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From the President

posted: 16 December 2005

As most of you know, the June 2005 issue was the final official issue of Update. However, in order to accommodate those subscribers who had already paid for paper copies of Update, we are sending a hard copy synopsis of material from the ARLIS/NA Web site (AWS) and additional information gathered for this very last issue. As promised, the content of Update plus new information is available in various appropriate areas on our enhanced Web site. Carol Graney, our news and features editor, posts news as it occurs and maintains an informative Events Calendar. Jennifer Hehman continues to edit the "Bibliographic Notes" column which is now located in the "Resources" area of the AWS. We need your news more than ever. So, let's hear from all groups in ARLIS/NA--divisions, sections, round tables, committees, and chapters. Send news about your activities and upcoming events to Carol Graney at any time.

The Publications Committee continues to be extremely active and productive. Unfortunately, John Taormina resigned for personal reasons this summer before he was able to begin work as the inaugural ARLIS/NA professional resources editor. The committee recently posted a call for a new professional resources editor on ARLIS-L, reviewed applications, and made a selection, Kraig Binkowski of the Yale Center for British Art has graciously agreed to serve in this capacity. Please send him you very best work so that it can become an ARLIS/NA publication.

A request for proposals for new membership data management software was sent to five vendors on October 12. Our intention is to identify and acquire software that will improve the functionality of our membership database, will interface more effectively with our Web site, and will support an online directory that will allow each member to update his or her directory entry. In the meantime, current implementation of the online directory has become more useful. The Publications Committee has successfully concluded negotiations with EBSCO to disseminate Art Documentation in electronic format. They are in the final stages of negotiating a memorandum of agreement with Scarecrow Press to jointly produce new titles in the Occasional Papers series and other appropriate publications by our members. We believe that the inaugural publication under this agreement will be Handbook of Art Museum Librarianship. Chair Jack Robertson and all the members of the Publications Committee continue to work hard on behalf of ARLIS/NA. Thank you.

The ARLIS/NA Executive Board met at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, from July 21 to July 23. We discussed many things and had a little fun in the process. I am pleased to announce that the Strategic Plan 2006-2009 was officially received and approved. We also approved the use of Survey Monkey? for online balloting; our first online ballot was for our proposed affiliation with the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH). Many thanks to Executive Board members Eumie Imm-Stroukoff, Peggy Keeran, and Heather Ball for making the voting process work so smoothly and elegantly. As a result of this balloting, it is a pleasure to welcome SAH as our newest affiliate.

The 2006 annual conference with the theme, "Transcontinental Perspectives: ARLIS/NA in the Canadian Rockies," will be held at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel in Banff, Alberta, from May 5 to May 9. Our new Strategic Plan and the ARLIS/NA Core Competencies for Art Information Professionals document developed by the Professional Development Committee are much in evidence in the Banff programming. The conference will feature a number of "free" workshops as well as an all day pre-conference workshop, "Copying Right in the Canadian Context: Looking at the Arts and Images," presented by Wanda Noel, an expert on Canadian copyright law, that will examine Canadian intellectual property rights issues. Please visit the conference Web site for more information. The Web site is frequently updated with new information and news about the conference.

The 2007 ARLIS/NA conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia; in 2008 we will meet in San Diego, California, for a joint conference with the Visual Resources Association (VRA); and in 2009 we will meet in Indianapolis, Indiana. I particularly look forward to seeing you first in Banff and then in successive years in Atlanta, San Diego, and Indianapolis.

The second annual ARLIS/NA and VRA Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management (SEI) was held in June at Duke University. Although it hardly seems possible, this SEI was even more successful than the first one. Many thanks to co-chairs Trudy Jacoby and Maureen Burns, local arrangement chair John Taormina, and Duke University for organizing and hosting such a successful and important workshop. In 2006 the SEI will move to the west coast to Reed College in Portland, Oregon. The cochairs for the Reed College SEI are Trudy Jacoby and Karin Whalen.

Finally, I'd like to congratulate the newly appointed Executive Board members who will take office at the annual conference in Banff in May 2006. They are: Deborah Ultan Boudewyns, vice-president/president elect; Frances Y. Scott, treasurer; Marilyn Nasserden, Canadian representative; and Susan Koskinen, Western regional representative. A big thank you goes to the Nominating Committee (Deborah Kempe, chair; Catherine Cooney; Margaret Culbertson; Milan Hughston; and Irene Puchalski) for presenting such a stellar slate to the membership. The work of the committee would not have been successful without ARLIS/NA members willing to submit their names for consideration for service on the board. Although the committee had to submit a single person for each position to the Executive Board for approval, we are grateful to all of you who were willing to serve.

You will have noticed that the most frequently used words in this communication are "thank you." This is not by accident because you, the membership, do the work of ARLIS/NA on a voluntary basis. Without your expertise and dedication, ARLIS/NA could not exist. You provide leadership, you write articles and edit publications, you plan and execute conferences, and you do much, much more. So the biggest thank you of all goes to you. I am blessed to have colleagues with such talent, energy, and intelligence who are willing to work on behalf of ARLIS/NA.

Margaret Webster, ARLIS/NA President

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