51st Annual Conference

This panel proposes to spark a conversation and bridge connections between art and design librarians working across North America, in a variety of contexts and settings. Five panelists representing large and small American institutions, including museums, digital humanities, and academic libraries, will discuss the current trends they are observing within a range of disciplines, including art history, architecture, studio art and design, museum collections and curating, and urban planning. We are each working with populations who are interested in artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) technologies to develop creative works, investigate disciplinary questions, craft new solutions, and/or curate new collections. Once the realm of science fiction, the term AI was coined by American computer scientist John McCarthy in the 1950s, leading researchers to examine computer learning and its uses. As the machine-learning evolution has gained momentum over the last ten years, questions have arisen, such as: How can we ensure that we are not codifying societal biases and inequities into these new technologies? Are humans prepared to critically interrogate AI, NLP, and ML? How are creators working with these new technologies to innovate in their fields? How do we support and preserve these new works across their life cycle? How do we teach about them, describe them, pay attribution to both the AI and the human creator? Recent controversies over the DALL-E 2 technology illustrate some of these conundrums, as does the dismissal of a Google employee who claimed that AI has become sentient. On the other hand, AI has allowed artists and designers to create new, even international partnerships, generating groundbreaking development and marketing of innovative work, often external to art markets that may have once constrained such creativity. Given these questions, this panel poses the following questions of our profession: How can we support patrons, students, and creators as they work with these technologies? What can we be prepared for, and what can we leverage? And, what skills will be needed? After brief presentations, panelists will pose discussion prompts to the audience to learn what experiences attendees have had with AI at their respective institutions, including professional, research, and pedagogical applications. We hope that this session will lead to a better understanding of the trends, opportunities, challenges, and future of AI and affiliated technologies, as well as its uses within art, architecture, and design librarianship.

Sponsored by
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
McGill University Libraries
University of Arkansas Libraries
University of New Mexico University Libraries

There has been a wave of unionization in art and design-affiliated institutions nationally over the past few years, aided in part by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)'s campaign, Cultural Workers United. Library work has been theorized heavily both in library literature and popular culture around Fobazi Ettarh's concept of "vocational awe," the notion that certain types of work are considered "inherently good and therefore beyond critique." Ettarh argues that this pervasive attitude is one that enables workplaces that abuse librarians' labor. Anne Helen Petersen has extended this argument to talk about "essential workers" during a pandemic. She writes, "You know what we do with people we've deemed "essential"? We rarely compensate them more. We don't protect them. We don't actually venerate them, because veneration entails respect, and respect means paying people a living wage and not asking more of them than we're willing to give ourselves." In the long wake of a global pandemic, this panel seeks to look at the ways in which art library workers have sought to address their precarious working conditions and join a formerly dormant but now resurgent labor movement. This panel brings together art information professionals who have been involved in successful unionization efforts at each of their institutions, including two AICAD schools, a large state university, and a museum. Presenters will discuss the process of unionizing their workplaces, bargaining their first contracts, and the sometimes unexpected benefits of union organizing, like building community within your institution. They will touch on how this work has benefited from and intersects with their work in the library and/or as artists and researchers. Attendees can expect to leave with a brief introduction to relevant labor law in the private and public sectors, practical information about organizing a labor union, the unique challenges of organizing among information professionals and cultural heritage institutions, as well as food for thought about the current state of art librarianship as work.

