ARLIS/TXMX - Special Reports

New Polaris ILS at the Dallas Public Library

Thu, 15 May 2008 10:44:37 -0400

On May 29, the Dallas Public Library will begin using its new Polaris ILS. Library staff and patrons alike are pleased at the prospect of moving to a new system that offers so much flexibility and control. This system is used in, among others, Plano, Texas, and Maricopa County, California, but Dallas Public Library is its biggest client so far. Dallas Public Library and Polaris were mentioned in an ARLIS session, What’s New in Technology---because Polaris provides graphics.

Those not mastering Polaris will not be provided with a password. This has given your non-technie, Luddite correspondent a powerful incentive to learn the new system. So far, it has seemed simple to use, and that has frightened me.

Dallas News

Wed, 14 May 2008 11:24:51 -0400

Remember Dr. Michael Duty the soft-voiced and scholarly head of the Dallas Historical Society? He invited us into a back office and graciously showed us a collection of small Frank Reaugh paintings owned by the Hall of State in Fair Park. Soon after he spoke to our regional Arlis meeting as a panelist on collecting Texas art, he took a new job as the Texas art expert for Heritage Galleries in Dallas. In February he spoke at a well-attended lecture on his subject in Heritage Galleries’ new and supplemental space on Slocum Street. Even after power point failure he went on without illustrations.

Report: Texas Conference on Digital Libraries, May 30-31, 2007

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:46:57 -0500

The Texas Conference on Digital Libraries was held on The University of Texas at Austin campus, May 30-31, 2007. This conference, hosted by the Texas Digital Library (TDL), provided a forum for a broad cross section of administrators, curators, developers, librarians, and other interested parties to hear about the digital revolution in general terms, how TDL is developing solutions to digital content creation, delivery, preservation, and storage, and how others throughout the state are addressing local needs to package, promote, and deliver digital content. Presentations from the conference can be accessed from the TDL Web site.

News: Allen and Schwartz Attend Mountain West Organizational Lunch

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:28:25 -0400

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.

Bits & Bytes

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:06:52 -0400

Search Engines, Part 2 of 2

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.

Members Attend Conference on Preserving Architectural Records

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 15:52:12 -0400

Architectural Records: Preserving and Managing the Documentation of Our Built Environment

Karen 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.

ARLIS/Mountain West in Tucson

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:48:19 -0400

I was able to attend the ARLIS/ Mountain West conference in Tucson, Nov. 11-14, 1999. After an opening reception at the pueblo-revival style Joesler House (owned by the University of Arizona), sessions began with "High and Low Tech in Museum Libraries" presented by Genni Houlihan (Phoenix Art Museum Library) and Nancy Simon (Dever Art Museum Library). Retrospective conversion activities and challenges of working with volunteers were highlighted.

Tara Carlisle's presentation "C'est Chic: The Texas Fashion Collection as a WWW Resource" was next. Her excellent presentation was another version of the material she discussed at our Chapter meeting in Fort Worth (see http://www.art.unt/tfc for more details). During the business meeting, I announced our chapter's Mexican membership sub-committee and asked for assistance from members with contacts in Mexico. Museum librarians responded that they would contact their Latin American art curators and ask for names of colleagues in Mexico. Next year's chapter meeting will be in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas was mentioned for 2001. They also discussed proposing Las Vegas for the 2004 ARLIS/NA conference.

Bits & Bytes

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:42:38 -0400

Search Engines, Part 1 of 2

Last spring I saw a chart comparing search engines to celebrities (I think it was in Wired, but don't quote me on that). Yahoo!, it said, is the Angela Lansbury of search engines (reliable, predictable), while, at the other end of the scale, the Go Network is Dennis Rodman (who knows what to expect; anything could happen). A list of URLs for sites mentioned may be found at the end of this article. This column is the first of two that will look at search engines and how to make the best use of them.

In November, I attended Internet Librarian '99, and picked up some useful tips. Danny Sullivan, author of Search Engine Watch, asked "How do you find a needle in a haystack? Can you find it in half of a haystack? What if the needle is not in that half of the haystack? Will it be easier if the whole haystack is dumped on your head? Do you need more hay, or just a metal detector?"

Multi-Institution Digital Imaging Projects

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:15:03 -0400

An AMIGOS Workshop held May 5, 1999 at the Radisson Central Hotel, Dallas

This was a four-hour afternoon workshop focusing on the concept of large-scale imaging projects undertaken by groups of institutions. Robin L. Dale of RLG's Digital Collections Project was the first speaker. She highlighted a number of issues central to any institutional decision to embark on a digital imaging project and the questions an institution should ask itself before beginning an imaging project.

One of the main points of her presentation was that planning for a digital imaging project is fundamentally different from other institutional projects mainly because of the fact that not many imaging projects have been undertaken and completed to date. As a result, there is as yet no infrastructure of vendors, consultants, and standards in place for digital imaging projects (as opposed to a well-developed area such as a cooperative microfilming project). However, she stated that the advice and expertise is out there, and that an imaging project can be very successful as long as all parties involved remain flexible and are willing to outsource key steps of the operations.

