Fall 2004 - Vol. 17 No. 1

From the President

Greetings! The New England Chapter met at the New York conference, for a short informal meeting and it turned out to be very productive. Since the ARLIS/NA conference was later than usual, the chapter had almost decided to forego a regular spring meeting day, but ideas got tossed around, and we ended up with a couple of really interesting ideas, one of which was planned, and announced within a couple of weeks of the conference!

On Friday, June 4, the New England Chapter met in Bristol, Rhode Island, for a really wonderful day of architectural history. Betsy Peck Learned, and Ellie Nacheman made local inquiries and arrangements for us to visit the Blithewold Mansion and Arboretum, have lunch right on the water, and then have a tour of Bristol's downtown, by Kevin Jordan, an architectural historian, and former faculty member at Roger Williams University. The weather could not have been one bit better, and a short (10 minute!) business meeting at the end of the day in a waterfront park even percolated some ideas for meetings in the fall and into 2005. It looks like there is serious intent to charter a bus and go to New York in February in order to experience the coming Christo event in Central Park. More to follow.

Some of the board met on June 25, at President Anne Haas's home in Maine, and discussed the possibility of a couple of fall meetings, one in October, perhaps to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, and one in early December for a workshop on ARTstor. Despite many art librarians' reservations about this database as it exists now, it seems that many libraries are buying it despite our recommendations, so it might be a good time to have someone from ARTStor show us the real ins and outs of using it. Again, more information will be coming on this after communicating with the folks at ARTstor.

Enjoy your summer!

Anne B. Haas, President

Treasurer's Report

As of 6/18/04, our checking account has $1877.72. We have two Certificates of Deposit. One has $4081.03 and the other has $4277.19 Total: $10,235.94.

Susanne Javorski, Treasurer

Freitag Award Winner Reports on NYC Conference

I am grateful to ARLIS/NE for the Wolfgang Freitag Professional Development Award that I used towards the cost of attending the 32nd Annual Conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America that took place in New York City in April 2004. I met new colleagues, became aware of the purpose and structure of sections and divisions within ARLIS/NA while attending business meetings, became familiar with ongoing debates within the profession while attending many of the sessions, and took advantage of New York's incredible museums, restaurants, and weather: I even had a wonderful walking tour with colleagues from the Harvard Design School in Central Park on a gorgeous sunny afternoon!

The sessions I attended provided informed opinions on the direction the discipline and practice of art librarianship is heading and in-depth historical analysis of some architecture and landscape architecture topics they dealt with. The New York Parks and Gardens session was particularly insightful in this respect. After attending the Orientation and Welcome Party, I mainly dedicated myself to attending those sessions that were of particular interest to me: Building Bridges Between Online Art Information Resources; Integrating Intellectual Access to Library, Museum and archival Materials; New York Parks and Gardens; Preparing for Shared Cataloguing: an Overview of Needs, Benefits, and Efforts; Digitizing Columbia: Collaborations in Art, Architecture and the Libraries at Columbia University; The Tall Office Building Reconsidered: the 21st Century Skyscraper; and Building New Paradigms: Image Collections, New Perspectives and New Realities. I also attended the Plenary Session with Christo and Jeanne-Claude on the Gates Project for Central Park.

I was also present at the Convocation and Reception at the Museo del Barrio, where an exhibition of works from MoMA's collection of modernist works by Latin American artists was on display. Wolfgang Freitag was at the Convocation--as was Angela Giral who received an award--and he presented a special tribute, together with William Walker, in honor of Florence DaLuiso Zoll who I learned had convened an Institute for Training in Librarianship in 1969, that was followed by a series of events that culminated in the founding of ARLIS/NA in 1972. He also mentioned a "yellow leaflet" (which I diligently picked up at the registration desk the following morning) honoring her. It was the May 1979 ARLIS/NA Newsletter. It was after reading this newsletter with its account on the beginnings of ARLIS/NA, that \ Freitag's "Indivisibility of Art Librarianship" (Art Libraries Journal, Autumn 1982) and it's "revisiting" by Martha Mahard and Freitag himself (Art Documentation, Fall 2003) suddenly seemed to provide the context to better understand what was being discussed in many of the sessions on art librarianship and visual resources, particularly in Building New Paradigms, and to much of the daily work we deal with within our "art information communities." ARLIS/NA's annual conference provides an opportunity for dialogue and collaboration within these communities, and as such is a valuable venue for discussion. My sincere thanks go to ARLIS/NE for giving me the opportunity to attend my first ARLIS/NA annual conference, where I witnessed some of this dialog and collaboration going on. It is much appreciated.

