Dear ARLIS Folks:
I want to thank all of you who responded to my question about typical art
reference questions. My presentation at the graduate
Library School went very well largely due to the information I received
from ARLIS members.
Several people suggested using Philip Pacey's "How Art Students Use
Libraries" (Art Libraries Journal, Spring 1982, pp33-38)
which I used as a springboard for my lecture. How I wish Philip Pacey
would write an update to this if only to prove that life
in art libraries has changed very little!
Also suggested was Deirdre Stam's "How Art Historians Look for
Information" (Art Documentation, Fall 1997, v16 #2, p.27-30).
After looking at all the questions, I was able to categorize them for the
students, then read examples of real questions. Then I went into specific
reference sources for handling each type.
The categories are:
IMAGE REQUESTS--or the I-need-a-picture-of questions
REQUESTS FOR EXAMPLES OF ARTIST/DESIGNER/ARCHITECT's WORK (a more specific
version of image requests)
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION REQUESTS for people in the arts
BUILDING QUESTS: need for site plans, elevations interiors, photos, history
of buildings
ART HISTORICAL QUESTIONS: who painted x? who were the impressionists?
PROVENANCE QUESTIONS: what's this object worth? who made it? has it sold at
Auction for what price?
Below I've excerpted the actual questions and listed what institution they
came from. This was useful to the students in pointing out how museum
questions might differ from academic library and public library
questions. There were also some hilarious anecdotes that I've included as
well, and, were well received by the students.
So here goes:
"TYPICAL" QUESTIONS ASKED IN ART LIBRARIES (from ARLIS listserve)
FROM DARTMOUTH COLLEGE:
"Where is your section on..." e.g. Michelangelo, or contemporary sculptors,
or Japanese art, etc. That is, something that is not made easy by the LC
classification scheme. People want to be able to browse all their books on
a subject, and not in several different places by artistic medium.
*Why aren't all books on art in the Art Library? i.e. why don't
non-Western/non-Asian art, ancient art, etc have N call numbers? (in a
system with branch libraries).
Why isn't the Library of Congress call number identical in all libraries
for a particular book?
FROM JACKSONVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY:
"How do I look up books on an artist when I don't know
the title or author? I get this one all the time from upperclassmen.
FROM WOODRUFF ART CENTER:
The usual one in an art and design school of course is "Do you have a
picture of .....?/I need a picture of...". These have ranged from a man in
a spacesuit to a line drawing of wood screw to a picture of a Conestoga
wagon to 1960s fashion trends.
Another common question is for information on a local or currently
practicing artist about whom little has ever been written in major art
magazines. We have an registry for Georgia artists in the same building and
have resorted to referring students there or to contacting the artist
directly.
A typical undergraduate question is "I need some information on Picasso (or
whomever)". This is truly an exercise in the reference interview since the
student has grasped onto a name and knows very little if anything on the
artist in question other than the name. Thanks goodness for Grove's
Dictionary of Art as a starting point
FROM UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN:
I'm sure you'll get a lot of responses like this one, but when I was a
reference assistant at Kohler Art Library at University of Wisconsin,
Madison, my favorite questions always involved the general public. I
got many calls about identifying artists, and giving past auction sale
values (though I'd always refer them to the yellow pages "appraisals" if
they wanted to know more about the value of their
print/painting/ceramic.) My absolute favorite was the woman who had
found a Gainsborough portrait in her local antiques store. I told her
that the portrait was in London, and her response was "so you think it's
stolen?!"
FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART:
I think the most typical question we get from non-Museum staff is a
variation on "I found this painting/print/sculpture in my Aunt Annie's
closet/attic/basement. Where can I find information on the artist? I can't
quite make out the signature but I think it could be ...." This is usually
followed by "can you tell me what it's worth?", which is a question we are
not allowed to answer (Museum policy).
FROM LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Prints & Photographs Division
Where is the bathroom?
Do you have any photographs of the Titanic sinking, the hanging
gardens of Babylon, Jesus, etc.
If something takes place in 1865, why do we call it the 19th
century?
Why can't I xerox these fine prints by Durer and Rembrandt?
Seriously, we do get a lot of very good reference collections, but
they are all related to our division's collections (i.e. original
prints, drawings, photographs, etc.), so they might be too narrow for
your purposes.
FROM FRICK FINE ARTS LIBRARY, PITTSBURGH
Where can I find a list of exhibitions showing in London (insert other
cities)?
My great aunt recently died and we are cleaning out her house. We found a
print (insert painting) by _______.Who was this artist? How valuable is
the print (painting)?
Requests for information on local artists, buildings, architects. In Pgh
people have to go to the Penna. Room or Art and Music Dept of the Carnegie
Library of Pittsburgh where they have clippings files that we do not have
the staff resources to create or duplicate.