In the Artist's Words
Speaker: Vania Mara Alves Lima, Professor, School of Communications and Arts, University of Sao Paulo; Marina Marchini Macambyra, Reference Librarian, School of Communications and Arts, University of Sao Paulo 


Beyond Technical Solutions: Understanding Digital Accessibility as a Transformative and Collaborative Process
Speaker: Jessica Hebert, Collections and User Experience Librarian, Artexte


Community Tools for Radical Collections: Building a Subject Thesaurus and Union Catalogue for Zines
Speaker: Amanda Stevens, Metadata Coordinator, Anchor Archive Zine Library; Lauren Kehoe, Accessibility and Accommodations Librarian, New York University Libraries 

Moderator: Kathryn Johnston, Dallas Public Library

Sponsored by
The Pratt Institute Libraries

An Artist's Legacy Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Mexican Mural Movement
Speaker: Malia Van Heukelem, Art Archivist Librarian, University of Hawaii at Manoa Library

Processing Donald Judd: A Look at an Artist-Endowed Archive
Speaker: Irene Lule, Project Archivist, Judd Foundation

Don't Ever Break the Chain: Using Archival Field Work in Ecuador to Create Links in the Textile Museum Collection
Speaker: Tracy Meserve, Librarian, The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum

Striving for Ethical Stewardship in Special Collections Policy
Speakers: Ivy Blackman, Managing Librarian, Whitney Museum of American Art, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library

Transforming Value Within Art Publication Collecting Organizations 
​Speakers: Dallas Fellini, Collection, Inventory & Distribution Assistant, Art Metropole and Sara Maston, Communications & Data Coordinator, Art Metropole​​​

Moderator: Stephanie Fletcher, Illinois Institute of Technology

Creativity has a unique manifestation for every individual, drawing on feelings, ideas, playfulness, and practical skills which are often connected to experiential learning and the Arts. Creativity can also be relaxing, fun, and a way to learn more about empathy and communicating with others. One of the greatest misconceptions about creativity is that it can only happen in a certain kind of space that is outfitted with technology or specialized equipment, which is not true. Creative learning and engagement can happen anywhere, and creative spaces need to be flexible and adaptable, but the rest emerges organically.

Because libraries are known as places to cross disciplinary boundaries, explore, and collaborate it is only natural to find creativity in our teaching and learning spaces. Throughout this session 
panelists will describe case studies involving “creativity” which have successfully captured students' imaginations while also achieving learning objectives. Speakers will share how creativity has inspired users to engage libraries through active learning and exploring collections, as well as demonstrate how providing people the space to be creative in libraries has led to rewarding and sometimes surprising results.

Session attendees will have an opportunity to participate in short active learning breaks, leave with a “creativity zine”, and be inspired to incorporate creativity into their library work.

Speakers (alphabetical order):

• Jill Chisnell, Art and Design Librarian, Carnegie Mellon University Libraries
• Megan Lotts, Art Librarian, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• Siobhan McKissic, Visiting Design and Materials Research Librarian, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Amy Trendler, Architecture Librarian, Ball State University Libraries

Sponsored by
Carnegie Mellon University Libraries
SVA Library

Building an International Research Portal
Speaker: Kristen Regina

Amplifying Access to Feminist Art: Cross-Institutional Collaboration to Create the Judy Chicago Research Portal
Speakers: Sharon Mizota, Binky Lush, Karen Schwenter

Prevalence of Ritual: Romare Bearden's Papers and Catalogue Raisonné Research
Speaker: Samantha Rowe

Transformation and Translation in a Digital Video Library
Speakers: Alexandra Provo, Daniel Howell, Leila Carbonell

Sponsored by
A&AePortal | Yale University Press
Getty Research Portal
Penn State University Libraries
The Wildenstein Plattner Institute

Sharing the Secrets of a Rare Book Collection: Explore - Describe - Connect
Speaker: Jan Simane, Library Director, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft e.V., Kunsthistorisches Institut, Italia

Cultivating the Latin American Collection at MoMA Library
Speakers: Ruth Halvey, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Bibliographer for Latin America, The Museum of Modern Art; Jillian Suarez, Head of Library Services, The Museum of Modern Art

Special Collections, Special Needs:  Lessons learned from Managing a Moving Image Archive
Speakers: Jolene M. de Verges, Director, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University

Moderator: Adele Flannery, Université du Québec à Montréal) 

