News: Academic Libraries

Tara Carlisle, art librarian at the University of North Texas, received a Teaching with Technology grant from the University of North Texas provost to create a database that will provide access to the Texas Fashion Collection via the World Wide Web. The Texas Fashion Collection (TFC), which consists of approximately 10,000 garments and accessories created by leading designers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is international in scope and a rich learning resource for those who are studying costume, theater, fashion design, merchandising, history, and the arts in general. However, because of the delicate condition of the garments, and the lack of exhibition space, the collection has been practically inaccessible. Viewing the collection is restricted to students enrolled in fashion history classes or to a few outsiders on an appointment-only basis. The database, which serves as both a curatorial and public online catalog, will provide virtual access to the collection for researchers and the public at large. At this time, 250 of the 8,000 records include digitized images of the object, some of which can be rotated virtually. Plans are underway to create digitized images of a majority of the collection's objects.

Margaret Culbertson, Art and Architecture Librarian, University of Houston, has a book that is finally out from Texas A & M University Press as of May 1999. The title is Texas Houses Built by the Book: The Use of Published Designs, 1850-1925. Look for it at your local bookstore or order it from your favorite supplier! Margaret recuperated by spending the first two weeks of May in Southern England, enjoying gardens, historic buildings, art museums and plays.

Karen DeWitt, Architecture Librarian, Texas Tech University Libraries, attended a conference in Boulder, Colorado in May. Architecture librarians from the Big 12 are planning a shared online database of architectural images. A report of the meeting is included elsewhere in this issue.

J. Brandon Pope was recently appointed as the Fine Arts Librarian at the Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University. He submitted the following report: This is my first professional position since I graduated this past May from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Additionally, I have an undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist as well as extensive Art History graduate experience at this institution. I am very excited to be getting back to Dallas in general and SMU specifically.

Jet Prendeville, Art and Architecture Librarian, Rice University, who spent some vacation time in New Mexico earlier this summer sends the following report of library news from Rice: For the past year Fondren Library's University Librarian, Dr. Charles Henry, and a number of librarians have been working with the architectural firm of Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott to develop a master plan for a new wing for Fondren Library. The results of the planning process were presented to the Rice University Board of Governors in late spring 1999. The Board has approved a new wing and we are in the fund raising stage of the process. Before renovation and building can begin, a temporary building will be erected to house a significant portion of the collection as well as staff. The building process will also impact the Brown Fine Arts Library, but at the present time, no details are available.

New Online Resources for Rice University patrons: In late spring, links to the following online databases were added to the Fondren Library web page: The Grove Dictionary of Art Online, AMICO (Art Museum Image Consortium), RLIN Bibliographic File, Bibliography of the History of Art including the RAA (1973-1989) and RILA (1975-1989). These databases are available to Rice University faculty, students, and staff as well as to visitors to the library.

Bonnie Reed, Art Librarian, Texas Tech University, spent some time in Kentucky earlier this summer and plans to visit New Mexico in August.

Laura Schwartz, Art Librarian, University of Texas at Austin, took a vacation in California this summer and sends the following report from the Fine Arts Library at UT: The Fine Arts Library at The University of Texas at Austin has received a generous gift, $15,000, from the College of Fine Arts to purchase library resources in support of the Suida-Manning Collection. These funds will be used to purchase materials to assist in research of this outstanding collection. Acquired in the spring 1999, this premiere, internationally recognized collection consists of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, sculptures, and drawings dating from the 14th to the 18th centuries.

In other Fine Arts Library news... The General Libraries at The University of Texas at Austin has made some outstanding art purchases this year, both electronic and print. We will be subscribing to The Grove Dictionary of Art Online and the Index of Christian Art. A few large microfiche collections were purchased with UT System Academic Enhancement funds. These collections include Index der antiken Kunst und Architektur (Index of Ancient Art and Architecture), Spanien- und Portugal-Index: Bilddokumentation zur Kunst in Spanien und Portugal (Spanish and Portuguese Index: Pictorial Documentation on Art in Spain and Portugal), and Nineteenth Century Books on Art and Architecture.