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Spring 2005 - Vol. 18 No. 1Message from the President:Our Spring meeting held at Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Mass. set the tone for this year's goals. Member surveys indicate a desire for timely notification of meetings, and substantial meeting content. The board will work with members to accomplish these important goals. Our new Secretary is Anne Reid and she is actively catching up with her new duties. We hope Anne will continue her encouragement of student participation in ARLIS. We are hoping to increase membership and conference participation through two ARLIS/NA travel grants of $300.00 for any member not receiving full funding to conferences. We discussed Fall meetings in Western Mass., Upstate NY, Boston and other sites and are looking into a joint meeting with VRA/NE for Spring '06. Members decided Boston would be a good Fall site and the board is now reviewing options for a meeting at ARS Libri. Members agreed to offer a student and para-professional membership incentive by offering a first time attendee grant equivalent to the cost of a meeting. John Teahan spoke to members about cooperative collecting and space solutions for auction catalogs and small exhibition catalogs. If you are interested in joining the discussion on this interesting project please contact John. The possibility of hosting a collection database on the ARLIS/NE website could become a reality! Dawn Low, Education Director, made our visit to the Fuller Craft Museum most enjoyable with docent lead tours of the Trashformations East exhibition and an historical overview of the museum's change in collection development policies and purpose. After our lunch and meeting members strolled through the woods or viewed the pond before visiting Simple Syrup Glass Studios in Brockton. Members had the opportunity to ask questions at the excellent lecture and blown glass demonstration given by Jonathan Betsch and a colleague from Simple Syrup. We hope to hear from you on the listserv, through the survey and of course we hope you can attend our next meeting in Boston. Please review the new website and let us know your thoughts! -Kathy Ritter, President, ARLIS/NE ARLIS/NE Chapter MeetingApril 29, 2005, 10:00am - 3:00pm, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts In attendance: Susan Lewis, Susanne Javorski, Rachel Beckwith, Cameron Caswell, Richard McElroy, Rachel Resnik, Brooke Henderson, Kathy Ritter, Ellie Nacheman, Debby Aframe, Adeane Bregman, Sheryl Brittig, Andrea DesJardins, Norine Duncan, Doris Freitag, Wolfgang Freitag, Mary Hughes, Debra Kruse, Susan Milstein, Susan Myerson, Susanne Passman, Betsy Peck Learned, Fred Sutton, John Teahan, Johanna Woll Kathy Ritter called the meeting to order. New Secretary: Anne Reid was the nominated to replace Cameron Caswell, who will be stepping down as secretary in June. Anne coordinated the Simmons GSLIS meeting at this year's national conference in Houston. Her nomination was positively received. Travel Awards: There were no applicants to this year's new conference travel award. This was discussed at the chapter meeting in Houston and members felt that the awards were valuable despite the lack of applicants and that we should try offering them again. In order to encourage more interest next year Kathy announced that the awards would be doubled to $300. In addition, the awards will be announced earlier next year to give members more time to apply. Surveys: Rachel reported on some of the early survey results. There seems to be agreement on several points: most members want at least a month's notice before meetings, all are willing to accompany a student to a meeting, and many would like more substantive programming (rather than just networking). Focus Reminder: Remember to get in news to Linda Zieper soon in order to be in included in the next Focus. Meeting Planning: Kathy opened a discussion of potential meeting places for next fall. A joint meeting in Montreal had been considered earlier, but since the national conference will be in Banff, another overnight trip to Canada in the same year seems unfeasible. The most promising lead for next fall's meeting is at Ars Libri, who have invited us to come to the South End. They have suggested that we visit the same weekend as the South End Open Studios, but since this might be in September, a less than ideal time for most of us, we might try and have the meeting there in October instead and coordinate with the Fort Point Open Studios. Another option is to coordinate our meeting at Ars Libri with one of their in-house exhibits. The board will check on dates and send out concrete information to the listserv before making the final plans. Kathy gave us background for meeting planning by reporting on her research into the ARLIS/NE archive on previous meetings. It seemed to her that the meetings had once been more substantial than they tend to be these days. In light of this, and the fact that many members wish for this kind of programming, we should try and incorporate more substantive content in our meetings, like having guest speakers and educational workshops. There were many suggestions for later meetings as well. They included:
