual conferences. This article summarizes those panels and analyzes the speakers’ experiences within the context of OER initiatives in higher education.[This article is an expansion of conference sessions at the College Art Association conference held in New York, New York, in February 2019, and the ARLIS/NA conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 2019.]

Addressing the Gender Gap

This article documents one approach to improving the professional support system for librarian-parents and especially librarian-mothers: developing a conference childcare program, which the authors undertook as a pilot program in partnership with the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) from 2016 to 2018. After a two-year trial and mixed attendance results, the childcare program was adopted as part of ARLIS/NA’s annual conference plan. The article provides recommendations on how to successfully implement a childcare program and offers evidence on how conference care enhances an organization’s ability to include and support caregivers during a critical period of need.

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Previous articleNext article FreeCoverPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreCover image credits: (Top) August Macke (1887–1914), Zoological Garden I (1912). Oil on canvas. Städtische Galerie Im Lenbachhaus Lenbach, Monaco / Bridgeman Images. (Left) Henrik Wigstrom (1862–1923), Clock, firm of Peter Carl Fabergé (1846–1920, after 1903). Jade, gold, enamel, diamonds. Cleveland Museum of Art / Bridgeman Images. (Bottom)Model Paddling Boat. Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty (c. 1981–1975 BC). Wood, paint, plaster, linen twine, and fabric). Metropolitan Museum of Art / Bridgeman Images. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Art Documentation Volume 39, Number 1Spring 2020 Published for the Art Libraries Society of North America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/710749 Views: 339Total views on this site Copyright 2020 by the Art Libraries Societies of North America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Unrecognized Creative Labor

As an interwoven case study, this article examines the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award, a hybrid award that celebrates the scholarly achievement, design, and production excellence of art publications. In the award’s history, however, it has not credited the contributions of graphic designers, typesetters, printers, and other creative laborers. The author examines these omissions by analyzing citation structures and systems of description shared by publishers, booksellers, and libraries, as well as by exposing the invisibilities so often allied to graphic design. A revision of the Wittenborn Award bibliography is proposed as a retrospective corrective to these oversights.

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Previous articleNext article FreeCoverFull TextPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreCover image credits: (Top)View of Interior, Abbey of Saint-Philibert, Tournus, France. French School (10th century). Bridgeman Images. (Left)Caparisoned Haniwa Horse. Japan, Kofun Period (c. 3rd century–538). Earthenware with traces of pigment. 59.7 × 66 cm. Cleveland Museum of Art / The Norweb Collection / Bridgeman Images. (Bottom)Mexican Village Scene. Mexican School (19th century). Colored straw painting. Photo © Boltin Picture Library / Bridgeman Images. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Art Documentation Volume 38, Number 2Fall 2019 Published for the Art Libraries Society of North America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/707595 Views: 99 Copyright 2019 by the Art Libraries Societies of North America. All rights reserved. Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Outcome of the ArtFrame Project: A Domain-Specific BIBFRAME Exploration

The ArtFrame Project, a part of the Linked Data for Production (LD4P) collaboration, was a domain-specific, linked-open-data (LOD) initiative that explored the metadata practices of art libraries and museums. The project, headed by Columbia University Libraries and including major art institutions and the Cataloging Advisory Committee (CAC) of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), focused on developing an extension to the Bibliographic Framework Initiative (BIBFRAME) tailored to the needs of art catalogers. This article describes the history of the project and its collaboration with the LD4P Rare Materials Extension Group to produce a shared ontology, the Art & Rare Materials BIBFRAME Ontology Extension (ARM).[This article is an expansion of a presentation at the ARLIS/NA conference held in New York, New York, in February 2018.]

Revealing Invisible Collections: Implementing the ARLIS/NA Artists’ Books Thesaurus to Provide Online Access

AbstractThe University of Louisville’s Margaret M. Bridwell Art Library is one of the first institutions to employ the Art Libraries Society of North America’s Artists’ Books Thesaurus (ARLIS/NA AB...

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Previous article FreeErratumOriginal articleIn Search of Art: A Log Analysis of the Ackland Art Museum’s Collection Search SystemPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreIn “In Search of Art: A Log Analysis of the Ackland Art Museum’s Collection Search System” by Meredith L. Hale (Art Documentation 35, no. 2 (Fall 2016): 182–205), two rows were set out of order in tables 1 and 2. The corrected tables are available in the online edition of the article. The publisher regrets the error. Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Art Documentation Volume 36, Number 1Spring 2017 Published for the Art Libraries Society of North America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691380 © 2017 by The Art Libraries Society of North America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.Related articlesIn Search of Art: A Log Analysis of the Ackland Art Museum’s Collection Search System19 Oct 2016Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America

Do we need a new manifesto for an art libraries society?

First of all an apology is in order for everyone who was expecting a special fashion issue. I had to split issue three into issues three and four to avoid going over our total page count, which pushes the fashion issue into 2017. I promise, though, it is coming.

Insights and Overview: The ARLIS/NA Museum E-Book Publishing Survey

The author reports on a survey sponsored by the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) that was sent to forty-nine museum librarians to gain a better understanding of the scope and scale of e-book creation in North American museums. The survey covered both digitized books and born-digital books and requested data from the libraries and the publications departments. Questions included volume of activity, file formats used, distribution methods (platforms, vendors, aggregators), metadata formats, use of preservation service platforms, use of digital rights management, content selection strategies, and staffing configurations. A particularly significant finding was the number of institutions making large quantities of their publications available through open access.

Editorial

Previous articleNext article No AccessEditorialJudy DykiJudy Dyki Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Art Documentation Volume 35, Number 1Spring 2016 Published for the Art Libraries Society of North America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/686897 Views: 61Total views on this site Copyright 2016 by the Art Libraries Society of North America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Trends in Professional Art Library Job Postings, 2010–2015

AbstractThe author outlines the geography of the current art library job market through an examination of job postings from the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) ARLIS-L listserv. The breakdown of institution type (academic, museum, other) and preferred and required qualifications for professional-level vacancies are analyzed, with results showing the majority of open positions are in academic institutions and the most commonly requested qualifications are library experience, communication skills, knowledge of digital trends, an additional subject degree, and supervisory experience. Finally, the author compares the qualifications for various position types, showing that some qualifications are more highly preferred for certain positions.

The Future of Artist Files: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

AbstractHistorically, art librarians saved ephemera—exhibition checklists, gallery announcements, biographical information, and reproductions of works of art—in collections known as artist files. Increasingly, this information is created only in digital formats. While one hopes that art galleries and artists are preserving this information, in many cases they are not, or at least not in ways that are accessible or intended for long-term access. To remedy this situation, the Artist Files Special Interest Group of the Art Libraries Society of North America has been exploring ways to preserve and provide access to these resources for future scholars. This article describes two collaborative projects. The first is a national directory, created by the group in 2007, which helps users locate these often elusive materials. The second is a collaborative initiative that currently involves representatives from four institutions using Archive-It to capture, store, and provide access to this information, now and into...

Trade Catalogs: Opportunities and Challenges

AbstractA session on trade catalogs, featuring representatives of five libraries that have significant collections, was presented at the annual Art Libraries Society of North America conference held in Washington, DC, in May 2014. Four of the five speakers contributed revised versions of their presentations to this article. Each addresses issues concerning acquisitions of trade catalogs, cataloging, housing, accessibility, preservation, and digitization. In addition, the authors describe the unique characteristics of their respective collections and the trade catalogs’ important contributions to study and research.