Cataloging Section Business Meeting, ARLIS/NA Conference

The Roosevelt Hotel, New York, Saturday, April 17, 2004

Partial list of attendees (sign in sheet did not get all the way around!):

Penny Baker, Clark Art Institute; Meg Black, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Vicky Bohm, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Mark Bresnan, Frick Art Reference Library; Abby Bridge, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Anne Champagne, Art Institute of Chicago; Sherman Clarke, NYU; Annie Copeland, Penn State University; Charles Egleston; K.C. Elhard, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Angela Falsey, Art Institute of Chicago; Danny Fermon, MOMA/NY; Pedro A. Figueredo, St. Thomas University, Miami; Tamara Fultz, Metropolitan Museum of Art; V. Heidi Hass, Pierpont Morgan Library; Rodica Tanjala Krauss, Frick Art Reference Library; Beth Kushner, Brooklyn Museum; Hyosoo Lee, Cleveland Institute of Art; Elizabeth Lilker, NYU; John Maier, Institute of Fine Arts/NYU; Nancy Norris, UCLA; Elizabeth O’Keefe, Pierpont Morgan Library; Zimra Panitz, School of Visual Arts; Lily Pregill, Marymount Manhattan College; Elizabeth Robinson, Library of Congress; Emily Roth, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Melanie Seal, Cleveland Museum of Art; Kay Streng, Minneapolis College of Art and Design; Kay Teel, Stanford University; Matthew Wiggins, Chrysler Museum of Art; Julia Wisniewski, Library of Congress; Eric Wolf, New York School of Interior Design;

Cindy Wolff, MOMA/NY

Minutes of the Meeting:

Ann Copeland moderated the Meeting.

After group introductions and welcome, Ann introduced the officers of the Section (the terms served by the Vice Moderator/Moderator Elect were switched during the meeting due to a conflict):

Moderator: Ann Copeland, Penn State University

2003/2004 Vice Moderator/Moderator Elect: K.C. Elhard, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2004/2005: Vice Moderator/Moderator Elect: Zimra Panitz, School of Visual Arts Library

Website Editor: Kay Teel, Stanford University

Update Column Editor: Eric Wolf, New York School of Interior Design

Eric explained the activities of the Update Column Editor and asked for a volunteer to replace him following the next column. By the end of the meeting Elizabeth Lilker of New York University (elizabeth.lilker@nyu.edu) had volunteered to be the new column editor. (Thanks to Eric! Thanks to Elizabeth!)

We were very fortunate to have two fine presentations at our meeting related to cataloging.

The first was given by Kay Teel of Stanford University. Kay described the unique cataloging workflow at her institution known as the Stanford Model. While managers claim benefits from certain efficiencies in the workflow (fewer hand offs, a 15 minute time limit for classification, savings gained from using acquisitions staff for pre-searching, level 3 abbreviated cataloging requires no subject analysis), the catalogers have real concerns over the scarcity of subject headings. They suspect that users are unable to find materials as a result of this minimal cataloging. Kay took many questions relating to formal evaluation of the workflow on the part of public service librarians and users, avenues for input with management, and satisfaction with RLG's MARCADIA service which attempts to locate copy and overlay brief records at a later date.

Our second presentation was from K.C. Elhard of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. K.C. is involved in a project to catalog German emblems from emblem books that have been digitized. The complexities in this project are many. The emblems themselves require scholarly analysis for their subject content. The metadata for each emblem will need to address its iconographic significance, its relationship to the book, and to use consistent terminology with that of other emblems to afford searching across collections. The University is looking for partners and funding opportunities to help them create best standards and practices for digital access to emblems. K.C. took questions about their project and about using existing scholars and scholarship to help form a vocabulary for these resources.

Thanks to both of our presenters! Apart from the late hour there seemed to be general agreement that this is a good format for the Cataloging Section Meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 6:30.