Sponsored by:
Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University

Reparative cataloging is some of the most transformative work being done in libraries today. Old terms are being reexamined and either updated or cast aside, while new terms are emerging that reflect the diversity of our times. Many of these evolving vocabularies, however, appear at first glance to be created and carefully guarded by large, somewhat intimidating institutions. This leads many catalogers to feel as if they have no role in changing and expanding these vocabularies, but that is just not the case. What this panel intends to do is bring together librarians from a range of libraries to help demystify the process of submitting terms to various controlled vocabularies. There will be presentations on contributing Library of Congress subject headings and name authority records, adding to or correcting terms in the Getty Vocabularies, and creating or revising records in Wikidata. These presentations will provide practical guidance necessary for catalogers to begin confidently contributing to vocabularies used by libraries worldwide. Attendees will gain confidence in their ability to participate in the maintenance and transformation of these essential resources. By broadening and diversifying the pool of contributors to these vocabularies, we can ensure that they begin to more accurately reflect the diversity of people and communities who rely on them.

Sponsored by
Clark Art Institute

This panel brings together three speakers on the topic of letterpress printing in academic institutions around the world. With a revival of handpress printing, it is increasingly common for libraries to house working printing equipment within their spaces. We will consider how these facilities provide different types of patrons with unique research and learning opportunities. The conference theme of transformation is considered in different ways: setting type as an embodied method of learning about graphic design and history; printing as an activity that foregrounds process for library collections in an environment that centers product, and using 3D technologies to create affordable teaching tools that facilitate hands-on bibliographical instruction and research. While libraries have collected the printed word as long as it has been produced, situating the making of printed content within the library context is a relatively new, and growing, enterprise. It has been demonstrated that letterpress printing can form and strengthen engagement ties with communities for libraries. What else can a printing press help you do? This presentation will give an overview of our experiences setting up and running letterpress studios and provide three methods of examining how these spaces can transform research and learning. First, we show how students in disciplines as diverse as graphic design and history can benefit from course instruction in printing and book arts to deepen their understanding. Second, how letterpress in the library can open up the possibilities of a process-based orientation for institutions. And finally, reports on efforts of the 3Dhotbed project to build a community-populated repository of open-access, 3D-printable teaching tools for those engaging in bibliographical instruction and research.

Speakers
Jamie Vander Broek, Librarian for Art & Design, University of Michigan
Kyle Clark, Conservation Technician, Instructor & Liaison, Books Arts Studio, University of Michigan
 
Anne Goodfellow, Rare Books & Special Collections Liaison Librarian, Fisher Library, The University of Sydney
 
Courtney “Jet” Jacobs, Head of Public Services, Outreach, and Community Engagement, Library Special Collections, UCLA Library

Moderator
Jennifer Garland, Interim Head Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University

Sponsored by
McGill University Libraries
University of Michigan Library

We have all heard versions of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus' quote concerning the fact that the only constant in life is change. Today the need to transform our libraries comes from a variety of forces, but one that remains central is that of our users. With an ever changing plethora of resources, formats, and acquisition models, how do librarians ensure their practices related to collections meet the evolving needs of our users? In this session, panelists from academic and museum libraries will present collection management strategies, actions and assessment projects with the purpose of better representing the needs of libraries' current users, despite the numerous limitations faced by our individual institutions, as well as the rapidly shifting budgetary constraints, acquisition models, and ethical concerns across our profession. Presenters will address critical and emerging issues related to the theory and praxis of collections assessment in a range of scenarios: At a large academic library a demand driven acquisition program for print materials was adopted to improve discovery while compensating for approval plan reductions. This presentation will highlight a librarian's quest to better understand the actual materials purchased through the program and those requests not fulfilled. By assessing several years of data the librarian considers how this program has transformed the print collection and serves specific disciplines like the fine arts. Another librarian on the panel will speak about their experience of implementing assessment strategies for the electronic resource collection at a small academic institution. This talk will cover creating e-resource specific policies, the merits of using database usage for decision making, and alternative acquisition models like investing in open access. An early-career POC librarian will critically reflect on the significance of weeding physical library collections and its relation to both "diversifying" collections and retaining library workers. Practical considerations and approaches to deaccessioning plans will be compared between two libraries with varying resources: a large public university and a small museum library. A librarian at a minority-serving institution will report on the findings of an ongoing diversity assessment in the arts collection. This project aims to make diversity assessment accessible to all collections and uncover areas where advocacy to publishers and distributors is imperative. Using various strategies of collection analysis to discern the diversity of holdings, this project shows the value of different levels of assessment, from a high-level perspective --the 30,000-foot view-- to individual title analysis in specific areas. Attendees will be exposed to a variety of current issues in collections management, and will be offered strategies to consider adapting for their own institutions.