Increasing Para-Professional and Student Participation: At the Houston conference Barbara Polowy suggested that we model our para-professional and student recruitment activities on those of the Music Library Association. One feature of the MLA's program is to invite students and para-professionals to attend their first meeting for free. ARLIS/NE members supported instituting a program like this as part of our recruitment activities. Storage & Retention of Auction Catalogs and Gallery Pamphlets: John Teahan spoke to us about his concerns about collecting auction and gallery publications. Wadsworth Atheneum has been comprehensively collecting these for years, and the collection can no longer continue to grow as it has because of space constraints. The collection is not heavily used, but the information is often irreplaceable and unique. In confronting questions of how to deal with this issue (i.e. how to weed, what access is there to surrogates) he wondered what other members had been doing with regard to these types of materials. Perhaps we could all benefit from cooperatively collecting these materials. Current technology could easily enable this kind of collaboration. For example, members who decide to cooperatively collect could have a union catalog which could reside on the ARLIS/NE web site. Wolfgang Freitag reminded us that when ARLIS/NE was founded addressing this kind of problem was a core goal, but the technology to make it obtainable was not available. John and Debby Aframe agreed to organize a discussion group to meet about this issue. The meeting will be announced on the listserv. Chapter Timeline: ARLIS/NA has requested that each chapter submit a timeline of highlights in the chapter's history. Examples of what might be included on the timeline are awards, joint meetings, website establishment, and logos. Kathy is working on putting this together, so members should email her if they have suggestions for items to include on it. New Website & Marketing: Rachel Beckwith announced that our web site now had its own permanent url: http://www.arlisne.org. Christina Jedziniak is our new webmaster and she is adding new content to the site frequently. Please contact her if you have suggestions. Wolfgang Freitag suggested that we begin announcing out meetings on the national chapter listserv, ARLIS-L, in addition to our own. He has noticed that other chapters do this. Not only would we advertise our activities to individuals who may potentially be interested in joining, but we also get the word out to the national chapter about our activities. ARLIS/NA & VRA Liaison: At the close of the meeting Norine Duncan announced that she is the ARLIS/NA & VRA liaison for the next two years. ARLIS/NE chapter members who have ideas relative to the relationship between these two organizations should contact her.
ARLIS/NE Chapter MeetingApril 4, 2005, 6:30-8:00 PM, Hilton Americas - Houston, Room 327, ARLIS/NA Conference, Houston In attendance: Susan Lewis, Anna Bigazzi, Susanne Javorski, Alix Reiskind, Sarah Dickinson, Rachel Beckwith, Cameron Caswell, Paul Dobbs, Richard McElroy, Rachel Resnik, Deborah Barlow Smedstad, Brooke Henderson, Kathy Ritter, Martha Maier, Ellie Nacheman, John Schlinke, Carol Ann Fabian, Laura Tatum, Barbara Polowy Call to order and Welcoming new officers: Kathy Ritter called the meeting to order. New officers were welcomed . Kathy Ritter is now president, Rachel Beckwith is vice-president/president elect, Rachel Resnik is the new listserv manager, and Christina Jedziniak is the new webmaster. Cameron Caswell is the new secretary. Carol Ann Fabian, from the University of Buffalo, introduced herself as our new ARLIS/NA board liaison. She currently has a daughter attending Smith, which will be bringing her to the New England area regularly. Carol Ann reported on the ARLIS/NA board meeting that had just occurred at the conference. A new strategic plan draft has been developed by the board. It is by design brief and needs input from the membership. We should think about action plans that could be added to the goals laid out in this plan. Our chapter activities could also be mapped to goals stated in the strategic plan. There is also a draft of core competencies that also needs input from membership. Carol Ann also reminded us to submit proposals for next year's conference in Banff. Treasurer's Report: Susanne Javorski reported on our current balances:
