Art Libraries Society of North America 31^st Annual Conference
Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland – March 20-26, 2003

Reference and Information Services Section Meeting

March 24, 2003, 6:00 – 7:20 p.m.

Moderator: Judy Donovan, Delaware College of Art and Design

Recorder:  Erika Dowell, Indiana University

Donovan began the meeting by introducing the Executive Board Liaison, Judith Herschman (University of California, Los Angeles).

Members approved the minutes from the Sections’ 2002 meeting.

Kelly Weaver, who was to move into the co-moderator position this year, resigned the office because of a job change. Donovan called for volunteers/nominees to fill the positions of co-moderator and Update column editor. Ellen Kempf (Pennsylvania State University) was approved as co-moderator; Anne Haas (Bowdoin College) is the new Update column editor.

Donovan gave an update on the RISS website. Liv Valmstead will continue to manage the site. She is on a year-long maternity leave, so it will be necessary to improve communication with her to get changes made on the site. Anne Haas volunteered to contact Valmstead about changes to the site.

Barbara Prior (Oberlin College) proposed creating a group to organize conference workshops in the series she initiated several years ago under the title, “They Never Covered This in Library School”. She outlined the responsibilities of such a group: determining content of session, finding speakers, making local arrangements, creating bibliographies and other documentation, advertising, etc. Discussion followed regarding the value of the sessions and possible topics (e.g., architecture, African art, dance and theater). Carole Ann Fabian (University of Buffalo, SUNY) suggested the section ask the Executive Board to create a “permanent placeholder” in the conference schedule for such a workshop. It was observed that such workshops could tie in with a program of professional certification. Certification is being discussed at the Board level and in other committees. Board Liaison Herschman will contact these other groups to see how workshops might fit into the discussion of certification. After more discussion, the following motion was approved:

That the Reference and Information Services Section will provide service to ARLIS/NA through continuing education activities at each annual conference in the form of in-depth bibliographical and reference workshops, such as those presented under the title, “They Never Covered This in Library School”.

Barbara Prior will chair the organizing group. Other members are: Lou Adrean (Cleveland Museum of Art), Sara Harrington (Rutgers University), Barbara Polowy (Smith College), Terrie Wilson (Michigan State University), and Linda Zieper (University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth).

Erika Dowell (Indiana University) asked for volunteers for a group to discuss the possible actions RISS (and ARLIS/NA) could take to improving access to collections of artist files. The group is composed of Dowell, John Evans (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), Pam Eyerdam (Cleveland State University), Alba Fernandez (Indianapolis Museum of Art), Roberta Geier (National Gallery of Art), Andrea Goldstein (Temple University), and Terrie Wilson (Michigan State University).

Donovan gave some background to previous RISS efforts to create a core collection of freely available Internet resources on art topics. Discussion following regarding the enormity of the task, different ways a project could be organized, the feasibility of creating a portal, and concern about not “re-inventing the wheel”. The following motion was approved:

The Reference and Information Services Section will convene a small working group to explore the possibility of creating more efficient access to existing free Internet subject resources on the arts.

Martha Walker (Cornell University) will facilitate discussion on ARLIS-L about this issue.

Carole Ann Fabian (University of Buffalo, SUNY) announced that New York conference planners are eager to receive proposals for the next annual conference. Inklings and full-fledged proposals are welcome. The deadline is May 5, 2003.

Fabian also reported on a meeting of teaching librarians that took place earlier in the conference. The meeting drew about 70 interested people. Fabian brought up the relationship of this informal group to RISS and expressed interest in building on the energy displayed at the teaching librarians meeting. It was agreed that the group would be informally associated with RISS, keeping the RISS membership informed of their news and using the existing RISS website as home for a proposed clearinghouse of teaching materials.

Roberta Geier (National Gallery of Art) expressed interest in a session on how reference work has changed over the years.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m.