Inés Zalduendo
Frances Loeb Library
Harvard Design School

Late Spring Meeting, Bristol, Rhode Island, June 4, 2004

The business meeting was very brief, and held at the close of the day's activities by the harbor in Bristol, Rhode Island. (The morning was spent touring the house and gardens of the Blithewold estate and in the afternoon on a walking tour of historic Bristol led by Kevin Jordan, a retired faculty member from Roger Williams University's program in historic preservation.). President Anne Haas began the meeting by letting everyone know that their entrance fees at Blithewold had been paid for. Anne suggested that donating plaques for trees at Blithewold might be a nice thing to do. She then opened up the discussion on possible fall meeting locations or topics. Rachel Beckwith mentioned that Mass Art now had a definite date for their fundraiser this fall; on October 29, Robert Pinsky and three other poets will do a dramatic reading from Dante's Inferno. ARLIS/NE members will get invitations. Wellesley College will host an artist's book conference next year. It was suggested that Ruth Rogers, Wellesley's curator special collections, would know more details. Another suggestion was a trip to the Peabody Essex, but since they have closed their library and have no professional staff, it was thought that we should not pay them a visit. A visit to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center http://www.pequotmuseum.org/ combined with the Mystic Seaport was another suggestion.

There was a brief discussion on ARTstor. Then there was a suggestion again to visit the Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island. Kathy Ritter suggested a joint meeting in Montreal with the ARLIS chapter there. People seemed interested in that idea. Anne said there would be a board meeting sometime this summer, and the board would discuss all of the fall meeting suggestions.

Minutes submitted by Rachel Beckwith

Chapter Meeting at the ARLIS/NA conference in New York April 20, 2004

Anne Haas opened the meeting by greeting everyone at the conference and introducing current chapter officers (Anne as president, Kathy Ritter as vice president/president-elect, Susanne Javorski as treasurer, Rachel Beckwith as secretary, and Susan Lewis as past president.) Susanne Javorski reported that there was currently $2351.02 in the checking account, $4081.03 in one cd, and $4277.19 in the other. Rachel Beckwith reported that she just mailed out 90 directories. Membership is down slightly from last year in spite of both an e-mail renewal reminder from Anne and then more recently a hard-copy letter from Kathy Ritter.

Anne said that a result of ARLIS/NA's audit by an accounting firm is that chapter finances will need to be more detailed. The substantial amount of money that our chapter has in the bank has been a topic of discussion lately among the board and chapter members. We need to support two annual awards (the Freitag for professional development and the Seibel which goes to a student in library school). Neither award is endowed, so we always need available funds for these awards. Hugh Wilburn suggested that we could check the treasurer's reports from the past ten years to graph the amount of money we've had over the years. Amanda Bowen asked if we could just start spending more from our accounts on the Freitag and Seibel. It was suggested that we see what the New York chapter does since they are also a large chapter. Linda Zieper suggested that we could start asking members to pay for their coffee again. But then people may wonder why we raised our dues this past year?

Susan Lewis said that we have wondered about the possibility of funding chapter officers to be able to attend the ARLIS/NA conference, but the current board would have to do it for future officers. Laurie Whitehill Chong said that the Midwest chapter funds their chapter officers to attend the ARLIS/NA conference. It would require a by-laws change. Carol Graney said that the board just has to know about a by-laws change that would be filtered through the regional representative. (Carol for another year).

The discussion then turned to the possibilities of a late spring chapter meeting. Anne said that originally we thought that we might just make the Mass Art fundraiser into our spring event since the national conference was so much later this year. But now the Mass Art fundraiser has been postponed until the fall. Other ideas included Betsy Peck Learned's suggestion of a trip to the new museum of American art and illustration in Newport. Anne will try to get more information from Betsy who could not attend our meeting. The first Friday in June was suggested as a possible date. Ellie Nacheman said she once took a RISD continuing education class on landscape architecture that might be interesting for the group. She will do some legwork. The Peabody Essex Museum and the Blithewold in Bristol, Rhode Island were other suggestions. Amanda asked that we send reminders about meetings early and often. Sarah Dickinson suggested that we might make a chapter trip to New York in February to see Christo and Jean-Claude's gates in central park.

