Year in Review, 2004-2005*

Prepared by Jeanne Brown, President

ARLIS/NA, the Art Libraries Society of North America, continues strong, active, and productive. The activities listed below, arranged by the goals of the current strategic plan, reflect a wide-range of interests and involvement. We are a Society of over 1000 members from a variety of professional settings, and invite any readers who are not yet members to join (www.arlisna.org/join.html).

Vision & Mission

ARLIS/NA's vision is to be the leading organization in the arts information field and a catalyst in the development of services and resources for the arts community. The Society will provide leadership in enhancing education, information, and scholarly communication within the arts. It will achieve this through partnerships with higher education organizations, international forums, and the inclusion of highly qualified and talented professionals who reflect the diversity found in our society. ARLIS/NA will promote and provide opportunities for continuous learning for arts information professionals.

Our mission is to foster excellence in art librarianship and visual resources curatorship for the advancement of the visual arts.

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Goal I:

To increase the effectiveness of art librarians and visual resources curators by focusing efforts on professional and continuing education, as well as professional development activities.

Promote art library and visual resource programs in graduate schools.
Provide continuing education opportunities.
Develop scholarships, awards, fellowships, and grants to support education and development activities.
Promote the expertise and services that members provide.
Provide a mentoring program.
Enhance and promote the Society?s scholarly research through its publications programs.
Foster efforts that will maintain current awareness and understanding of technological advancements, changing trends in collection development and user services, research in the visual arts, and changes in the workplace.

The ARLIS/NA web site (AWS) underwent redesign this year under the watchful eye and total commitment of ARLIS Web Site Editor Nedda Ahmed, with the design a product of Q Ltd. This effort is, in my opinion, potentially one of the most far reaching projects for the Society. The long-term implications are staggering. The web site can be used to feature content, can be used to sell publications, and can be used to communicate with members both through news and by periodic surveys. It is here that our efforts to foster current awareness will take root. The possibilities will continue to unfold as we settle into using the new site.

Student issues were actively discussed on the listserv ARLIS-L, resulting in a sense that the current Student Affairs Discussion Group may be formalized into an ARLIS/NA Round Table. The conference in Houston features a conference session geared toward the needs of student members, as well as a "pub" sponsored by the student group.

The Society's Internship Award was conferred on Lauren Edison, who will be working in the Department of Collection Information Systems of the Pierpont Morgan Library. The Professional Development Committee maintains a roster of approximately 50 internship opportunities from across the United States and Canada. The award was announced in library schools by the Membership Committee.

Awards: Award recipients were identified for a variety of awards, thanks to the hard work of the various awards committees and often the sponsorship of our generous donors. The Society's awards program includes travel awards, research awards, publications awards, and the prestigious Distinguished Service Award. [Awards and award guidelines are listed at www.arlisna.org/about/awards/awards_index.html] This year was unique in the substantial addition of the Getty Latin American travel awards for art librarians, art information professionals, and visual resources curators residing in Latin America. The Getty awards are made possible through a grant from the Getty Foundation, applied for by Ted Goodman.

A new program to promote the expertise and services that members provide was initiated with the newly designed web site: member Marilyn Russell, Director of Library Programs at the Institute of American Indian Arts is featured. This feature on the home page will rotate periodically, bringing a new member into the spotlight.

Mentoring: The Professional Development Committee has established a subcommittee to investigate the feasibility of initiating a year-round mentoring program. They have completed a literature review and a study of similar associations' mentoring programs. The year-round mentor would add to the Society's current mentoring initiative: mentors for conference attendees (this year coordinated by Alba Fernandez-Keys).

The Publications Committee chaired by Jack Robertson has, taking the redesigned web site as the impetus, reconstituted the positions of newsletter editor and Occasional Papers editor to include substantial web content responsibilities. These positions have been titled "News and Features Editor" and "Professional Resources Editor." Recruitment has begun, and applicants will be interviewed at the Houston conference.

The Publications Committee subgroup led by Roger Lawson investigated and recommended that the Society enter into an agreement with EBSCO to provide the Society?s journal Art Documentation in EBSCO full-text online databases, potentially bringing a much higher profile to Art Doc articles and authors, and thereby to the association.

New entries in the Occasional Papers monograph series were proposed and are now in progress under the guidance of editor Paul Glassman.

Art Documentation, the Society's scholarly journal published twice per year, continued to promote quality and excellence in the provision of information and research in the field.

The Membership Handbook and Directory (print and online) continues to be a valued publication, and one promoting networking among members, as does the listserv ARLIS-L.

The Society added two Round Tables this year: the Book Arts Round Table, and the Public Librarians Round Table. Both groups will be important in focusing Society discussion and activity in those areas.

