So much to do and so little time. This thought comes to mind when I think of the coming year and all that we have accomplished as a Chapter in the past few years.
Since our last Chapter meeting, we gathered again at the ARLIS conference in Pittsburgh. Texas members, past and present, met and reminisced. We also discussed our Chapter's goals for the year and how we can reach them. One such goal is to attract future members from neighboring Mexico. Ricardo Reynoso Serralde, Director of the Biblioteca de las Artes, came to find out more about the Chapter. The Mexico Membership Committee is sending the letter of invitation to the list of potential members compiled thus far. Ask Janine, Bonnie, Robert, Phil or I for details about this project.
The annual meeting plans are moving forward. Plan to be in Houston from October 12-14. The final program, registration forms, hotel accommodation details and business meeting agenda will be posted to the web site in August. However, updates will be posted throughout the summer, so check the site for the most current information. Thanks to our Houston colleagues for their invaluable assistance with arranging a not-to-be-missed program. Along with hearing speakers and taking tours, plan to meet and welcome new members to the area.
Thanks also go to the other members of the Executive Committee, Chia-Chun, Polly and Carl, for their advice and assistance to me. Also, with our move to electronic communications as a primary means of spreading news, thanks to Sam for his accomplishments on our web page and Polly for bringing us our first electronic newsletter!
Between now and October, send me your topics for the business meeting. Also, if you are interested in serving the organization at the Chapter level, please contact me. Officers are elected at the annual business meeting. Among the many benefits of service work, you will get to know your colleagues, learn more about the professional organization and find out what it can do for you.
The ARLIS/NA 28th Annual Conference is now a mere puff drifting from the smokestacks of Pittsburgh! The 600 of us who were fortunate enough to have gone to the Conference found "The City of Bridges" to have some real gems, such as the Frick Art Museum, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, wonderful old churches, and nearby Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water" and "Kentuck Knob."
The Conference Committee, headed by Ray Anne Lockard from the University of Pittsburgh and Jane Dunwoodie from the University of Dayton, did a masterful job of weaving together a perfect blend of excellent sessions, fascinating tours, lavish receptions and even some time to grab a bite to eat at some of Pittsburgh's finest restaurants.
One of the highlights from the many sessions offered was the opportunity to witness the opening of one of the Andy Warhol time capsules from the Museum. Over the years, Warhol tossed announcements, letters, photos, etc., into boxes and labeled them with the date when they were sealed. There are hundreds of these time capsules in the Warhol Museum Archives. The Museum Director and the Archivist brought one of the boxes to the session, and members of the audience were allowed to take items out and show them for the first time since they were sealed up by Warhol himself.
The Ars Libri reception in the Edwardian Music Hall Foyer of the Carnegie Museum was absolutely elegant, with many attendees in formal attire. Fortunately, the Carnegie International was on exhibit at this time, and we were allowed to roam through the Museum to see this and the permanent collection. Totally "Fab," and a real treat for us all.
Those who were able to go on the tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water" and "Kentuck Knob" had only wonderful things to report. Although I was not able to go on the tour, I have already booked reservations for a trip in May, based on the rave reviews.
Another terrific event was the silent auction held to raise money for the ARLIS/NA 25th Anniversary Scholarship Fund. Items donated included imaginative baskets of goodies from Chapters and Regions, crafts made by ARLIS/NA members, books and trips. The items were placed throughout the Exhibits area, which made for a lively atmosphere. By the time it was over, more than $7,000 was raised. Sara Jane Pearman of the Cleveland Museum of Art deserves kudos for making this event such a big success.
The Executive Board, meeting before and after the Conference, discussed issues critical to the future of the Society. Certainly one of these was the ever-present Strategic Plan. During the Conference, there was a session devoted to the Strategic Plan, which was well attended and gathered some very good ideas. Although we may think that we have heard more than enough about the Strategic Plan, it REALLY is nearing completion, and should provide a strong framework for the future activities of the Society.