Other news included a reminder from Deborah Barlow Smedstad that the Museum of Fine Arts had moved to Horticultural Hall, 2nd floor. The library is open Monday through Friday from 1-5 pm. There is a lecture at the Boston Architectural Center on Friday, April 23 - John Quincy, Jr. will talk about Quincy's Market from 5:30 -7 pm. Carol Graney reported that the ARLIS/NA board will have more information after the end of July, but that it may be that chapters operating under ARLIS/NA have to be incorporated. Paul Dobbs suggested they look at the Appalachian Club as an example of a very large non-profit organization with many chapters.

Submitted by Rachel Beckwith

Executive Board Meeting, The Boston Architectural Center, February 20, 2004

In attendance: Rachel Beckwith, Anne Haas, Susanne Javorski, Susan Lewis, Susan Myerson, Kathy Ritter

After the introduction of new officers, Susanne Javorski (treasurer) and Kathy Ritter (vice president/president-elect), the first subject on the agenda was the treasurer's report. It was decided that the treasurer should keep a spreadsheet of exactly how much money goes into the Freitag and the Seibel funds respectively (which means that the secretary will have to indicate that on all forwarded checks). Susan Myerson, ougoing treasurer, had the current totals for our accounts:

• Checking account, as of 2/23/04: $3,557.79
• CD's at --- Savings Bank, as of 12/5/03: $4,277.19 and $4,481.03.

Rachel Beckwith, secretary, reported that so far there were two new members for 2004. Seventy-eight members had already renewed; thirty-three had not. There was a conversation about whether or not we should have a budget. We have certain fixed expenses each year such as the Freitag and the Seibel awards and the donation to ARLIS/NA. Other costs may fluctuate from year to year such as mailings, stationery, and meeting expenses. The donation to ARLIS/NA may also change if we decide to give more some years (as we did this year). We take in roughly $2000 each year from memberships. We did not draft a budget.

Bob Garzillo is chairing the committee for both the Seibel and Freitag awards. The application deadline is March 30. Rachel will wait until these have been awarded to print the directories so that they will include this information.

The board decided that it would be best to send a hard copy of a renewal reminder letter since there was minimal response to the latest e-mail reminder. Rachel will send labels and stationery to Kathy who can compose a letter (Anne will send Kathy her latest letter as a sample).

The discussion then turned to the subject of future meetings. Past president Susan Lewis said that it would be better to have people pay in advance for meeting costs so that the treasurer does not have to collect money at the door. We all admitted that the reason we have had to do that this past year was because we didn't have enough planning time to send out hard copy notices about the last couple of meetings. Rachel said that if she has enough advance notice to do a mailing, she will gladly send out hard copy meeting notices that the president or vice president creates. Susan suggested that the dean at Simmons Library School, Em Clare Knowles, should be sent meeting notices as well as the dean of the University of Rhode Island library school.

It was brought up that because the national conference is in April this year, it would be hard to find a date for a spring chapter meeting. The board then discussed various ideas that members had for future meetings. Kathy suggested a meeting at the MacDowell Colony on medal day in August. The artists have their studios open. But Kathy admitted that an August meeting might be difficult. Rachel suggested that Fort Point Channel open studios takes place every October, if we ever wanted to consider that for a meeting opportunity in the fall. Kathy suggested having a joint meeting with the Canadian ARLIS and possibly going to Montreal. Rachel suggested that Mass Art is planning another fundraiser for this spring, so if members would be interested we could invite them to that in lieu of a spring meeting. The Mass Art library fundraiser would be in May sometime. She will let the board know when they have a definite date and speaker in place.