At the prompting of our previous board liaison, Carol Graney, Susanne had prepared a report of our balances over the past five years. This was passed around at the meeting. She also shared with us a draft budget with estimates of annual expenses with members. Secretary's Report: Cameron reported that as of March 31st we had ninety-two members and eight new members. The 2005 ARLIS/NE directory was recently completed and distributed. New York - New England Event: Rachel Beckwith reported back on the event hosted by the ARLIS/NY chapter for the Gates opening. Ken Soehner, ARLIS/NY president, kindly had invited members of ARLIS/NE down to view the Gates at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Only a few ARLIS/NE members were able to attend (it was a hard winter) but those who did enjoyed it. Thanks to Ken and the rest of the ARLIS/NY chapter! Awards: This year's award winners include Christina Jedziniak and Ursula Murphy, the winners of the 2005 Elmar W. Seibel Scholarship, and Debby Aframe, who won the 2005 Wolfgang M. Freitag Professional Development Award. In July we will appoint a new nominating committee for next year's awards. Please let us know if you are interested. New Travel Award: This Spring the Board approved and announced two new travel awards ($150 each) to support travel to the National conference. Since there were no applicants for this year's award, Kathy asked attendees to give feedback. A brief discussion followed. There was consensus that due to the trend of institutions providing only partial support for travel, this award was a good way to support professional development of its members. Susan Lewis asked if we should be concerned about our respective home institutions finding out about this award and possibly withholding support. Most felt that the award was too small of an amount to really affect the policies of institutions regarding their establishment of professional development funds. It was also suggested that there simply had not been enough time for the word about the award to get around and that it is worth giving it another year. Finally Kathy suggested that we increase the amounts to $300 each, an idea that was met with support. Web site: The website now has a new domain name, http://www.arlisne.org, and is being hosted by a commercial service, Lunar Pages. This was an effort spearheaded by our new webmaster, Christina Jedziniak. Christina is also posting updates and new content to our website, so if you have any suggestions or ideas, please contact her! ARLIS/NE Member Survey: In an effort to increase participation and membership, a survey is now being mailed out to members asking feedback on ARLIS/NE activities. This survey is also posted on the website. Chapter Meetings: The next meeting will be on April 29 at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton. A visit to Simple Syrup Glass Studios will follow this meeting. Kathy asked for feedback about meeting locations and special trip ideas. One possibility is to apply for finance from ARLIS/NA for a special program. Applications for special program funding are due May 31. Kathy Ritter proposed a joint meeting with ARLIS Montreal for next fall. One downside brought up is that traveling so far may not be an ideal excursion next year, since the national conference will be in Banff. If we decide to pursue a meeting in Montreal, we should keep in mind that money for translators would be needed, perhaps a good thing to apply for additional funding for from ARLIS/NA. Also proposed were joint meetings with ARLIS/NY; Martha Maier mentioned the possibility of a joint meeting in western New York & Susan Lewis suggested a meeting in Hudson, NY combined with a trip to the Shaker Museum in Pittsfield, MA in Spring 2006. Another suggestion for a joint event was to have a meeting with VRA/NE at Dartmouth College. Also on the table for next fall is an Ars Libri visit during the open studios weekend in the South End. Kathy wrapped up the discussion by asking the members to consider getting involved in hosting meetings at their institutions, an activity that seems to be tapering off. We will discuss this again at the spring meeting on April 29. Student & Paraprofessional Involvement in ARLIS/NE: A discussion about increasing student participation in ARLIS/NE generated many ideas, foremost was increasing our contact with Simmons Graduate School for Information Science by hosting a reception there. Sending more information about ARLIS/NE to student listservs and supplying printed brochures to schools also were suggested. We should also include URI's program in our efforts. Susan Lewis mentioned that concurrent with our chapter meeting there was a reception being held for GSLIS alumni. Anne Reid, who works for Simmons coordinated that event. Perhaps we should talk to her to get ideas. Brooke Henderson mentioned that the current dean of the Simmons GSLIS program, Michelle Cloonan, had