One of the major issues the Board has been dealing with has been that of awarding a contract to a new management firm. ADI's contract concluded at the end of April 2000. The new management firm is Elizabeth A. Clarke & Associates, Inc., located in Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. The firm is well known in North America, and manages eight other professional groups. Already the Society is benefiting from a favorable rate of exchange for the U.S. dollar in Canada, resulting in lower costs. The bilingual staff will be a great help to our Canadian and overseas members. Elizabeth Clarke, the firm's founder, will be ARLIS/NA's Executive Director and Tania Robert will be our manager. In addition, other staff members will handle web site management and finance. The Executive Board looks forward to working with this highly professional organization.
As you know, next year's Conference will be in Los Angeles from March 29 through April 4, and its theme is "An LA Odyssey". A reception at the Getty is already planned, along with other enticing tours, sessions and activities. The 2002 Conference will be in St. Louis and a joint conference with VRA. Most exciting to those of us in the ARLIS/DC-MD-VA Chapter is that the Executive Board has accepted an invitation from the Baltimore members to host the 2003 Conference in "Charm City." We are already well underway with plans. Now is not too early to start in order to show the rest of the world what a REALLY good crab cake is all about!
The 67th IFLA Council and General Conference will be held in Boston from August 16-25, 2001 with a theme of "Libraries and Librarians: Making a Difference in the Knowledge Age" (http://www.ifla2001.org/). ARLIS/NA will be working with the IFLA group in planning activities.
The Executive Board will be meeting at mid-year in Toronto from September 21-23, 2000. If there is anything that you would like me to bring to the Board at that time, please let me know. Actually, the Board keeps in touch through e-mail throughout the year, so there is the opportunity to bring up matters to the Board all year long. You can reach me as follows: Pat Lynagh, NMAA/NPG Library, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560; (202) 357-1886; FAX (202) 786-2583; plynagh@nmaa.si.edu.
Diversity, Change, & Connection
After returning from my first ARLIS/NA conference, I realize that I have just participated in a very special event, one that has helped fashion individuals in this field over the past 28 years. What an incredible whirlwind introduction to the national chapter this trip was! So many things to do, so little time, and only so much your feet can take. I was overwhelmed by the hospitable nature of ARLIS members. On several occasions, I found myself being introduced to strangers by strangers, but feeling as if I was part of something in which there were no outsiders. Another aspect of the generosity that pervaded the conference was the sharing of knowledge, not only through sessions and panels, but informally at lunch or in the hall as well. As the beneficiary of a generous chapter, I should have known better.
The city of Pittsburgh served as a fabulous host and backdrop for this year's convention, providing a wide array of activities. The view from the conference hotel provided an impressive view of the convergence of the city's famous three rivers: the Allegheny, the Monongahela, and the Ohio. Most amazing were the ever-present bridges that span the three rivers. A wide variety of tours provided a fabulous way to explore the diversity of this city, including: Pittsburgh architecture, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh Glass, the Frick Art and Historical Center, as well as ventures to Fallingwater and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Pittsburgh also features a variety of excellent local restaurants and historic sites.
A theme that ran through many sessions during the conference was the element of change in our field. In "Taming the Untamable: Art Related Indexes in a Changing Environment," the issues of evolving formats, changing vocabularies, varying search capabilities, and altered interfaces arose. Ask ARLIS session, "The Art Librarian in the 21st Century" devoted its discussion to the subject of change, noting that our field must meet the challenges of disappearing boundaries in the electronic age, the impact of automation on the design of facilities, as well as the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of art history. Statements by several art historians jarred our previous assumptions and may change the way we view certain subjects in the future. In his brilliant convocation speech, Thomas Sokolowski, Director of the Andy Warhol Museum, questioned our accepted notions about the life of Caravaggio, suggesting that the reality of his life may have been far different from our current understanding. During the membership luncheon, speaker Franklin Toker, President Emeritus of the Society of Architectural Historians, called into question the view of Edgar J. Kaufmann, Jr. as the catalyst for Fallingwater. Lastly, Dr. Abigail Van Slyck, Director or Architectural Studies, Connecticut College dispelled the notion that Andrew Carnegie's unprecedented philanthropy was driven by any sense of guilt. She posited that he was simply fulfilling a deeply held sense of Protestant obligation to serve society with his wealth. Even with change as a heavy presence at the conference, ARLIS members remained positive and upbeat about the challenges that face them in the future.
