ARLIS/NA 48th Annual Conference

This workshop will be the catalyst for the year-long mentoring program, which pairs emerging and established leaders in the art library community and providing them with the tools to support and carry out a successful mentoring relationship.

Our program begins with a workshop at the 2020 St. Louis, Missouri conference and continues until the 2021 Montreal, Canada conference. The three-hour workshop will be led the ARLIS/NA Mentoring Subcommittee. Prior to the workshop, there will be light pre-work that includes an introduction to mentoring; characteristics of mentors, mentees, and the mentoring relationship; realistic goal-setting; appropriate behavior and expectations; methods of communication; and benefits and potential pitfalls of mentoring. The presentation will continue building on these topics through PowerPoint, discussion, group-work, and working in your mentoring pairs.

Go to the ARLIS/NA Mentoring Subcommittee homepage if you’d like to learn more about the program and being a mentee or mentor. If you have questions, contact Megan Lotts at megan.lotts@rutgers.edu.

While teaching is often a core responsibility of art librarianship, many MLIS programs do not adequately prepare their students. This beginner’s workshop is intended to provide a foundational introduction to teaching, setting up librarians who are either new to the field or simply new to teaching for success. This workshop will cover a wide range of skills and pedagogy necessary to any new teacher, including lesson planning, creating outcomes based learning objectives, a basic introduction to pedagogy and the scholarship of teaching & learning, and more as time allows, delivered in an active, engaging manner by fellow expert art librarian teachers. Workshop participants will work individually and in groups to explore the content, and will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience creating their own learning objectives and lesson plans. Workshop participants will also learn about ways to manage teaching anxiety, tips for communicating with faculty, and will have a basic introduction to curriculum mapping as it benefits a program of instruction at their institution. This workshop will require some pre-work and readings.

Fee: $40

This meeting is open to all attendees. 


We'll discuss upcoming projects within the chapter, such as the Spring and Fall meetings, and have a chance to catch up with each other and what our institutions are doing. Please join us!

What initiatives can we, as librarians, educators, museum professionals, archivists, and curators, take to create research opportunities, raise awareness, and provide access to art publishing on a national scale?
This panel examines two initiatives that art librarians from Canadian universities have undertaken at individual and institutional levels. The approaches seek to enrich bibliographic information about, and exhibition histories of, Canadian artists while improving access to reference publications and collections.
John discusses ongoing research into a reference publication and artist book titled Who Was Who Was Who in Contemporary Canadian Art. This print and Open Access book draws on work from a research residency at Artexte and subsequent contact with art libraries across Canada. A biographical dictionary of Canadian artists and their pseudonyms, it explores intersections of academic enquiry and art making while offering a critical framework for reconsidering traditional biographic approaches to art history.
Sara discusses re-development of the Canadian Art Exhibition Catalogue Collection at the University of British Columbia Music, Art & Architecture Library. This reference collection preserves historic catalogues and is a record of art practice in Canada, with strong regional representation. It compiles items previously dispersed in the library system and reinvigorates promotion of Canadian art in a high-profile reading room enriched with iconic imagery through collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Both case studies offer opportunities for research, record keeping, and pedagogy, outlining the potential for new ways of relaying information in support of academic research and creative process.

Learning Objectives:
• How to conceptualize art publishing as an evolving area of research and artistic practice.
• Collaborating with subject specialists and arts organizations to build cross-institutional research networks.
• Methods for documenting and providing access to information about artists, art making, and exhibition histories.
• Strategies through case study – and future possibilities – for assessment, collection development, preservation, and resource sharing.

One of the greatest and most intriguing challenges information literacy instructors face is the task of imparting a deep and nuanced understanding of the information ecosystem to students in a limited time frame, and often in a context in which straightforward checklist definitions are expected. Art information professionals often face the additional challenges of working with a layer of discipline-specific concepts, issues, and practices, such as artists’ files and catalogues raisonnés. Since its formal adoption in 2016, the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education has provided a more organic approach to information literacy, reconceptualizing the research and information creation process as one based on interconnected concepts and dispositions rather than a specific list of skills. Instead of outlining specific skills and outcomes, the ACRL Framework provides flexibility for discipline-specific needs. However, developing discipline-specific learning objects and outcomes by oneself and in the absence of a simple “checklist” can prove challenging, as can the task of applying the Framework to research within a specific discipline.

