ARLIS/NA
30th / VRA 20th
Reference &
Information Services Section (RISS)
March 24, 2002
Marcy Neth, Moderator; Judy Donovan, Co-moderator; Erika Dowell, Update Editor
Moderator Marcy Neth convened the meeting at 12:00 p.m., and explained that since the RISS business meeting and the ILL discussion group were scheduled for the same two-hour block, the RISS meeting would end at 1:00 p.m. Then the ILL discussion group would begin. New attendees were asked to introduce themselves.
Paula Gabbard (Columbia U.) announced that she and Barbara Sykes-Austin (Columbia U.) were working on the art section of the new Guide to Reference Books and asked for members to email suggestions for notable reference works to her at gabbard@columbia.edu.
Minutes of the 2001 RISS meeting were approved by voice vote.
Erika Dowell (Indiana U.), current Update Editor, was nominated for Co-Moderator. Kelly Weaver (Drexel U.) was nominated for Update Editor. Members approved both candidates by voice vote.
Neth announced a RISS sponsored session: Seminar 4: Buried Treasure: Artists Files in the Digital Age, Monday, 11 am to 12:30 pm.
Neth discussed RISS progress on relevant ARLIS/NA Strategic Plan action items:
Item 3. Working closely with the
AWS Administrative Board, develop procedures to ensure that the ARLIS/NA website
provides references and/or links to useful print and electronic art and
interdisciplinary information resources reflective of each Division, Section, or
Round Table. (IV E, I G)
Progress on Item 3: Liv Valmstead has added some
links to the RISS site, but not many should be added there in order to avoid
competition and duplication with the main ARLIS/NA website.
Item 6. Contribute to the establishment of professional development and continuing education programs of the Society. (II A)
Progress on Item 6: Ongoing conference programming satisfies this item.
Item 9. Continue to promote efforts of librarians who teach. Promote dissemination of instructional materials through LOEX Clearinghouse for Library Instruction. (I D)
Progress on Item 9: Recent discussion on ARLIS-L and later in this meeting are evidence of progress on this issue. There are likely to be proposals for the 2003 conference relating to librarians who teach.
Core collection website project
Judy Donovan explained the background of the project which
came out of the 2001 conference session, “Too Much of a Good Thing”. The
project seeks to define a “lean, mean” list of basic art reference sites
available freely on the web. The task force made no progress last year, so the
group is starting fresh this year. Donovan proposed asking the ARLIS membership
to name and describe their favorite sites as a way to begin the project.
Information can be sent to: donovajg@aii.edu
Neth announced an informal meeting (Monday, 10 am, Knickerbocker Room) for librarians interested in instruction issues. The meeting was scheduled in response to recent discussion on ARLIS-L. Neth also recommended the recent ARLIS/NA publication: Occasional Papers No. 13: Library Instruction for Students in Design Disciplines: Scenarios, Exercises, Techniques. compiled by Jeanne M. Brown.
Neth opened up the meeting for discussion of conference proposals for next year with two suggestions: “how to create a 1-credit class on library skills workshop” and “panel on librarians as instructors.” A wide ranging discussion of instruction issues followed.
Barbara Prior (Oberlin College) teaches a 1-credit course. Carol Ann Fabian (U. at Buffalo) teaches 1 credit of a 3-credit course in thesis preparation. Lucie Stylianopoulos (U. of Virginia) teaches a graduate course, and has an undergraduate course soon to be proposed to the curriculum committee. It will be team-taught with other faculty. Betty Jo Kish Irvine (Indiana U.) teaches a 2-credit course on research methods. She noted that the two agenda items on instruction seemed similar.
Marcy Neth responded that there was talk about doing a workshop on how to create a one-credit class including how to get faculty support, navigate through the curriculum committee, etc. Another member said she would like to see some attention paid to studio students.
Laura Schwartz (U. of Texas, Austin) highly recommended the ACRL Institute for Information Literacy Immersion Program. However, you must apply to the program, and it is expensive.
Marcy Neth listed some common concerns from the ARLIS-L discussion: relationships with faculty, curriculum decisions, information literacy, visual literacy, instruction for studio, integrating life skills with the curriculum, advertising and promoting library activities, and research as a creative process.
Jeanne M. Brown (U. of Nevada Las Vegas) noted that curriculum and faculty processes are different for each institution. Rather than a workshop, she suggested a point/counterpoint session on for-credit vs. in-class instruction. Liz Ginno (California State U., Hayward) noted that whether a course is required or elective is an important distinction.
Edith Crowe (San Jose State U.) spoke about her current work regarding information competency standards for art history, basic knowledge for a Masters-only institution.
Barbara Prior noted that something similar is going on at Oberlin. Grant money is funding the incorporation of information literacy standards throughout the curriculum. She is also promoting the art library profession by hiring students who have taken her 1-credit course to work as reference assistants on evenings and weekends in the library. Laura Schwartz said that information literacy and core competencies are also being examined at University of Texas-Austin.
Alba Fernandez (Indianapolis Museum of Art) was interested in bibliographic instruction in museums, directed at docents, collectors, etc.
Lucie Stylianopoulos is interested in working on the workshop idea. She knows a faculty member willing to speak on the topic. Marcy Neth mentioned museum library and art school collaboration as another issue. How is the museum being tied into instruction?
Betty Jo Irvine mentioned that some of these issues were addressed at last year’s conference. Joy Kestenbaum (Pratt Institute) noted that she is more interested in case studies than in theoretical issues. Anne Haas (Bowdoin College) lent her support to a workshop on “how to create a one-credit course”. She added that it would be nice to hear the perspective of a faculty member on the issue.
Kari Horowicz (Rochester Institute of Technology) announced a poster competition sponsored by the Art & Design Schools Division. Design students would compete to create library instructional posters which could be sold to any library and serve to both instruct library users and promote ARLIS/NA. For more information on the poster contest, you may email Kari (kehwml@rit.edu) and she will pass your name on to the appropriate person.
Possible proposals for next year: other topics
Linda Zoeckler (Huntington Library) proposed a session on using dissertations for research. She was also interested in the issue of recataloging older collections for better access.
Another member was interested in scheduling an informal meeting to discuss recent reference works.
Another member requested a workshop for an introduction to art reference work. Barbara Prior rose to talk about the workshop series “They Never Covered This in Library School” which was initiated for precisely this reason. Members concluded it may be time to repeat the first session of this series which covered basic reference sources for art.
Lilah Mittelstaedt (Philadelphia Museum of Art) added that there is a useful reference source from K.G. Saur on art reference.
Linda Zoeckler was interested in institutional policies on the unsupervised use of museum libraries by curators.
Amy Ciccone (U of Southern California) is interested in hearing more about online chat reference. There was a related IFLA session last year. Iris Snyder (U. of Delaware) expressed interest in assessment of online chat and CDRS, and how it has changed reference work.
Submitted by Erika Dowell, session recorder.