ARLIS/NA 43rd Annual Conference

Instructors:
Drew Krewer, Digitization Operations Librarian, University of Houston
Teresa Soleau, Digital Library Specialist, Getty Research Institute 
Luciano Johnson, Digital Preservation Librarian, Frick Collection 
Neil Sreenan, Manager, Digital Asset Systems, Dallas Museum of Art

As institutions ramp up digitization efforts, cultural heritage professionals are faced with a wide range of challenges and opportunities. This unconference-style workshop is intended for those interested in or currently involved with large-scale digitization models. The workshop will consist of lightning presentations by members of the library and museum communities who are engaged with both large-scale and small-scale digitization and metadata efforts.

The core of this workshop, however, will be participant-defined and tailored to address specific institutional challenges in hopes of providing a practical forum for solving problems related to large-scale digitization. Potential discussion topics might include: “big data,” project management, audio/video, automation, discovery of digital collections, digital imaging technology, and more. All participants should plan on actively contributing to the discussion and should be prepared to share questions (and practices) with the group.
 
Maximum Participants: 30
 
Fee: $50

To reserve Self-Schedule Room, please sign-up on the list provided outside the room door and post the announcement of your meeting on the bulletin board at the Registration/Hospitality Desk.

Speakers:

Stronger Together: Making Connections Through the Portal to Texas History — Tara Carlisle, Digital Scholarship Specialist, University of Oklahoma Libraries, formerly Project Development Librarian, External Relations, Portal to Texas History, University of North Texas
 
Exhibitions in Context: Dallas Museum of Art and the Portal to Texas History — Hillary Bober, Archivist, Dallas Museum of Art

Made Together in Texas: Building the Hill Texas Archive Through Partnerships and Collaborations — Michelle Johnson, Project Manager, William J. Hill Texas Artisans and Artists Archive, Bayou Bend Collections and Gardens, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Moderator:
Margaret Culbertson, Director, Kitty King Powell Library and Study Center, Bayou Bend Collections and Gardens, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

By initiating and encouraging partnerships and collaborations, the William J. Hill Texas Artisans and Artists Archive and the Portal to Texas History successfully created substantial digital collections that collect and curate disparate digital collections and data. These virtual collections and their metadata enable a wide range of users to satisfy both traditional and unexpected research needs. The speakers will review a sampling of these partnerships, including the Dallas Museum of Art’s cataloging and presentation of archival exhibition materials through the Portal. The session will explore the collaborative process, digital and metadata results, and current usage of collections, while also considering how these factors might influence future digital collection building and collaboration.

The Portal to Texas History consists of more than half a million digitized materials from over 250 partner institutions within Texas. Tara Carlisle will discuss how researchers can discover interesting connections between formerly disparate collections through this shared online repository. By successfully pooling collections to create a rich resource for scholars, educators, and students, the Portal serves as a model for collaboration.

Hillary Bober will outline the tangible and intangible benefits of the Dallas Museum of Art Archives partnership with the Portal, as both a vendor and an access and discovery tool. The cataloging and presentation of past exhibition materials in the context of both the Portal and the Dallas Museum of Art website will be a highlight.

The William J. Hill Texas Artisans and Artists Archive is a hybrid digital database containing collections from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and partner institutions, as well as primary sources. Michelle Johnson will discuss this digital home for a variety of file formats and metadata schema. She will also expand on the importance of successful collaboration and good communication among partner institutions as they strive for data uniformity.

Speakers:
 
I am not just Head Librarian, I am also a client: Art Librarians as Scholars — Eric Wolf, Head Librarian, The Menil Collection
 
Crossing the Publishing Frontier: Writing Opportunities in Art Librarianship — Shannon Marie Robinson, Fine Arts Liaison Librarian, University Libraries, Denison University
Hannah Bennett, Librarian, School of Architecture Library, Princeton University
Laurel Bliss, Fine Arts Librarian, Library & Information Access, San Diego State University
Judy Dyki, Library Director, Cranbrook Academy of Art
Patrick Tomlin, Head, Art + Architecture Library, University Libraries, Virginia Tech
Alexander Watkins, Assistant Professor/Art & Architecture Librarian, University Libraries, University of Colorado Boulder
Terrie Wilson, Art Librarian, Michigan State University
Anna-Sophia Zingarelli-Sweet, Consulting Editor, Hack Library School