Sponsored by
The Pratt Institute Libraries
UTSA Libraries and Museums
University of Kansas Libraries

For many academic art libraries, restricted collections, housed in a separate branch library or not, pose a variety of challenges related to organizational structure and partnerships, censorship, and access controls. These protected collections may comprise artists' books, zines, "medium rare" art books, erotica, titles or objects consisting of multiple loose pieces, and other sensitive or mixed-value materials; they can present a distinct challenge when the specific role or value of these collections are brought into question, and these items can be impossible to replace if lost or damaged. This panel presents a variety of transformative solutions, provocations, and inquiries in response to the issue of what, exactly, to do with or how to manage restricted access art library collections. In attempting to implement consistent practices and policies governing these collections, we acknowledge that they inhabit gray areas necessitating iteration, exceptions, and divergences within our institutions. Art librarians must continually re-examine their relationships to constituents, colleagues, administrators, and consortial partners in order to sustainably and efficiently grow and manage collections and services which straddle art/architecture/design libraries and special collections. The presenters acknowledge historic circulation and access practices in such collections while addressing evolving issues related to restricted or challenging content, traditional departmental silos, and equitable collection management practices.

Sponsored by
Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum
University of Iowa Libraries

Program reviews (a regular occurrence for academic departments) are becoming more commonplace for academic libraries. For most library workers, a library program review sounds like a thankless task intended only to illustrate the library's best side. However, that is the least effective way to approach library program review. In an era of "do more with less, the best thing you can do to advocate for your library is to tell the truth about its strengths and weaknesses through the official process of program review. In this session, attendees will learn the processes, tools, best practices, opportunities, and challenges of library program review. Although program review shares the structure of the accreditation process (self-study, external review, and response paper), it is a much more valuable assessment tool. The self-study portion can provide a deep dive into the strengths and weaknesses of the library by using guidelines, standards, and frameworks such as the ACRL Standards for Academic Libraries in Higher Education, ACRL Diversity Standards, and the ALA DEI Scorecard for Library and Information Organizations. The external reviewers are invited from peer libraries who best understand the library's issues. Finally, the response paper is the perfect launch pad for strategic planning within the library. Academic institutions that do program reviews likely have self-study and site visit templates. However, these templates are often not configured for libraries. For this reason, many libraries may have more autonomy in crafting the elements of their self-study and site visits to adequately address their needs. Panelists will explain how they retrofitted the templates, created new ones, and utilized software, as well as other ways they changed the typical process to better document the strengths and weaknesses of their libraries. Through panelists' recent experiences, you'll learn about this process from multiple perspectives, including heads of libraries/departments, internal review team staff, and external peer reviewers. The panelists whose libraries underwent reviews will address the challenges and opportunities of conducting their program reviews. They will discuss their desired outcomes and how well these were met by the process, their reviewers' report, and the reception from staff and administration. The reviewer panelist will outline their experience and the roadblocks they faced. All of the panelists will share lessons learned from the process. Overall, this session is a crash course on library program review--a rarely discussed but essential aspect of current academic libraries.