a background in art librarianship and would perhaps be a good contact for us. Deborah Smedstad brought up trying to get paraprofessionals more involved in ARLIS/NE activities. Perhaps a reception targeting paraprofessionals could be held. Barbara Polowy mentioned that the Music Librarian Association had strong paraprofessional participation and that their programming could be a model for us. It was also suggested that an event geared towards paraprofessionals could be combined with a reception for students. Secretary Post: The newly elected secretary, Cameron Caswell, announced that she would have to step down from the position because she is moving to Baltimore this summer. We hope that a replacement will be found by May, so there will be plenty of time to properly hand over the reigns. Christina Jedziniak, who also ran for the position and who is currently serving as webmaster, was nominated by Rachel Resnik. Kathy thought that her plate might be full, since she is working full time and attending graduate school, so she will check with her first to see if she is interested. Submitted by Cameron Caswell ARLIS/NE Executive Board Meeting:January 28, 2005, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester In attendance: Anne Haas, Kathy Ritter, Linda Zieper, Rachel Beckwith, Susanne Javorski, Cameron Caswell, Christine Jedziniak Call to order: Kathy Ritter convened the meeting. Introduction of New Officers: Rachel Beckwith is now vice-president/president-elect and Kathy Ritter is now president. Cameron Caswell is new to the board and is serving as secretary. Christine Jedziniak is taking over the role of webmaster from Don Milliken. Rechel Resnik is taking over as listserv moderator from Adeane Bregman. Secretary's Report: Cameron reported that sixty-three members have renewed their memberships so far this year. There are six new members. Treasurer's Report: Susanne first updated the board on the status of award funding. The Freitag award is now funded solely by ARLIS/NE. We can afford to continue giving this award, with our projected membership of 100 members at $20 each. Kathy asked if we should begin budgeting a certain amount to cover special trips for the membership. For example, should we try and provide transportation for events like going to see the Christo Gates Project in New York City? The board's discussion led us to the consensus that since our members are so spread out across New England, not enough could benefit from a chartered bus. Susanne Javorski reported that there is a total of $10,206.81 in our accounts right now. This money is divided into three accounts: $2222.79 in a checking account, $3355.84 in a one year CD, and 4628.18 in a two year CD. She also presented the board with a draft budget for this year's expenses, detailing the projected income from the membership fees and expenses from mailings, awards, and meetings. Since one of the CDs will be rolling over in February, Susanne asked if we should take some of that money and put into the checking account. Based on anticipated renewals and our projected expenses, the board agreed that we were probably fine with our current amount in checking and that we should go ahead and rollover the entire amount of the current CD. Susanne suggested that ARLIS/NE money should be used for incidental postage, rather than using postage from our home institutions. We agreed and Susanne wrote a check to the secretary to cover a book of stamps. ARLIS/NA Conference Travel Awards: Instead of increasing the value of our donation to the annual conference, the board decided instead to contribute to the annual conference by offering two $150 travel awards to assist members in good standing that are getting little or no institutional financial support to attend the national conference. To develop the wording and application for this award, Cameron will look at other travel award applications. This award will be announced with the renewal mailing to be completed in mid-February. Increasing membership and meeting participation: The board discussed potential approaches to growing our membership numbers. Kathy and Christina both felt that reaching out to Simmons students should be a priority. Since Christina is a current student, she will contact LISSA (Library and Information Science Student Association) to see if information about our group could be announced at a LISSA meeting, Kathy suggested perhaps hosting a reception on campus. We also discussed the need to reach out to national members who are in the area but are not members of our regional chapter. Cameron and Rachel will compare the National membership directory with ours to come up with a mailing list of targets in the New England area. Kathy also suggested that this mailing might include a survey asking why they aren't members, and what we could be doing to interest them more in