Anne remarked that she would like to hold a chapter meeting at the New York conference. She will inquire about meeting space and times and let everyone know. If this meeting takes place, we thought that we could solicit the larger group's ideas for future meetings and plan the spring meeting then. Rachel can bring the 2004 directories for people to pick up in NY (and then mail the rest, thus saving some postage costs). At ARLIS/NA in New York there is a leadership breakfast which some of our board members will attend. Anne will find out whether all board members are invited or not.

Susan Lewis made a plug in Linda's absence for Focus articles. It was suggested that Linda could do a "new members" section of the newsletter. If she's interested, she can contact Rachel for names of new members this year. Susan thought that Don was still willing to be the website editor. We need to contact him to let him know to change the board members for 2004 on the website. The next board meeting will be on Friday, June 25, probably in Maine (there was not a time that worked in July). Details to be worked out later. Susan Lewis invited interested members to lunch, and the meeting was adjourned at 12:00pm.

Submitted by Rachel Beckwith, Secretary

From the Members

Georgia Barnhill, American Antiquarian Society, is happy to announce the publication of Portraits in the Collection of the American Antiquarian Society by Lauren B. Hewes with an essay by Linda Docherty of Bowdoin College. It is available through Oak Knoll Books in New Castle, Delaware. She notes that every library should have a copy!

Loree Bourgoin, library director of the Lyme College of Fine Arts, is pleased to announce that we are very pleased to announce that Jen Fowler has joined the staff as college library assistant. The library now has a dedicated advisory committee, comprised of members to represent the various segments of our campus community. A good development to promote communication and support for the growing library!

Claudia Covert has joined the RISD library staff as readers' services librarian. She previously held the position of director of the Corcoran Library in Washington, D.C., which serves both the museum and the College of Art and Design. Laurie Whitehill Chong, who previously held the position of readers' services librarian will assume the newly-created position of special collections librarian/curator of artists' books. Laurie provides more details: "My position for the last fourteen years as readers' services librarian has been split into two full-time positions and my new title, beginning this July 1, is special collections librarian/curator of artists' books. We had originally hoped to be moving into our new library facility in the summer of 2005, and so we received approval for this new position in preparation for our move. Now it looks like the move will be deferred another year but Claudia will still be replacing me while I am away on sabbatical. When I return next July, she and I will assume our respective positions.

My sabbatical plans include: a two week course in fiber arts at the Haystack School of Arts and Crafts; Deer Isle, Maine; a letterpress keepsake project to inaugurate our new Special Collections/ Artists' Books facilities; visits to special collections departments in several ARLIS libraries; a month in Bologna, Italy working on a project with book artist Angela Lorenz; and serving on the steering committee for a book arts symposium to be held at Wellesley College, June 15-18, 2005. And of course, time to rest and recuperate from the busiest few years ever!

Polly Darnell, archivist and librarian at the Shelburne Museum, reports that Princeton art historian John Wilmerding is donating his extensivepersonal library to museum upon his retirement from teaching. The first installment of 200 books was received last fall. This winter and spring it has been cataloged by Martha Perry, a recent graduate of SUNY Albany's School of Library & Information Science, who is volunteering in the library to gain experience in her preferred field while job hunting.

Norine Duncan, Brown University, provides a report on activities of IRIS users: IRIS (Image Resource Information System) is an application of FileMaker Pro for cataloging images. The release of version 7.0 of FileMaker has prompted IRIS users to undertake a collaborative re-invention of the application to take advantage of the new features introduced in this version of FileMaker, as well as to bring IRIS into closer compliance with standards such as VRA Core v.3 and CCO. Participation in this venture by institutions not currently using IRIS is welcome. Please contact Norine for more information: Norine_Duncan@brown.edu

Your editor, Linda Zieper, explains why this spring issue of Focus is so very late: she was away on a two-week tour of northern France with the William Morris Society of Canada. The tour was based on trips Morris took with friends and family members and focused, predictably, on gothic cathedrals, churches, and abbeys. A highlight of the trip was a visit to a site influenced by Morris' writings: Le Bois de Moutiers, the only Arts and Crafts house in France, designed by Lutyens with extensive gardens designed in consultation with Gertrude Jekyll.

New members of the New England chapter include: New member Rowena Burke, children's librarian Newport Public Library. Kathe Chipman, Brooke Henderson, art librarian, Wellesley College, Catherine Reinhardt.