Sponsored by
Georgia State University Library

At the 50th Annual ARLIS/NA Conference in Chicago last year, Collaborative ART Archive (CARTA) members coordinated a panel session discussing this collaborative project to capture and preserve at-risk web-based art materials. Since then, our project has accomplished major milestones including: expanding the collaborative entity to include nearly 40 organizations throughout North America; establishing a web collection of nearly 700 web-based art resources totaling over 7 TB of data with continued growth; and building a reference resource and public access portal to increase access and research using the web collections. This panel will provide updates on project accomplishments and the continued roadmap for future work and activities. Panelists will: give a brief overview of the project and its mission, highlighting member use cases on topics including the importance of digital preservation and the necessity of a model that leverages shared infrastructure, expertise and collecting activities amongst art libraries to scale the extent of web-published, born-digital materials preserved and accessible for art scholarship and research; discuss recent research use cases using the web collections, the development of the public access portal, and the findings from several collaborative data analysis workshops; and discuss sustainability planning to continue growth and success for the project.

Transformacion: Artists from Mexico Liv(ed)ing and Work(ed)ing in Quebec (A Panel Discussion in Spanish, French and English) Theme: International and Cross-Cultural Collaborations What happens when you leave your country, learn a new language and create works of art? According to a study by Elena Stephan, Thinking in a foreign (vs. native) language moves the individuals away from conventional and habitual modes of thought and thus boosts creativity. Two Romance languages are spoken in North America and yet we often insist that everyone speak English wherever we go. Very few art books are translated. Three Mexican artists (two presently working in Montreal, Quebec Canada, and one who left Mexico, went to Montreal and returned to Mexico) will discuss what it is like to decide to leave, be influenced by one's environment and what the future may bring after Covid and other challenges. Could it be that we are now in an era of a shared cultural identity that we can call Nord Americanismo? Moderator Sophie Thierrien is an anthropologist, has lived in Niger, Honduras, Mexico and Quebec and works in the field of immigration. While in Mexico City, they coordinated cultural exchanges between Mexico and Quebec.

This panel presentation will present the printmaking program at a medium sized public university that has played host to the visiting artist's printmaking collaborations in an established press that has been running for 20+ years, the output of which is housed at the university museum. The entire collection represents scholarship from a diverse body of artists and greatly adds to the inclusiveness of the creative community on campus while promoting service learning. Additionally, the staff at the university museum, is uniquely positioned to instruct from a primary source perspective about materials in their collection and promote the printmaking community in a broader context. One outcome from this endeavor included a collaboration between an artist/research librarian, the professor of printmaking/director of the press, and the museum curator of exhibitions. While collaborating at the press in the 20/21 academic year, this activity strengthened and built on a direct link to resources and support for the printmaking program from the library, while also aiding library instruction opportunities utilizing the print collection of the press and assets of the museum. It also positions a small mid-major intuition as having a serious, world-class collection of works on paper. The service learning press has the cooperation of an institution that can vouch for the quality of work being produced by the students and visiting artists. Additionally, it helped to break down academic silos between departments across campus and build interdisciplinary learning communities that form a symbiotic relationship and creates a positive educational feedback loop. The professor of printmaking/director of the press, will talk about the origins of the press and how he became involved with the program, some of the artists he has worked with, and the techniques represented. The curator of exhibitions at the university museum will discuss his involvement with the preservation, documentation, and presentation of the press as well as the scholarship that has taken place. He will also elaborate on how this collection fits in with the broader printmaking community across the United States. Finally, the artist/research librarian will share his experience working at the press and discuss how the relationship between the library and the printmaking program has strengthened, unique connections drawn between the press and library instruction, and how collaborations such as these impact and strengthen the campus community as a whole.