joining. Meeting participation was also a concern of the board. For future planning, it would be helpful to look at our meeting records to analyze which locations drew the most participation. Another potential assessment tool will be to add a question about meeting location and attendance to the renewal form. Spring Meeting: Two potential spring meeting locations were discussed. Anne Haas has been in touch with staff at Ars Libri, who have invited her to host an event at their new location on the first Friday in June. This date also happens to be the kick-off evening for a SOWA open gallery weekend. In discussing this prospect, it was suggested that maybe it would be better to wait until the fall to host the event at Ars Libri, since then it could be coordinated with the open studios event instead. Linda Zieper also suggested the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton for the spring meeting. Linda noted that the space is new and includes a meeting area and food service. She could also look into the possibility of finding a speaker to talk to the group about crafts from RISD or the Society of Arts and Crafts. The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury was also suggested as a potential meeting place, but little was known about what the facilities could accommodate. Website update: As the newly appointed webmaster, Christina gave a report on preparations she is making before actually transferring the web site to another server. Christina is waiting for some details from the current webmaster, Don Milliken, on the size of the files, so she can decide what web hosting service would be best to subscribe to. Simultaneous with this, Christina is also looking into getting a permanent URL, http://www.arlisne.org. She estimates that the cost of these changes would be very reasonable. Christina also wants to advertise our online presence by listing us with the major search engines. Christina wants to keep the current web site basically the same, but add a few new things including: an updated minutes sec-tion, event announcements with directions, and online surveys. Freitag Award Winner Report: After receiving ARLIS/NE's Freitag Professional Development Award, I am happy to report to the chapter how I used the award. I have been working in the library of the Worcester Art Museum for the past fif-teen years, and for the last three years I have been the library's director. For many years I have played around with the idea of pursu-ing another degree, and have been researching all my options, talking to people and investigating all suitable possibilities. After much thought and research, I finally settled on the Certificate Program in Museum Studies at Tuft's University. The program had been recommended to me by the curator of Asian art at the Worcester Art Museum, Dr. Elizabeth deSabato Swinton when I first started working there. I always wanted to pursue graduate studies in art history and was not familiar with the certificate program in museum studies until she told me about it. We have had many interns from the program work at the museum, and Elizabeth thought very highly of the course of study. I tucked the idea away until I was ready to tackle going to school while working full time. I dismissed the idea of a master's degree in art history because the scheduling of classes would be too difficult while working full time in the library. I also investigated the intriguing idea of becoming an art appraiser through a newly certified program at RISD. The certificate program at Tufts offered the benefits of being geared toward working people by offering all the classes in the evening at half the cost of regular Tuft's admission, which is staggeringly high. Making the decision, filling out the application, gathering recommendations, the anxiety of waiting for an acceptance letter, was all invigorating and exciting. My motivation for going back to school is not to leave the library field but rather to enhance it. Being the director of a library in a museum I am required to do traditional library tasks and also be a liaison to the community, a teacher, a developer of audience outreach programs, a special events coordinator for the community events the library hosts, and support and enhance all the projects and programs the museum develops. I realized that I would love a broader base of understanding of the world of museums, and non-profit organizations in general. The program at Tufts would give me formal education in the history and development of museums and their place in our society. The foundation course I took last fall, "Museums; Mission and Function", was a fantastic introduction to the world of museums. It was exactly what I hoped it would be. Questions that I have wondered about, such as the mission of today's museums and their place in the community and how that place has