Moderator:
Shannon Marie Robinson, Fine Arts Liaison Librarian, University Libraries, Denison University

Many art librarians have advanced subject degrees and expertise. Eric Wolf will talk about how scholarly publishing not only allows us to grow as specialists, but also as librarians, raising our profile and stature among our colleagues. Such activity is personally fulfilling and helps us understand our constituencies. Scholarly activity without a faculty or curatorial title can present some strange, interesting, and at times funny situations.

Writing and publication provide opportunities for librarians to move their profession forward. Experienced editors and writers of ARLIS/NA Reviews, ARLIS/NA Multimedia & Technology Reviews, the Society’s scholarly journal Art Documentation, and the book The Twenty-First Century Art Librarian will discuss publishing options and practicalities. These presenters will offer perspectives on writing reviews, sending queries to editors, understanding the peer-review process, and collaborating with authors. Writers of reviews, articles, book chapters, and blogs will share their experiences and discuss publishing expectations associated with tenure-track positions.

In addition, speakers will also present perspectives on writing for online publications and will address aspects of open access publishing, including author agreements, post-print, and institutional repositories. By providing practical information on writing and publication that includes getting started in publishing, overcoming writer's block, and managing time, attendees will take away useful tools for their professional development.

Sponsored by Jane Myers McNamara

Speakers:

Interviews with Texas Artists — Craig Bunch, Assistant Librarian, McNay Art Museum and author of Collage and Assemblage in Texas: The Interviews

Working with Raw Materials — Pete Gershon, Program Coordinator, Core Residency Program, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and author of Painting the Town Orange: The Stories Behind Houston’s Visionary Art Environments

Stories Potters Tell: Documenting Clay and Community in Minnesota's St. Croix Valley — Jessica Shaykett, Librarian, American Craft Council

Moderator: 
Pete Gershon, Program Coordinator, Core Residency Program, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston author of Painting the Town Orange: The Stories Behind Houston’s Visionary Art Environments

“Life is short, but art endures,” wrote Hippocrates. Indeed, art objects are likely to survive across generations, but the life stories of their makers, especially those of obscure regional artists, are far more ephemeral and too often lost to time. Fortunately, there are intrepid art historians, journalists, and researchers who seek to capture this information and preserve it for posterity. How do they organize their projects? How do they choose their subjects? What facts are gathered, and how is this information recorded, stored, and disseminated? This panel of three researchers will answer these questions as they discuss their experiences in documenting the work of regional artists.

Having interviewed 64 Texas artists from 2010 to 2013 for his forthcoming book from Texas A&M University Press, Craig Bunch will discuss his project in terms of how it came to be and how it progressed. The use of found materials is one of the major threads running throughout the book, tentatively titled: Interviews with Texas Artists.
 
Pete Gershon will discuss the process of collecting interviews and finding other primary and secondary source material he used to write the book Painting the Town Orange: The Stories Behind Houston’s Visionary Art Environments. 

In the St. Croix Valley of Minnesota, an anomalous community of potters host an annual cooperative tour attracting thousands of visitors nationally. Jessica Shaykett will share how staff at the American Craft Council Library initiated an ambitious year-long project to record and distribute the personal narratives of participating ceramists.

Note: invitation only.

Chapter Chair: Derek Quezada

Speakers:

ʺMove to the Light”: Humanism and the Art Museum Libraries of Louis I. Kahn: The Kimbell Art Museum and the Yale Center for British Art — Kraig Binkowski, Chief Librarian, Reference Library and Archives, Yale Center for British Art

Learning from Hunt Library: The Use of High-Tech Spaces — Karen DeWitt, Director, Design Library, North Carolina State University

New Library Architecture: Innovative Buildings = New Ways of Working? — Margaret Smithglass, Registrar and Digital Content Librarian, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University

Moderator:
Catherine Petersen, Library Director, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Libraries are continually ascending from the basements of Beaux-Arts mansions, embracing light-filled study rooms, and supporting the needs of creative researchers. This session’s speakers offer creative solutions and exciting possibilities for 21st century learning spaces.