Bits & Bytes

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 17:34:20 -0400

I have had a request for information about copyright. The following sites will help answer most questions that librarians and library users might have about the issue:

Copyright Crash Course is an online tutorial from the lawyers at the University of Texas. It even offers an ask a lawyer section that is restricted to UT System employees, but perhaps if you were very nice to Janine or our other UT members, they'd ask for you.

The Cyber Space Law Center offers good information on copyright and other issues facing Internet users. Covered are freedom of expression, commerce, privacy (including workplace privacy) and more. In addition to the cases that set legal precedent in the copyright area, the actual statute, recent Congressional testimony, and various Digital Millennium Copyright Acts (H.R. 2281, 106th Congress, 105th Congress) are just a click away.

A Lifetime Achievement

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 19:04:13 -0400

Margaret Ford took a trip to Germany last December. Read on for a colorful description of her travels:

Because my college major was German language and literature, I had wanted to go to Germany for years. Last December I finally went! I traveled alone with one carry-on bag and a first-class German Railpass and visited six cities to see their art museums.

After a long, fourteen-hour flight, I landed in Frankfurt where I caught the train to Wuerzburg, about an hour and a half away. I checked into a hotel for which I had made reservations over the Internet. The Hotel Central Garni was very pleasant and reasonable. I immediately headed for the Residenz. Its most famous artwork is the huge fresco in the staircase done by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Its baroque interiors were stupendous. Probably my favorite room was the white room with swirls and intricate designs of stucco covering the walls.

Bits & Bytes

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 13:06:45 -0400

This is a new feature for The Medium. Each issue will highlight a few Web sites that our members might find useful. Future columns will focus on copyright issues, library sites, and more in the arts and culture fields. I'll try to keep it short. If there is a particular area you would like to see covered, please let me know.

Artcyclopedia is a new resource promising to become a definitive guide to museum-quality art on the web. Search by artist, or museum. Different topics are featured monthly (March was Van Gogh; April, Golden Age Illustrators). The search engine works quite well. I typed "Vermeer," and was told that while "Vermeer" usually refers to Jan Vermeer, their database included Jan Vermeer (Dutch, 1632-1675) and Jan Vermeer III (Dutch, 1656-1705). Choosing the first, led me to a list of 14 online exhibitions or articles, plus a bibliography. Each book title in the bibliography is a link to Amazon.com where you can more information about the book, including price and ISBN in one click. This site is recommended to librarians and patrons alike.

ARLIS/Texas By-laws and Chapter Archives Procedures Updates

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 13:00:39 -0400

Last fall the ARLIS/Texas members received a copy of the proposed changes to the By-Laws, the Chapter Archives Procedures and a ballot that was attached to the Fall/Winter 1998 issue of The Medium. After voting, the survey indicated that of the Chapter's 33 members, 24 voted to approve the changes, which exceeded the 22 votes necessary to amend the by-laws. Twenty-four of the 33 members voted to keep the Archives procedures separate. This also exceeds the 22 votes needed to approve the measure.

The Chapter's Executive Committee submitted a copy of the revised by-laws to the ARLIS/NA Board for ratification. As of today, the submission is under consideration, and the Executive Committee members will be notified by the Board and by our present Regional Representative, Pat Lynagh, on the status of our proposal.

Cataloging Now!

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 21:02:54 -0400

Sam Duncan and I attended this day-long workshop sponsored by the ALCTS and the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) on October 22 in Dallas. The workshop introduced participants to the Core cataloging standard developed by the PCC, an agency working under the sponsorship of the Library of Congress. Those attending represented a wide spectrum of the library community including academic, public and special librarians, and everyone had a unique perspective on the ways in which cataloging policy and procedures affect the level of patron service in each of these environments.

Since the PCC started in 1995, its purpose has been to develop a “new vision” for international cooperative cataloging. The PCC “Core” record represents an effort to increase the amount of national-level cataloging that can be accepted with minimal verification, modification or postponement of use. Core records are less complete than full level cataloging records, but they are fully supported by authority work and follow AACR2 standards. A central issue in today’s cataloging world is the realization that there must be a balance between the twin goals of quality and timeliness, and the Core record represents a professional consensus on the best way to achieve this necessary balance. The four major characteristics of the Core standard can be summarized as follows:

News: Polly McCord Member Update

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 22:16:51 -0400

Former chapter member Polly McCord continues to thrive in Taos (despite a broken foot in March)! She's started a new blog, www.artfultraveler.blogspot.com, where she writes about trips she takes (and can plan for you), events she attends, and places to stay. If you are planning to head to New Mexico this fall, be sure to give Polly a call and say hello.

Polly McCord
The Artful Traveler, LLC