During the conference, I volunteered to serve at the registration desk. This proved to be a good way to meet fellow members and provided me with an opportunity to offer something in return. Additionally, it quickly made me aware of conference essentials - the bathroom, the Internet room, anything free, and "How can I get rid of this 50 lb. basket for the auction?" (not necessarily in that order).
This experience would not have been possible without the financial support of ARLIS/Texas-Mexico's Lois Swan Jones Professional Development Award, which I am honored to have received this year. It was a special treat to meet Lois, herself. I would like to thank the committee for selecting me. Additionally, I would like to express my appreciation to the entire membership for its ongoing financial support of this award, which is exceedingly important to the future of this chapter.
I look forward to seeing all of you in Houston for our upcoming chapter meeting in October.
With much appreciation,
The Technology Committee set as the following goals for the upcoming year:
The Committee also discussed the possibility of serving as guest editor of a technology-related issue of Art Documentation.
For further information, contact Paula Hardin, Committee Chair.
Speakers Paula Hardin, Miranda Haddock, and Martha Mahard gave introductory remarks concerning various aspects of slide filing schemes. The session was then opened for round-table discussion of the advantages/ disadvantages of the Fogg Classification System. Martha Mahard proposed forming an advisory committee, possibly a joint ARLIS-VRA task force, to undertake a revision of the Fogg System. Suggestions were made to post proposed revisions to a web site, so that members could comment on revisions or adopt parts of schemes for their own collections.
Acquisitions at the Millennium: Current Business Trends presented views of three booksellers [Dirk Raes, Erasmus; Beverly Jo Karno, Howard Karno Books; and Rick Lugg, Yankee Book Peddler] and three librarians/book buyers [Amanda Bowen, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University; Allen Townsend, Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Robert Beebe, San Antonio Public Library] on the current status and developing trends in the acquisitions transaction and how recent technological advances are playing into this mix. It was enlightening for each side to hear the other's perspectives and both groups represented, as well as ARLIS members attending the session, gained from the presentations and the dialog that followed. The booksellers expressed varying views on how technological advances have affected both competition and profit margin. The smaller and specialized booksellers are feeling pressure, both in shrinking profit margins and added competition, especially due to the ever-increasing access to product availability over the internet. However this may also have the added benefit of leveling out prices for products such as OP materials and providing added exposure to the products of even the small booksellers. Librarians are facing many new challenges and opportunities in book buying and a great number of these are related to technological advances that allow better access to available materials. Presenters were asked to discuss how buying habits have changed due to online purchase opportunities, electronic publications, approval plans, institutional priorities and resource sharing. These changes differed for each presenter due to staffing, budgets, current levels of automation, and institutional restrictions. These changes have allowed libraries to locate and acquire appropriate materials for their customers in a more informed and timely fashion than was previously possible utilizing added information such as inventory status, local customer buying patterns, and information sharing through electronic mailing lists to name just a few.
Robert BeebeThis session presented the timely and sensitive topic of provenance in relation to works of art acquired during or shortly after World War II. Four speakers provided a varied perspective, from which historical, research, ethical, and recovery issues were addressed.
