The Murphy Art & Architecture Library at the University of Kansas serves
both as an academic library and as the library for the Spencer Museum of
Art. We've asked the faculty and curators to send us the brochures,
postcards, exhibition catalogs, etc. that are sent to them or that they pick
up in their travels. The material is sorted in the library with items under
35 pages going to the pamphlet files and 35 pages+ going for cataloging. Our
standards are a bit more relaxed for artists of local importance so we will
occasionally catalog a brochure on a Kansas or Kansas City area artist. We
maintain pamphlet files organized by artist's name and by museum/gallery--no
additional subject access is attempted. Anything on a single-artist with
biographical information or an image of the artist's work is retained.
Brochures on multiple-artist shows must include an essay or list of works to
be kept. We usually catalog annual reports, serial exhibitions, and
calendars/bulletins/journals from museums and galleries. For 20 years we had
the luxury of a well-qualified volunteer who did the necessary authority
work and supervised students to file the pamphlet material. She also created
a card catalog indicating that a file existed for a specific artist or
institution although no attempt to record specific titles or even number of
items in each file was kept. Our volunteer recently "retired" and we're
grappling with whether to continue the files. It would be nice to have all
the material cataloged but that option isn't available at current levels of
staffing. The primary use of the files is for contemporary and local artists
for which no other documentation can be located. They also allow us to
cheaply retain things that would require binding to shelve in our open
stacks. I'll be interested in reading responses from other institutions
about this issue.
Susan Craig
Art & Architecture Librarian
Univ. of Kansas
785-864-3020
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-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Blank [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 8:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Policy on collecting for artist files?
Colleagues -- If your institution has a written policy, guidelines of
any kind, for artist files (gallery cards, smaller ex. cats.,
clippings, etc.) please post to the list. For case by case issues who
makes the call on inclusion vs. trash? At what point (number of
pages, etc.) does material go into your artist file vs. receiving
full cataloging for inclusion in the library collection? Etc. and so
on, please.
Thanks,
Peter Blank
------------------------------------------------------------
Peter P. Blank Phone: (312) 443-3665
Head, Reader Services FAX: 312.443.0964
Ryerson & Burnham Libraries [log in to unmask]
Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60603
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__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
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