changed dramatically over the last twenty years were answered. Is the museum a "temple or a forum" is an interesting debate that pervades all other discussions and is one of the driving questions behind many museum decisions. I was fortunate to be able to hear fascinating classroom presentations from professionals in the field, such as the direc-tor of development at the Peabody Essex Museum discuss his institution's new build-ing and the process of getting it built and the director of the Paul Revere House discuss how she relates to her community. I know my focus has been opened to a much broader range of understanding of museum work and I'm looking forward to continuing my course work in the program. Thank you, ARLIS/NE for making this unique program within my reach! Debby Aframe, January 2005
From the MembersRACHEL BECKWITH reports that although she is leaving Mass Art, she will continue to serve as vice-president/president elect of the chapter: "As many of you know, I will be leaving Mass Art after four years here as public services librarian since my husband has accepted a position as an obstetrician in the Berkshires. My family is very excited for the move to the country (where my kids will finally have a yard!) though I will be sad to leave Mass Art. I will be in touch with everyone as I continue my role as vice president of ARLIS/New England from western Massachusetts. Once my family gets settled, I will also begin my search for a new job. As of June 1, please contact me at this e-mail: rachel_beckwith@yahoo.com" CAMERON CASWELL is leaving both Mass Art and New England: "Goodbye ARLIS/ NE! It's been great getting to know all of you and I am sad to leave my post as secretary after only six months. In July I am moving to Baltimore because my husband has landed a tenure-track post at St. John's College (our alma mater). Although I am very happy about this opportunity and about living closer to family, it is hard to leave my life here in Boston , especially my wonderful colleagues at MassArt. Boston has really been an ideal place to begin my career in art librarianship and that in large part has to do with the wonderful support and encouragement I have received from ARLIS/NE. Now I am looking forward to getting in touch with the MD-DC-VA ARLIS chapter and finding work in the Baltimore area - if anyone has any leads, please pass them on! My e-mail is cameron_caswell@yahoo.de." ANDREA FRANK, VR curator at Boston College, has just earned her MSLIS from Simmons and was honored with the Estelle Jussim Award, for "great promise in the visual arts." Congratulations, Andrea! ANNE HAAS reports that she spent twelve days in Munich this winter, helping a painter friend install her exhibition there. "I had a wonderful time, met wonderful people, wandering around Munich, going to art openings and museums, biergartens, a baroque concert and sightseeing in the foothills of the Alps around a beautiful lake in southern Bavaria... can't wait to go back". She adds that her son has graduated from Alfred University and she is very proud of him! DEBRA KRUSE's one-woman exhibit of her paintings opened May 17 at Gallery Agniel in Providence. Her beautiful, intricate paintings will be on view until June 18. Chapter members Norine Duncan, Betsy Peck Learned and Linda Zieper attended the opening on May 20. This was the same day Debra hosted the VRA/New England spring meeting at RISD! JAE ROSSMAN curated an exhibition on the history of exhibitions at the Center for the Book Arts at Yale: 30 Years of Innovation: A Survey of Exhibition History at the Center for Book Arts, 1974-2004. The exhibit opened on April 15 and will continue until July 1. Jae also reports on her recent trip to India: "In December 2004 my husband and I traveled to India for three weeks with a friend who has family there. Our itinerary consisted of a week divided between Bombay, Delhi and Agra.Then we spent a week in Bangalore and a week in the state of Kerala. It was a wonderful trip with a great combination of seeing amazing sites (particularly architecture: Taj Mahal, the temples at Belur, Halebid & Shravanabe-lagola) and getting a glimpse into daily life. We stayed in the homes of our friend's aunts and uncles in Bangalore and Kerala and were treated to amazing home cooked meals." LINDA ZIEPER spent spring break in Paris, sharing a minute room with two old friends. Spring arrived the day after we did and the city was in a great mood and looked beautiful. We visited at least one church and one museum every day and fell easily into the habit of eating lovely big meals late. The France Romane exhibit, which had just opened at the Louvre, was a high point, as was a concert of "the most beautiful works of Chopin" at St. Julien Le Pauvre. |
| Michael Young webmaster@arlisne.org Last revised March 15, 2007 |
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