The libraries of the Yale Center for British Art and the Kimbell Art Museum along with the museums that house them were designed by the great American architect, Louis I. Kahn. Kraig Binkowski will look closely at the unique humanistic experience that Kahn created for these learning spaces.

Design faculty and students at North Carolina State University fully embrace the visualization spaces at the innovative Hunt Library. Karen DeWitt will talk about spaces and technologies in Hunt Library, how design students and faculty use them, and offer suggestions for technologies that could be added to enhance existing libraries to support design faculty and students.

The physical spaces of academic, public, and special libraries have all experienced enormous changes in user needs and behaviors in the last decade. Margaret Smithglass will present highlights of recent international design work that not only supports these changes but facilitates new methods of research and communication for all patron types. 

Speaker:

Focus on the Learner: Strategies for Improving PowerPoint Presentations — Lee A. Hilyer, Head of Access Services, M.D. Anderson Library, University of Houston

Slide presentations are common at meetings, conferences, and in the classroom. But are they effective at helping the audience understand the content, or do they merely serve as teleprompter for the speaker? Learning and instructional research indicates that the current way many people prepare and deliver slide presentations may actually hinder learning instead of supporting it. Lee Hilyer will present three simple, evidence-based rules you can use to create more effective, learner-focused presentations.

Speaker:

Data & Geospatial Research Support for Architecture — Josh Been, Social Science Data Librarian, M.D. Anderson Library, University of Houston

This presentation will highlight the ever-increasing data needs of architecture researchers in higher education, and the ways libraries can take initiative to provide them with access to the necessary data, software, and research support. Josh Been's focus will be on using ArcGIS software and cloud applications but will also include a discussion of free and affordable software and training opportunities.

Speakers:

Barbara Becker, Professor, School of Urban and Public Affairs, University of Texas at Arlington
Patrina Newton, Senior Planner, Economic & Community Development, City of Fort Worth Planning Department
Brian Chatman, Content Strategy Coordinator, City of Fort Worth Open Data Portal
Cecilia Smith, Ph.D., Geospatial Librarian, Texas A&M University

Moderators:
Kathy Edwards, Research and Collection Development Librarian, Clemson University
Rebecca Price, Architecture, Urban Planning, and Visual Resources Librarian and Liaison, University of Michigan
Marsha Taichman, Visual Resources Librarian, Cornell University

In this year’s Postcards from the Edge session, a planning educator, two professional planners from the City of Fort Worth, and an anthropologist-turned-geospatial librarian will lead us through the wide-ranging academic and professional terrain of urban planning. Although not native to arts librarianship, planning is often co-located with design programs in schools or colleges dedicated to the built environment. More than a few architecture librarians carry additional responsibility for urban and regional planning and urban design, which necessarily include transportation, sustainability, resource management, housing, social justice, municipal order, policy and public affairs, historic preservation, urban agriculture, and more. Together the group will explore the challenge of meeting the multi-faceted and interdisciplinary needs of the planning community.

Barbara Becker, former Dean of the UT-Arlington School of Urban and Public Affairs, will address the academic scope of planning education and the needs of scholars and students. At the city scale, Senior Planner Patrina Newton will introduce Fort Worth’s planned Urban Villages and describe the issues, considerations, and data gathering that shape complex urban initiatives. Content Strategist Brian Chatman will explain the information design behind Fort Worth’s recently launched Open Data Portal and share some of the challenges of representing large data sets for public access. Finally, Texas A&M Geospatial Librarian Cecilia Smith, will demonstrate GIS tools and resources used by scholars and practitioners to collect, collate, analyze, and visualize data about urban environments and populations.

Architecture & Urban Planning Librarian Rebecca Price will facilitate discussion at the end of the presentations.