Jack Perry Brown, Director of Libraries, Ryerson-Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago, gave a broad historical context to the discussion, detailing the underlying reasons that repatriating efforts are currently surfacing. The death of the individual heirs whose materials were looted might be a factor; often times, these individuals had no wish to be faced with the past, nor the objects associated with it. The fall of communism and the opening of archives previously sealed may have led to greater communication and increased access to information. Lynn Nichols' book entitled The Rape of Europa has prompted a growing interest as well. As a result, the AAMD established a set of guidelines for institutions to identify and return confiscated works to their rightful owners.
Nancy Yeide, Curator of Records at the National Gallery of Art (NGA), Washington DC, presented an overview of the process by which the NGA followed through on the AAMD's guidelines. NGA began by focusing their search on those paintings for which significant ownership gaps existed between the years 1933 and 1950. Ultimately, it was found that eight paintings had been looted during the war. However, all of these had been returned to their rightful owners following the war and were later acquired by NGA. Ms. Yeide noted that the entire process could be very complicated and multi-disciplinary. Additionally, she stated that each case is unique, which was echoed by several other speakers during the session.
Jennifer Tonkovich, Curatorial Assistant at The Pierpont Morgan Library, provided a fascinating glimpse of the curatorial side of the issue. She discussed the distinction between the AAMD guidelines and the realities of institutional practice. Ms. Tonkovich distinguished between the level of research done on the permanent collection and that conducted for objects accompanying traveling exhibitions. She highlighted some of the frustrating aspects of provenance research. One of which is the all too frequent "oral tradition," rather than the institutionally preferred written one. Regarding the research process, she stated that a well considered strategy, consisting of reasoned steps, is essential. As a suggestion for those beginning provenance research, she recommended that photographic archives be consulted, reminding her audience that many of the resources available in such archives have yet to be published.
The final speaker, Evie T. Joselow, who serves as the Research Chief at the Commission for Art Recovery, represented the claimant's perspective. She indicated that interest in art reclamation has arisen, in part, due to the overall interest in reclaiming other material, such as insurance monies, property, etc. She noted that there is no such thing as a "safe" or "clear" provenance. Even so, she feels that the process should be one of sharing, rather than one of fear. Still, the burden of proof lies with the claimant to prove ownership. The process itself can be one that is extremely time-consuming and emotional. She emphasized that each case is unique, requiring a certain amount of creativity. She concluded by stating that we must allow the institutions in which stolen works are suspected the necessary time to do their research.
Jon EvansKaren DeWitt and Beth Dodd participated in an intense three-day conference on architectural records developed by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, the National Park Service Museum Management Program, and co-sponsored by the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, and the Independence National Historical Park. Philadelphia proved to be an ideal location as it was concurrently host to the annual American Institute of Architects National Convention and twenty-five public exhibitions on architecture.
Twenty speakers provided valuable information on improving practices for preservation, management, and access to the documentation of our architectural heritage. Presentations for both theoretical and practical levels included keynote addresses, lectures, case studies, demonstrations, and tours. Topics covered the significance of architectural records, history and array of materials and methods used to create them, collecting policies and appraisal, intellectual control, preservation measures, access methods, fundraising, legal issues of copyright, and electronic records. One hundred sixty-two participants (archivists, librarians, curators, historic preservation officers, record managers, historians, and architects) from twenty-nine states and seven different countries attended the conference. They represented institutions such as archives, libraries, museums, historic sites, historical societies, and architectural firms.
The keynote speaker started off with a lecture on the purpose of collecting architectural records and what they can tell us. Over the first day and a half of the conference, speakers addressed how records are created in an architectural firm, the types of records created, and the materials used in blueprints and drawings produced prior to 1950 and from 1950 to the present. Others spoke on creating descriptive records for materials housed in architectural archives and presented schemes for the arrangement of architectural records, for publishing finding aids and records online, and discussed archives which have publicly accessible online records.
The latter half of day two was largely taken up with issues of housing, preserving, and storing architectural drawings, including reformatting issues and the problems associated with digital and CAD records. Day two ended with a tour of the First Bank of the United States which currently houses the archives of Independence National Historic Park and the Architectural Fragments Collection, a collection of building fragments used to study construction in colonial times. Day three presented legal issues relating to architectural records, and archivists from various collections presented case studies from their archives.