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Goal II:

To develop stimulating and pertinent programs that meet the needs and support the activities of all members and components of the Society.

Explore ways to expand the Society?s support and development of regional workshops and conferences.
Develop financial resources to attract the best speakers in our profession to ARLIS/NA conferences, workshops, and meetings.
Infuse the annual conference with a high level of energy and excitement through excellent content and structure as well as collaboration with other professional organizations.

A major initiative which came to fruition this year after several years of preparation is the Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management. Jointly sponsored with VRA, the Summer Educational Institute "is intended to provide a standardized and sustainable program for visual resources training, with a focus on issues related to the transition from analog to digital collections" (per the website). The first institute guided by Mary Wasserman and John Taormina was held in the summer of 2004, and was judged a great success by attendees and instructors alike. The second institute will be July 5-9, 2005 at Duke.

The Houston conference planning team put together a stellar conference experience, led by local arrangements co-chairs Jon Evans and Mark Pompelia and program co-chairs Laura Schwartz and Elizabeth Schaub. They have brought back some elements of past conferences, such as the silent auction, membership lunch and the Internet room, while bringing their unique approach in Houston?s unique environment. Enhancing the conference planning and promoting has been the conference web site created and maintained by Sam Duncan.

Thanks to our donors, particularly those who have elected to join the Society Circle, the Speakers Fund continues to be healthy and vital to the support of speakers for the conference.

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Goal III:

To exert an influence on external forces affecting the profession through promotion, cooperation, and advocacy.

Establish and promote professional and information standards, working collaboratively with peer organizations.
Enhance our affiliations with existing affinity organizations.
Develop a higher visibility for ARLIS/NA and significantly expand recognition of and support for the Society as an international professional organization.
Advocate public positions on issues affecting librarianship and visual resources curatorship.

Core competencies: The Professional Development Committee has been working for a couple years on establishment of national core competency standards for professionals in art library and visual resources fields. They presented a draft of the core competencies at the New York conference in 2004, collected input on the draft both at the conference and through a survey after the conference, and are refining the list of core competencies prior to presenting to the ARLIS/NA Executive Board for approval.

The Cataloging Advisory Committee through its many efforts represents ARLIS/NA in cataloging matters to the larger cataloging community. For instance, members of the Cataloging Advisory Committee serve on the American Library Association Subject Analysis Committee Task force on Named Buildings and other Headings. In addition, the CAC and in particular its committee member Lynda Bunting revised the NH Schedule for Photography, an alternative classification system to TR. This publication is posted to the ARLIS Web Site [www.arlisna.org/resources/onlinepubs/NHschedule.pdf] and freely available.

The Executive Board acted on the Public Policy Committee recommendation that ARLIS/NA co-sign a letter from the Digital Future Coalition, to be sent to members of Congress asking for support of the Digital Media Consumers? Rights Act.

The Public Policy Committee also formulated boilerplate statements to be issued in response to the news that an art library has been closed, or left to function without an art librarian. These documents stress the value of professional librarians as stewards of art library collections, as well as emphasizing the reference and research skills that librarians provide.

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Goal IV:

To strengthen and increase the effectiveness of the Society's activities and operations.

Provide an efficient organizational structure that is responsive to the membership.
Maintain and expand the Society's sound financial structure.
Develop a program to cultivate leaders for the Society.
Address the need to expand and engage a culturally diverse membership.
Enhance communication between the Society?s leadership and membership.

A Strategic Plan is being developed for 2006-2009, based on two surveys of the membership, an environmental scan, and discussion sessions at conference, under the leadership of co-chairs Leslie Abrams and Lucie Stylianopoulos.

The membership voted on a dues structure revision and Bylaws changes resulting in a more flexible association. For example, the Bylaws were revised to allow the possibility of electronic voting.

The Development Committee chaired by Kim Collins, and in particular Allen Townsend combining the roles of past president and local conference development person, led the way in implementing an approach to development suggested by our Executive Director Elizabeth Clarke, offering sponsorship packages at various levels (gold, silver, etc.) to our supporters.

The Society Circle continued to grow in number and size of contributions, providing much appreciated support from individual members for the Society's programs.

Communication with membership was fostered formally through the Membership Meeting at the annual conference, and the President?s column in the Society's bi-monthly newsletter. Less formally, and occurring throughout the year, the listserv ARLIS-L as well as individual member emails served as communication vehicles. This year several surveys solicited member input, including the ARLIS web site redesign survey and the two Strategic Plan surveys.

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*Covering the period from the New York conference in April 2004 to the Houston conference April 2005.