In this session, participants will work together to contextualize the framework in art. First, they will be briefly introduced to a sampling of projects in which their peers have successfully integrated the Frames into their instruction practice, and then work to generate a full complement of Framework-specific plans. Working in facilitated groups, attendees will first identify specific ways in which their assigned Frame connects to the field of art and art history, and then produce a learning activity to help guide students through the Frame. At the end of the session, each group will present out to the others on their work, providing all attendees with a path forward for teaching each of the six Frames in their own classrooms.

An open working meeting of the Getty Research Portal Advisory Group. The Getty Research Portal is a free online search platform which provides global access to digitized art history texts by aggregating metadata from contributing institutions. The Portal, a collaborative initiative of the Getty Research Institute founded in 2012 with a number of international art libraries, is a multilingual and multicultural union catalog that affords researchers the ability to search and download complete digital copies of publications devoted to art, architecture, material culture, and related fields. With a growing number of participating institutions (37 at present), the Portal now provides access to more than 160,000 digitized volumes. The Advisory Group convenes representatives from participating institutions periodically to consult on the Portal and any parties interested in becoming potential contributors are encouraged to join. Observers are also welcome.

This plenary session, sponsored and moderated by the International Relations Committee, invites international art and architecture information professionals to present on their libraries, archives and institutions. Such opportunity enables an exchange of ideas, information, and dialogue between ARLIS/NA members and international colleagues. In alignment with the theme for the 48th annual conference, the topics for these presentations include: library and archival collections; preservation strategies; space planning initiatives and projects; diversity, inclusion, and advocacy; international collaborative projects; advancement of the profession; institutional research and information instruction; and visualization and digital humanities.

A bookseller and an artist, a team of information professionals, and a librarian/archivist consider contemporary practices and ways of thinking, working, and creating that are informed by medieval manuscripts, historical collections, and notable art exhibitions, respectively. Their various collaborations with the historical record result in the generation of new artwork, systems of access, and programming, respectively.

Facsimile editions of medieval illuminated manuscripts preserve original manuscripts, whose delicate status prevents their accessibility. A facsimile vendor and an artist’s partnership resulted in a 21st-century illuminated manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century Divina Commedia. The bookseller educated the artist about historical Dante manuscripts, which inspired the project. The artist will speak about the medieval techniques he used and reinvented.

A groundbreaking craft exhibition, “OBJECTS: USA” opened on October 3, 1969, and toured throughout the United States and Europe for the next three years. On the occasion of the show’s 50th anniversary, an art librarian/archivist who oversees a related archive will consider the impact of this historic exhibition on the field of craft, and discuss how contemporary institutions interpret their collections through new exhibitions and programming.

George Cochrane: Artist, New York, NY and Giovanni Scorcioni: Founder, FacsimileFinder.com, Republic of San Marino
“Medieval Facsimiles: A Beacon to Illuminate Contemporary Art”

Beth Goodrich: Librarian, American Craft Council, Minneapolis, MN
“Reimagining the Object: The 50th anniversary of ‘OBJECTS: USA’”

This panel will focus on current trends and challenges of five of the larger encyclopedic art museum libraries in the United States. Their directors will represent the libraries. The participants will address major issues, challenges and initiatives in their libraries, including leadership and management, organizational development and change, outreach and programming, collection development and management. The panel’s goal is to give an overview of the current challenges and initiatives that are shared in all libraries, especially large art museum libraries, but topics will be coordinated in advance so that speakers can bring out the priorities, initiatives and features that are characteristic of the individual library.

The relationship between the librarian and artist should be mutually beneficial and productive. By the library preserving ephemeral material made both in the studio and classroom, creators and librarians ensure future access, reflection on pedagogical progression, and artistic longevity. It should be incumbent upon librarians, who, through their affiliation with institutions, generally wield more power, to build authentic, gladdening relationships with creators. This is because an informed, engaged librarian’s actions can impact creators, institutions, and researchers for the better.

We propose a workshop on the topic of librarians and artists planning, building, and sustaining dynamic dialogue, with an emphasis on the way open dialogue affects collections over time. Participants will interact with pre-selected ephemeral objects by [one printmaker], as an avenue to engage in discussions surrounding collecting ephemera, developing relationships with art faculty, and the importance of getting ephemera into the hands of students.