How the Craft World Came Together in Oaxtepec: The Archives of the World Craft Council 7th General Assembly, 1976. 
Speaker: Beth Goodrich, Librarian, American Craft Council

The Delia Zapata Olivella Collection: Open Access to Afro-Colombian Performing Arts Resources
Speaker: Sara Lee Burd, Project Archivist, Vanderbilt University

Creating the Digital Florentine Codex: Using Multilingual Data to Access Transcultural Narratives
Speakers: Berenice Gaillemin, Getty Research Institute and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Senior Project Manager, Getty Research Institute

De datos a data: Unpacking a Pre-Hispanic Art Dealer’s Archive
​Speakers: Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Getty Research Institute; Payton Phillips Quintanilla, Getty Research Institute; Kylie King, Independent Consultant

Moderator: Miguel Rosales, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture 

Sponsored by
Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, Vanderbilt University

Using Human-Centered Design Approaches for Archival Projects in Arts Organizations
Speaker: Hannah Marshall, Archivist/Librarian, The Chinati Foundation

Library User Experience Design Approaches from an Artist Librarian
Speaker: April Ibarra Siqueiros, User Experience Librarian, CSU San Marcos University Librarian

Walking as a Research Method for Artists
Speaker: Sandra Cowan, Librarian, University of Lethbridge

Teaching Myself Taxidermy in My Kitchen: Supporting Studio Art Students Through Collection Development
Speaker: Cara Barker, Research & Instruction Librarian, Western Carolina University

Moderator: Marianne Williams, Bates College

The mention of Mexico City conjures certain iconic images to mind: an aerial view of the Palacio de Bellas Artes at dusk or sunlight dramatically striking a corner Luis Barragan's house near the Bosque Chapultepec, the carefully-arranged interiors of Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul or the pre-hispanic sculptural fragments of the Templo Mayor. In addition to photographing these well-known sites in the capital, nineteenth and twentieth-century photographers like Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Judith Sandoval, and Enrique Cervantes imagined the art and architecture of Mexico from new perspectives and transformed our understanding of them. Works of art in their own right, these photographs are also important resources for the study of art history, architecture, social history, and urbanism. This panel explores the photographic holdings of a range of North American academic and museum libraries that document Mexican art and architecture, with particular emphasis on resources related to Mexico City.
 
Esther Born and Mexican Modernism 
Speaker: Gwen Mayhew, Head of Collection Access, Canadian Centre for Architecture
                                                                                  
Mexico City Architecture through the Lens of Mexican Documentarians
Speaker: Carla Ellard, Photo Archivist, Alkek Library, Texas State University

Holdings by Enrique A. Cervantes at The Latin American Library
Speaker: Christine Hernández, Curator of Special Collections, The Latin American Library, Tulane University

Documenting the Mexican Mural Movement
Speaker: Malia Van Heukelem, Art Archivist Librarian, University of Hawaii at Manoa Library

Fluid Borders: Using Collections to Center Personal Narratives
Speaker: Stephanie Beene, Associate Professor, Fine Arts Librarian for Art, Architecture, & Planning, University of New Mexico

The content of our arts collections are formed by a variety of obvious and subtle influences including but not limited to the vendors we consult, staff who participate with selections, funding sources and distribution, the relationships we seek with artists, curators, educators, local communities, and user communities - essentially the networks of who we know and come into contact with. In all these situations, librarians are choosing ”consciously or unconsciously” which stories to center and which members of our communities to welcome.

Sponsored by
University of Minnesota Libraries
Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries

Most of us will have taken at least one, if not several, management classes in the course of our studies to become information professionals but have subsequently found that those classes are woefully inadequate to prepare us for the real-world experience of leading teams and performing the duties required of us as managers. As information professionals we are called upon to manage in a range of situations with varying levels of complexity, whether it's managing large or small teams, a single individual, or managing up your institutional hierarchy, understanding the challenges, as well as dispelling myths about leadership and management, will encourage individuals to take up leadership roles and ensure that they feel confident in their abilities.

Sponsored by Yale University Library