This conference was made possible, in part, by special funding from the National Park Service Cultural Resources Training Initiative. Grant funding was provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Independence Foundation, Nielsen & Bainbridge, Conservation Resources and The Barra Foundation.
A notebook of conference events, relevant readings, and summaries of each speaker's talk was given to every attendee. The conference was useful in presenting all the issues of architectural archives management, and in providing information about various collections and websites around the country that we, in turn, can provide to our library users.
In the last issue of THE MEDIUM, this column generally discussed search engines. In this issue, search strategies and some lesser known albeit excellent search engines will be discussed. Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for all the mentioned sites are alphabetically listed at the end.
Librarians may be especially frustrated when searching the Internet because they are used to knowing how to find information efficiently and effectively. A well-chosen keyword or two used to search an online catalog will find the materials in a library's collection. Yet those same keywords may not be as efficient when using a search engine. Library of Congress subject headings just do not seem to work as well on the World Wide Web. The reason is simple. The World Wide Web is a cooperative effort and international in scope. Anyone can create a web page and each page designer chooses the meta tags, i.e. subject headings, to describe the page. Much to the frustration of professional catalogers, this means that lay catalogers are creating their own hierarchies. Much of what information retrieval classes teach novice librarians does not apply to the World Wide Web.
While many library catalogs are moving toward natural language queries, most search engines have allowed natural language searching for some time. In the rarified air of the National Library of Medicine, a searcher using Medline products needs to know that the MeSH term for heart attack is myocardial infarction. At drkoop.com, however, the layperson's "heart attack" results in useful information.
Ask.com (originally called Ask Jeeves,) allows searchers to literally ask questions such as "Where can I find tourist information for England?" Ask.com provides web sites that may have some answers. The fact that ALL of the answers are not useful to ALL searchers is not a concern. One person may want information about walking tours of the Lake District; another may be looking for a West End theater guide. Both might find the information they want in the web sites offered as answers to "Where can I find tourist information for England?" and so the company considers the results successful.
It would certainly make searching much easier if all search engines operated alike. Sadly, that is not the case since search engines are designed and owned by competing companies. Some search engines require a plus (+) or minus (-) sign to require or eliminate terms; others allow for Boolean searching using AND, OR, or NOT. Some suggest adding quotation marks to indicate phrases. Some even allow a searcher to use a complex query such as "Indian jewelry"-Hopi+Zuni, which translates to "Find me web sites about Indian jewelry that include the word Zuni, but eliminate any that have the word Hopi in them." This is a dangerous proposition since some sites may discuss both Zuni and Hopi jewelry and by eliminating anything with the word Hopi, the entire site would be dropped from the results. Some search engines ignore any sort of indicators and. using the previous example, would look for each word individually no matter what the searcher does to indicate phrases. Such a search engine would probably offer web sites that have the word Indian (Indian fry bread), AND/OR jewelry (diamonds are forever), AND/OR Hopi (hairstyles) AND/OR Zuni (Zuni fetishes). The best advice is the simplest. When using a search engine for the first time, or when using a search engine that the searcher has not used in a while, spend the extra two minutes to read the searching tips. It might be called something as simple as "Help" or "Search Tips." Remember: Yahoo! will always be the best and most current source for information on how to efficiently use Yahoo!; Northern Light, the best source for information on Northern Light.
When searching for information about an historical figure or other famous person, HotBot (now part of the Lycos Network) is very useful. It offers a variety of menus along the left margin that allows searchers to limit the search in a number of ways. For example, one box offers the choice of looking for "all the words," "any of the words," "exact phrase," "the page title," "the person," "links to this URL," or "Boolean phrase." Further down, the searcher may choose to look only for images. Type in Winslow Homer, choose "the person" and check "images," and HotBot will find web sites with images of Homer's work.