Where can I find an image of ---------?
FROM UNIVERSITY OF MANOA, HAWAII:
Message left on the phone machine of a colleague at 11:30am:
"Please call me back before noon with all the information you have about
the following artists: Smith, Jones, Johnson, Baker."
[can't remember the actual artists' names, but they were far from
distinctive names such as Picasso, and no first names, countries or time
periods were given.] Typical are as follows:
Floor plans AND ELEVATIONS of modern houses, such as, Villa Mairea
(Aalto), Kaufmann Desert House (Neutra), Robie House (Wright), Tugendhat
House (Mies), etc.
Information on curtain wall construction WITH WALL SECTIONS
Illustrations of specific, ordinary, non-art objects, such as, baby
carriages, barber chairs, keys
Furniture from specific countries, such as, Philippines, Brazil, Kenya
Construction details for water towers
(New York School of Interior Design)
FROM DELAWARE ART MUSEUM
Ican definitely tell you what one of the most common questions I get in a
museum library is the "I have a painting in my attic, its kind of a
landscape with trees and houses, has some cattle in the lower right, signed
by CD or CB - do you have any information about it? i.e. what is it worth?"
I don't know if we can thank the Antiques Road Show for this but everyone
seems to be picking through their basements and attics for any hidden relics.
FROM ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
A reference librarian in an art & design school must be good at
"conceptualization" and "visualization" -- asking the student to describe
what they see in their head and then trying to put a name, a word, or an
image to it.
The most typical request is "I need a picture of...." Art & design students
are interested in literally everything. Odd-ball questions are the norm.
Last semester, one student wanted a picture of a fetus's ovaries for a
painting series. We found images in our own library and in the UofT medical
library. Another student was doing a video on rape. We sent him to the local
rape-crisis centre to interview counselors. Just last week a graduate
student, who has produced large colour photographs of fishing flies, was
looking for critical perspectives on inanimate objects and gender
identification. In cases such as this one, neither the student nor the
reference librarian, knows exactly what they are looking for until they see
it or find it. Often we will show a student an article or a book and they
will say -- "I never thought of that - it's not exactly what I wanted but it
will do."
One of OCAD first year assignments is to find opposing viewpoints on an
artist, an artwork, or an art movement....ie. two conflicting critical
perspectives. The purpose of the assignment is to force students to use the
library, the indexes, and to read a lot.
I find design-related requests the most problematic. A typical request is
for "examples" of commercial illustration by xxxxx. Unlike "fine" artists
who exhibit and produce exhibition catalogues, commercial illustrators are
commissioned to produce work which is not exhibited in a gallery. Unless a
commercial illustrator is extremely well known, or at the end of his/her
career, it is unlikely there will be a monograph on his/her work. The only
way to locate examples is if, by chance, their work was entered in a design
competition and appears in one of the design award annuals -- OR if they
have a good website, or have purchased their own advertising space in
annuals like the Blackbook or Workbook. Specialized art & design schools
cannot afford to licence all the general-interest periodical indexes
required to thoroughly search for a commercial illustrator's production
FROM UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS:
"I'm looking for a plan, cross-section, and elevation of XYZ building."
"I'm trying to find information about my house. When was it built and for
whom, who is the architect, what else has he/she done?"
"I'm working on a historic designation nomination for my church (town hall,
etc.). I need to know everything there is about XYX architect."
"I'm designing a XYZ (building type) and need to see precedents. I also
need standards, local building codes, and cost estimating information."
"I'm researching neo-traditional neighborhoods (or XYZ urban design topic)
and need to read about successes and failures of such neighborhoods. I
also want to see exemplary master plans."
"I need a scholarly article on XYZ building."
"I'm doing a research paper about XYZ (can be a specific monument, a style,
a time period, a construction method, a building type, an architect, a
place, a piece of furniture, etc.). Where do I start?"
"I'm having a house built. I'd like to see examples of "French Provincial"
homes (or whatever style....).'
(Once the wife of one of our Regents wanted a book about all the possible
variations in brick laying designs so she could show her builder what she
liked!)
"I'm redoing my kitchen (bathroom, etc.)---can you help me find sources of
inspiration? How about product catalogs?"
"What is the style of the buildings on campus?"
"Who built XYZ?"
"I'm looking for design competitions."
"Can you help me date this piece (furniture, lamp, etc.)?"
Again, thanks to all those who contributed their questions.
Judy
Judy Donovan
Design Arts Librarian
Hagerty Library
Drexel University
33rd and Market Streets
Philadelphia PA 19104
phone: 215-895-2768
fax: 215-895-2070
email: [log in to unmask]
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