News: Hirsch Library Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

News from Hirsch Library Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

This November we christened our new on-line public access catalog, Endeavor's Voyager system. We were very happy to see several major libraries buying Endeavor after we had signed our contract: The Library of Congress, National Library of Medicine, Pierpont Morgan Library, and SMU, to name a few. Since this is our first system, we had some major projects to do: 1. The entire collection was barcoded (38,000+ books) by a volunteer team headed by Jacqui Allen 2. Margaret Ford supervised the linking of the books to the records in the system using part-time staff (We are now 2/3 of the way finished, discovering missing books in the process!) 3. Lea Whittington and Katrina Moorhead input records for each item in the backlog (we are now 1/2 of the way through the 2000+ items) 4. Lea and Mailena Braun input circulation records for each check-out card in the file (over 1,500) 5. Jon Evans, library assistant for reference and acquisitions, has input records for all our vendors, and has been using the system for book orders since May.

Margaret Ford has attended two Voyager Users Group meetings in the past year. She is carrying the major load of systems librarian as well as cataloger, and works closely with our Information Systems staff for the museum in managing the server. Margaret is also tweaking a template for a collections level record for each artist in our artist catalog file of over 20,000 artists. This is in conjunction with the INDOMAT (Inaccessible Domain Materials) cataloging project, started by the Art and Architecture Group of RLG.

Jeannette Dixon gave two papers this spring: one for a panel on international librarianship at ARLIS/NA, and another on U.S. art museums on the Internet for an art librarians' conference in Moscow in May. Jeannette selected the papers for the IFLA Art Section sessions this year at the Bangkok conference, and continues to manage the steering committee and produce bi-annual newsletters for the section. You can read them on the IFLA Website - http://www.ifla.org (click on divisions and sections, then section newsletters). You can also read the conference papers for the upcoming meetings.

Planning continues for the library expansion, with a growing interest from the library trustees in creating additional space for a rare books room. Jeannette is also working with the photography curator and the curator of prints and drawings to develop a working collection/branch library for their print study/storage room in the new Beck Building. The building opens to the public in March of 2000, but the curators are scheduled to move in September. Once the new building opens, work will resume on the library expansion in the Mies van der Rohe Building.

Jacqui Allen has left us to take over the Dallas Museum of Art library and Jeannette is working to fill the expanded position of Reader Services Librarian (see description later in this newsletter). Before she left, Jacqui conducted many bibliographic instruction sessions for museum staff, interns, docents, and some college classes. Her handouts for the Hirsch Library's electronic resources are excellent: Art Abstracts, BHA, Avery, Art Bibliographies Modern, and The Grove Dictionary of Art Online. This spring we gave tours to the Special Libraries Association, Houston Chapter, and another to Ana Cleveland's humanities reference class from University of North Texas. The eight new interns we have at the museum this summer have received some very good orientation and training. This year the library got an intern, Kaitlyn Becker, from Hollins College. She is learning all about reference, subject headings and book processing. One of her main goals is to gain proficiency in reference tools so she can help train the other interns.

Lea Whittington, library assistant for serials, left the museum to move back to California and pursue her art career. Her replacement, Scott Calhoun, joined the library staff full-time in June. He had been working part-time in the records linking project before that.

Our library has "twinned" with the Gulbenkian Foundation library in Lisbon, Portugal. We have had visits from two of their staff: Ana Paula Gordo, Deputy Director, and Ana Barata, reference librarian. Ana Barata stayed in Houston for two weeks, working with Jacqui on reference issues, and with Jeannette as co-author of the Internet paper for the Moscow conference. We hope to reciprocate this winter by sending Margaret Ford to Lisbon.

All the curators are working on new books for the opening of the Beck Building. Therefore, our reference statistics are very high. This year we also broke a record on interlibrary loans. Margaret is managing ILL since Jacqui left. Thanks to all who loaned to us, especially the Kimbell and the Amon Carter!