Google is a highly rated searcher. While Google's refining techniques are not as obvious as those of some other search engines, it offers a button titled "I'm Feeling Lucky" along with the regular "Google Search" button. "Google Search" will return a list of web sites. "I'm Feeling Lucky" moves directly into the site at the top of Google's list of results. Type Andy Warhol into the search bar, click "I'm Feeling Lucky," and the searcher will be looking at the welcome page of The Andy Warhol Museum. "I'm Feeling Lucky" eliminates the middle step of following the link from the list of results to first site listed. If it turns out, sadly, that the searcher is not all that lucky after all and has been misdirected, it is easy to return to the original screen using the Back button on the browser. Google has recently added subject directories. Be sure to test your search skills with the "Google Quiz."
Northern Light is useful for scholarly research. It has a paid database, but also a free one and it breaks results down into folders, such as "commercial sites," and "government agencies" which expedites searching.
Looksmart offers a unique service. If, with normal searching, the query remains unanswered, the searcher may contact Looksmart Live (linked from the main page beneath the categories headings or via it's URL) and get help from a REAL PERSON. This is a terrific service for those having difficulty locating obscure information. I recently utilized Looksmart Live and received helpful assistance within 24 hours.
Possibly the newest old search engine is Lycos. About a year ago, Lycos changed from a simple spider to a portal, subject directory, and more. Overnight I went from never using Lycos to relying on it daily. Additionally, Lycos 50 (find the link at the bottom of the Lycos home page) offers a glimpse of searching trends. Lycos 50 daily examines different aspects of what searchers are looking for based on keyword searches performed on Lycos. Lycos 50 might be a useful tool to any searcher trying to think more like the Web. A searcher can try terms like "employment," "interview," and "resume," but Lycos 50 indicates that "Jobs" will work just as well.
By now most people are familiar with Dogpile. It is just one of many meta search tools which allows simultaneous searching on a number of different search engines. Similar search tools are: Highway 61, The Big Hub, Mamma, and Chubba. In addition to searching GoTo, Yahoo!, Alta Vista, Excite, Go (formerly Infoseek), HotBot, and Lycos (which is pretty standard for such search tools), Chubba offers a dictionary near the search bar to aid searchers with spelling
HotSheet is a general reference tool that offers searching in addition to ready links to a wide variety of sites. It is a fabulous resource; users might want to bookmark it.
I have just discovered two relatively new tools. I have not used either one very much, I want to give you're the opportunity to try them. MetaEureka allows the searcher to decide how many sites from each search engine to view, and also allows the searcher to weed out XXX sites. Ixquick uses a star rating system: one star for each search engine that has placed the site in the top ten results AND (listen up, librarians!) it allows truncation.
Two of the most common mistakes made by searchers are spelling errors and giving up too easily. If the searcher believes the topic is one that should get good results but gets few or zero hits, the first step is to double-check the spelling in the query. Even good spellers can make typographical errors that will cripple a search. If the spelling is correct, the next step is to consider alternative search terms. Using Lycos, I searched the term "arts & crafts architecture." One of the web sites returned was Arts & Crafts Internet Resources. From that site, I was able to cull other terms including Craftsman, Art Nouveau, and Mission Style, which could lead to useful web sites.
The last, and perhaps, the biggest hint is this: no search engine covers the whole Internet (the Internet includes FTP, newsgroups, World Wide Web, e-mail, Telnet, etc.). Each search engine actually indexes a shockingly small portion of the Internet (great ones may index as little as 16% of what is actually available). Search engines are competitive so there will be limited cross-linking. Just as CBS does not regularly promote NBC programs, it is unlikely that Yahoo! will direct a searcher to Snap's travel page or About.com's hobby page. If the spelling is correct, a variety of search terms have been used, and the results are weak, it is time to move on to another search engine. The whole world of information is out there; the trick is finding it.
