Annual Report 2001
ARLIS/NA Research Committee


February 15, 2002 (Corrected February 21, 2002)
Submitted by Barbara Prior, Co-Chair
Email: barbara.prior@oberlin.edu
Phone: (440)775-8635
Fax: (440)775-8969

Leadership Update

Current Roster (2001 Committee)

Barbara Prior, Co-Chair
Natalia Lonchyna, Co-Chair
Thomas Riedel
Linda Tompkins-Baldwin
Patricia Thompson
Terrie Wilson
Board Liaison: Laurie Whitehill Chong

Incoming Roster (2002 Committee)

Thomas Riedel - Chair
Barbara Prior, (previous Co-Chair, continuing)
Patricia Thompson, (continuing)
Natalia Lonchyna (previous Co-Chair, continuing)
Terrie Wilson (continuing)
Christopher Quinn
Polly Trump

Activities

Research Committee members wrote columns for the April, and August 2001 and February 2002 issues of Update to advertise the awards and committee activities.  Tom Riedel will be submitting the April 2002 article announcing the award winners.  Worldwide’s director, Jean Sue Libkind, suggested a new award which was offered for the first time this year.  This indicates a strong interest in continuing to support research awards on the part of Worldwide.  For the first time the Research Committee has a budget for 2002 activities which should help defray the costs of postage and photocopying.

Award Winners

H.W. Wilson Foundation Research Award

Wilson generously agreed to let ARLIS retain the $3560 left over from last year.   Because of this, we were able to award a total of $2500 to two recipients:

Roberto C. Ferrari, Arts & Humanities Librarian, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida -- $2,000 for his project “The Letters of Simeon Solomon.”

Sara Harrington, Art Librarian, Art Library, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey -- $500 for her project “Women’s Work: The Valorization of Domestic Labor in American World War II Posters.”

Worldwide Awards

Worldwide Books Electronic Resources Award

The winner of the 1st Worldwide Books Electronic Resources Award is  Roberto C. Ferrari, Arts & Humanities Librarian, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida -- $500 for his website: Simeon Solomon Research Archive

Worldwide Books Publication Award

Lamia Doumato, Head of Research Services, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC, for her article: "Opening the Door to Paradise:  Bishop Theodorus and St. Thomas Imagery in Thirteenth  Century Syria" in Al-Masaq ( Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean), vol. 12, 2000, pp. 141-71.

Elizabeth Broman, Reference Librarian at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution in New York City, for her article "Egyptian Revival Funerary Art in Green-Wood Cemetery" in Markers: The annual journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies, vol. XVIII, 2001, pp. 30-67.

Strategic Plan

1.E.5. Design and implement extended publicity, in print and electronic, for Research Fund and publications awards; include recognition of donors and winners; increase awareness of membership benefits with publicity targeted to chapters and to other associations.

[Research C.] [155]

The award was publicized through the listserv and Update. Individual members of the Research Committee took responsibility for contacting local chapters to promote the awards.

1.E.8. Identify and report on research and publication awards and funding support available to members from sources outside the Society. [Research C.] [161]

Additional outside funding resources were included. in the Research Committee’s column in the February 2002 issue of ARLIS Update.

2.D.7. Create programs to support members' subject specialist roles in actively contributing to all professional and academic fields relevant to ARLIS/NA's mission; identify, define, and make recommendations on mechanisms. [Research C.] [160]

According to the 1997 Annual Report, this has been completed

4.A.21. Create communications links with funding sources and publishers of award winners. [Research C.] [159]

Pending

Issues for the Executive Board

A.  Communication logistics

The Research Committee would benefit from some written direction in the following areas:

1.  Solicitation of funds for the Worldwide and Wilson awards

When this should happen?  For at least one award we have a multi-year commitment; how do we know when it’s time to ask again?

Who should contact Worldwide and/or Wilson?

Who at Worldwide and/or Wilson should be contacted?

2.  Notification of awards

Who notifies award winners and losers?

To whom else and where else should this information be sent?

What information does headquarters need to issue the winners’ checks?

When are the checks given to the winners?  At the Convocation?  Afterwards?  

Who notifies donors of the winners?

Who determines if the donors are sending representatives to the Convocation to present the awards?

B.  Encouraging members to report scholarship and pursue research projects

Perhaps the Executive Board could use their influence to help get the word out to the membership.  For instance, when Regional Representatives attend Chapter meetings perhaps they could explain the Research Awards and encourage members to apply.