The workshop will build upon [the authors’] conversations with [an artist] and special collections librarians to discuss the development of collections at [three large institutions]. Particular attention will be given to the relationship between [the artist] and the librarian/collector, as well as the importance of ephemeral work at [one particular major research institution].

The authors will first present, then lead group discussions. Conversations and topics will include issues like (but not limited to) the ephemeral objects and the ACRL Framework, critical pedagogy with ephemeral materials, collaborating with art faculty, and reflecting on past relationships with studio art faculty and planning for the future.

Participants will leave the session with an understanding of the importance of ephemeral works in their collection and strategies for both creating and building ephemeral collections and building lasting relationships with studio art faculty and community artists.

Bring an item of ephemera with you for this interactive panel!

Art librarians are always looking for ways to engage patrons in inventive learning opportunities around information and visual literacies outside of the classroom instruction structure. This panel brings together three librarians who will share projects intentionally designed to create these opportunities using a range of innovative approaches. The panelists will share their insights into how they have successfully implemented new ways of reaching out, as well as best practices for those who would like to try something similar. David Greene will discuss how art librarians can employ design thinking to create information literacy video tutorials that best suit the unique needs of their patrons. Participants will learn strategies that will help keep their tutorials clear, succinct, visually appealing, and easy to maintain as the need for edits and modifications inevitably arise. Maggie Murphy will explore the idea of interdisciplinary visual literacy instruction for undergraduate students outside of art and design disciplines through co-curricular programming on memes. Using a grant-funded project she developed with colleagues Jenny Dale and Brown Biggers as a model, she will discuss how memes can serve as a lens for talking about information ethics, creativity, rhetorical strategies, critical evaluation, and more, in relation to artistic practice, everyday visual culture, and digital communication. Katy Parker, former Research and Instruction Librarian at the Savannah College of Art and Design, will share methods for tying information literacy, collection development, and outreach planning into one project to benefit the diverse needs of art and design students through a project to develop the tabletop RPG collection at the Jen Library.

Where do creativity and leadership intersect? What strategies and tools can we borrow from artists to improve or even transform our approaches to leadership? Using inspirational quotes and advice from a variety of visual and performing artists, designers and makers as well as from leadership literature, this interactive panel will invite participants to explore a variety of methods that they can use both at work and in developing and nurturing a personal creative practice.

The demands of day-to-day operations, administrative tasks and teamwork can become routine, ordinary and stale. Work-life balance is a constant challenge and it can be difficult to set aside time and energy for personal creative practice. How do you make time at work and outside of work for creative thinking?

Being a leader doesn’t have to mean putting out your creative spark and, in fact, we argue that creativity is essential to being a great leader. Join us in exploring practical approaches and strategies that you can use individually and share with work teams and throughout your organization, such as positive reflection and envisioning, playful learning, and experimentation.

As institutions that support communities for whom intellectual freedom and expression are paramount, art libraries face unique challenges in protecting their patrons’ privacy and confidentiality, both of which are “essential to the exercise of free speech, free thought, and free association.”¹ These ethical responsibilities have long been an integral part of the intellectual mission of libraries, but as political uncertainty threatens already vulnerable communities, art library users increasingly engage in their own forms of activism, and pressure grows on librarians to demonstrate value through assessment tools that invade patron privacy, there is an increasing urgency for art librarians to enhance and reimagine their outreach to cover the tools and strategies necessary for patrons to take control of their digital lives.

The ARLIS/NA Advocacy & Public Policy Committee presents a workshop that expands upon the Privacy section of our monthly news alerts and enacts ARLIS/NA’s growing commitment to advocacy. Led by a prominent privacy activist with extensive experience leading educational programs for librarians, attendees to the workshop will have the opportunity to discuss what are the threats to privacy in art libraries today, learn about the available technical tools and best practices, and consider how ARLIS/NA members could contribute to broader movements to enact privacy protection at the policy level. Possible topics will respond to current events at the time of the conference and might include: facial recognition, data leaks, use of social media, and the disproportionate impact of surveillance technology on vulnerable populations that use art libraries (such as activists, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people of color).

1. “Privacy: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights,” American Library Association, July 7, 2006.

Presented by the ARLIS/NA Advocacy & Public Policy Committee.

Fee: $50