http://www.about.com
http://www.altavista.com or http://www.av.com
http://www.ask.com
http://www.thebighub.com
http://www.chubba.com
http://www.dogpile.com
http://www.drkoop.com
http://www.excite.com
http://www.go.com
http://www.google.com
http://www.goto.com
http://www.highway61.com
http://www.hotbot.com
http://www.hotsheet.com
http://www.ixquick.com/
http://www.looksmart.com
http://live.looksmart.com (Looksmart Live)
http://www.lycos.com
http://www.mamma.com
http://www.metaeureka.com/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
http://www.yahoo.com
Laura Schwartz announces the completion of her Master of Arts in Art History from the University of Texas. Laura's thesis is titled Painting Identity: The Self-Portrait and Genre Paintings of Lilly Martin Spencer. Laura says: "I want to thank all of the ARLIS/Texas-Mexico members who supported me through these three years by giving me encouragement, compassion, and understanding.I could not have done it without the support of this wonderful organization. Thanks!!!"
Robert Beebe finished a two-year term as a member of the ARLIS/NA Travel Awards Committee at the annual conference in Pittsburgh. He is serving a second term as a member of the Development Committee and will continue as Moderator of the Indigenous Art and Culture Roundtable until the close of the Los Angeles conference. He has agreed to be a candidate for the position of South Regional Representative in the upcoming election.
Sheryl Wilhite Garcia received the RLG Travel Award for a first-time conference attendee from North America. She reports:
I was very happy to receive the award, which allowed me to meet and speak with colleagues from Art Libraries and Visual Resources Collections. I kept fairly busy with meetings and sessions. I attended the Technology Committee, Membership, and VRD meetings and the following sessions: Plenary session on Pittsburgh Art and Architecture; The History of Subject Indexing of Visual Materials; The Visual Resources Professional in the 21st Century; The Construct of Indexing: Thought Processes in Subject Analysis; Still Codeless After All These Years: The History and Possible Future of Subject Cataloging in the Field of Art; Lost in the Fogg: Finding One's Way Around in a Sea of Slides; and Library Support for Distance Education: New Concepts, New Technologies, New Challenges. I took the Fallingwater Tour and a walking tour of the downtown area. I also enjoyed the exhibits, the Convocation, and the various receptions. Several times, I had dinner with different colleagues, and enjoyed some good conversations about policies, dealing with faculty, filing schemes, etc. I also laughed harder than I had for months at the antics of these otherwise serious librarians during the more relaxed moments at dinner--I really appreciated de-stressing and unwinding with new friends! I came home invigorated and ready to try out some new ideas in the Library.
Jacqui Allen and Laura Schwartz had the pleasure of attending an organizational lunch that the Mountain West Chapter had at ARLIS in Pittsburgh. The Chapter was discussing plans for their upcoming meeting in Salt Lake City, UT. The Texas-Mexico members attended the lunch to explore possibilities of a future collaboration at one of the annual chapter meetings. The meeting was spurred by our Vice-President's move to the neighboring region. While it is not possible to amend the current meeting locations or schedules of either chapter, we might see some additional attendees at our 2001 meeting in New Mexico.
The Board of Trustees of Rice University accepted the Fondren Library Master Plan presented by the architectural firm of Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott in May 1999. Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott will remain the project architects and Robert Venturi has been named design architect.
Before the expansion project can begin, a temporary, two-story building will be erected to house approximately 850,000 volumes. Some Circulation staff and most of the Technical Services Department will be relocated in the temporary building to be located to the northwest of the Student Center. The temporary building is scheduled for completion by spring 2001 with the move of the collection to be accomplished in early summer. Once the 1969 west wing of Fondren is vacated, Linbeck Construction will remove asbestos from six floors, and then demolish the structure to make way for the new wing. The original 1949 east wing facing the academic quadrangle will house the Brown Fine Arts collection, the Reference collection and Reference staff, Circulation/Reserve Desks, Woodson Research Center, Government Publications, SCIPPR, Interlibrary Loan and R.I.C.E. offices. Most of the Fine Arts Collection is presently housed in the wing scheduled for demolition and will need to be moved to the fourth floor of the original wing. Brown Fine Arts Library Circulation and Reserve services will be integrated with Fondren Circulation/Reserve during the summer of 2001. Staff of the Woodson Research Center will page rare books and flat folios during the demolition phase, as they will relocate to the third floor adjacent to the Brown Fine Arts Library. The Music collection will remain in the original Fondren Library until another library is built in the Shepherd School of Music. Projected opening date for the Music Library is summer 2002.
Demolition of the 1969 Fondren wing is scheduled for summer 2001. Once the new wing is completed, all the collections and staff housed in the original wing will be relocated to the new wing, allowing for renovation of the 1949 structure. Late summer to early fall 2004 is the targeted date to install the collections and staff into the new Fondren Library. The library should have 10 years of post move-in growth space. The new building will feature a digital library to support the University's new initiatives in digital technology and its collaboration with the International University Bremen. One unique design feature will be a two-story arcade running east-west through the center of the Library to visually connect the sallyport of Lovett Hall with the west end of campus. Robert Venturi will also redesign the east facade. There are eight working groups serving as advisory task forces to the Project Planning Committee. I currently serve on the Collections/Special Collections Working Group. Other task forces are the Temporary Library, Public Services, Digital Library, and Security Working Groups.
Mark Pompelia, new Curator of Visual Resources at Rice University, reports that there is renewed interest in forming an official VRA Texas chapter. At an informal meeting in May, a steering committee of Houston-area visual resources curators was established. At that meeting it was decided that an organizational meeting would be held in early June, leading to the establishment of an official chapter in early Fall. The VRA Lone Star Chapter will hold its first chapter meeting in conjunction with ARLIS/Texas-Mexico this October in Houston.
First, I want to assure everyone that it has only seemed that all of New Mexico was going up in smoke the last few weeks. As of this writing, "New Mexico Burning" (as the local media so colorfully refers to the wildfires that have been raging throughout the State) has not affected Albuquerque, Santa Fe or Taos. The public library in Los Alamos has reopened unscathed except for some smoke damage. Many of the ancient sites particularly important to the Santa Clara Pueblo have been destroyed or damaged, however. Anyone planning a camping or hiking trip to New Mexico this summer, needs to double check with the appropriate Federal agency (Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, etc.) as access and camping are being limited due to high fire dangers.
The first e-Medium has been a labor of love. While officially the Chapter Vice-Chair is the Editor of The Medium, this first electronic issue has truly been a group effort. Special recognition goes to Sam Duncan for his web mastery, patience and sense of humor. As our friendship survived this, I guess we're in it for life. Honorable mention should be made of Jacqui Allen for withstanding the almost daily assault of e-mails and calls that came her way. Thanks to everyone who offered submissions.
This is an exciting time for me personally and professionally. As you know, I have accepted a new position at Albuquerque TVI (Technical Vocational Institute) and am thrilled to be working in the community college environment. The timing of my move from San Antonio to Albuquerque made it necessary to reduce by one issue the number of The Medium that will produced this year, and I appreciate the membership's understanding and willingness to allow that reduction. No matter how fast e-mail makes things, we are still all working at different institutions, doing our regular jobs, and now (thanks to my move) we are doing it in different time zones!
I look forward to seeing all of you in Houston in October.
Available here. [i.e., published on old Web site]
Polly Trump
Albuquerque TVI
525 Buena Vista SE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
Jacqui Allen
Dallas Museum of Art
1717 N. Harwood
Dallas, TX 75201
Academic libraries:
Margaret Culbertson
Architecture libraries:
Janine Henri
Exhibition listing:
Phil Heagy
Museum libraries:
Steve Gassett
Public libraries:
Robert Beebe
Visual resources:
Marty Stein