I would like to thank again all the people who so kindly joned the meeting
at the Cloisters Library on June 24, 2002.
I am posting the minutes of the meeting in behalf of Heidi Hess, Head
Reference Librarian, the Morgan Library, NY.
Barbara Reed, Bibliographer, Watson Library, MMA, has volunteered to be the
chair of the Group.
Please, for further meetings and other questions contact her at:
[log in to unmask]
In her absence, please feel free to contact me at the address below.
thanks again
Annamaria Poma Swank

New York Collection Development Discussion Group

Inaugural Meeting June 24, 2002 at the Cloisters

Minutes

The meeting began with welcoming remarks from Anna Maria Poma-Swank,
Associate Museum Librarian, describing her prepared agenda, and discussing
possible topics for future meetings, should there be interest in forming a
discussion group (see below).

Carol Rusk (Whitney Museum) asked if Anna Maria intended to copy the format
of the New York Catalogers' Discussion Group (CDG). Anna Maria replied that
the degree of formality needed to be discussed; she preferred a more
informal approach. Comparisons were made between the two groups, with the
conclusion that the Collection Development group did not need to meet more
than once every 4 months. Carol also brought up possible future topics for
this group such as de-accessioning, and referrals of patrons to sister
institutions in New York. Anna Maria envisioned the discussions focussing on
shared problems, such as the purchase of print vs. electronic resources,
budgets, administration. She emphasized that she did not see the meetings as
a "you buy this, I'll buy that" discussion. Barbara Reed (Metropolitan
Museum) proposed weeding & de-accessioning as a topic, perhaps with shared
responsibility for retention of last copies.

William Peniston (Newark Museum) recommended the ARLIS/NA Occasional paper
Collection Development Policies for Libraries and Visual Collections in the
Arts, 2000, which he used when writing a policy; he also sent a message to
the ARLIS-L list which resulted in several members sharing their policies
with him. He finds the existence of the policy particularly useful when
deaccessioning material. William also added that he had developed a "deed of
gift" that had not seemed to deter potential donors. Sharon Chickanzeff
(Institute of Fine Arts) said that she had de-accessioned books and donated
them to other libraries, and that IFA now had 30,000 titles stored off-site.

At Carol's suggestion the participants introduced themselves. (See
participants list, below). General discussion of means of communication
within the group. Anna Maria has an e-mail list. Heidi Hass (Pierpont Morgan
Library) felt that the group should use the ARLIS-L list to communicate
agendas and minutes; Anna Maria also sent the announcement of this meeting
to the ALCTS list. Danny Fermon (MoMA) said that he found the mention of the
ARLIS Occasional publication helpful, and said that it often happened in CDG
that helpful information not directly related to Cataloging was shared. The
CDG catalogers rarely discuss topics amongst themselves via Danny's e-mail
list. Anna Maria responded that librarians at the Getty had requested the
minutes of the meeting. Naomi Niles (Metropolitan Museum) noted that a form
of the CDG meets at the annual ARLIS conference.

Joy Kestenbaum (Pratt Institute Library) said that she and Paula Gabbard
(Avery Library) are members of the ARLIS/NA Collection Development
Committee, and have posted a directory of art book dealers on the web at
http://hcl.harvard.edu/finearts/colldev/. They are discussing how to keep
the information current. The fall ARLIS/NY newsletter will include a list of
NYC art bookstores; the list can also be found at
http://lib.pratt.edu/public/guides/guide11.html. Anna Maria thought it would
be helpful to know who in New York owned certain expensive electronic
resources, for evaluation purposes.

Evalyn Stone (Metropolitan Museum) initiated a discussion on the review of
license agreements for electronic resources, describing a workshop on the
topic which she'd recently attended, and urging better comprehension of the
agreements. Heidi wondered if Evalyn would be willing to distill the
workshop into a presentation to the group; Tim Shipe (not attending) has
also presented a day-long seminar on the topic. Joy described competitive
pricing offers from various consortia. Paula said that they've simply struck
out lines in the agreements when they've disagreed with them. Anna Maria
suggested the group might find a lawyer to address the topic for the group.

Barbara Reed (Metropolitan Museum) suggested vendor relations as another
possible discussion topic. Sharon contrasted NYU's use of the cheapest
approval plans with IFA's practice. She emphasized the need to support the
smaller vendors who offer a wide variety of services. Paula stated that the
ARLIS/NA vendor list can't be qualitative; the group then compared service
from several vendors and discussed the merits of approval plans. Titles
received as part of reproduction rights agreements, and museum outsourcing
of rights and reproductions were also discussed.

Anna Maria returned to the difficult choice between printed vs. electronic
resources. Evalyn stated that the Watson's policy for electronic resources
is informal, but that she will no longer purchase CD-ROMs, because the
technology becomes outdated so rapidly. Debbie Kempe (Frick Art Reference
Library) expressed unease with the fact that one is actually leasing
resources available over the Internet; if a subscription lapses you don't
have the retrospective material either. Evalyn has heard of products that
also give you a CD-ROM, but is unsure of exact titles. The problem of
sharing user ids and passwords to electronic resources with interns and
other temporary employees was discussed. Evalyn and Carol want to consider
sharing costs with curatorial departments, but have not done so yet. The
unfairness of relying on a few NY art libraries for expensive electronic
resources subscriptions was mentioned.

After general agreement amongst the participants that the afternoon's
discussion had been useful and thought-provoking, Anna Maria solicited
volunteers for the post of coordinator. Barbara Reed accepted; the next
meeting will be planned for October or early November, with agenda to
follow.




Submitted by Heidi Hass
Participants:


David Broderson, Queens College MLS student
Michael Carter, Cloisters
Sharon Chickanzeff, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Janis Ekdahl, ex-MoMA
Erin Elliott, Bard Graduate Center
Danny Fermon, MoMA
Paula Gabbard, Avery Library, Columbia University
Keith Glutting, Cloisters
V. Heidi Hass, Pierpont Morgan Library
Holly Hatheway, School of Visual Arts
Joy Kestenbaum, Pratt Institute
Debbie Kempe, Frick Art Reference Library
Larry Kroah, SILS, Pratt Institute
Naomi Niles, Uris Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art
William Peniston, Newark Art Museum
Christina Peter, Frick Art Reference Library
Anna Maria Poma-Swank, Cloisters
Leslie Preston, Goldwater Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Barbara Reed, Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Carol Rusk, Whitney Museum
Robert Stacy, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Evalyn Stone, Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Suggested Topics for Collection Development Discussion:

1. Resource sharing and research in a transinstitutional environment
2. Off-site storage and space issues
3. Could there be cooperative collection management where only 2-3 libraries
promise to retain copies of some older books on certain subjects so that
other libraries could consider deaccessioning?
4. Internet based collection development
5. Collection management in an electronic era
6. The patrons dilemma: mission and scope of special libraries
7. I s the curator my boss? Collection development in museum libraries
8. Selection criteria and evaluation tools
9. Budget constraints and CD cost effectiveness

People to be involved?

Administrators
Curators
Faculty
Students
Vendors
Publishers
Technical Services and Reference librarians
Electronic Resources librarians



Annamaria Poma-Swank
Associate Museum Librarian
The Cloisters Library & Archives
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Fort Tryon Park
New York, NY 10040-1171
(212) 396-5367
fax: (212) 795-3640
[log in to unmask]
Visiting Associate Professor, Pratt Institute, School of Library Science

__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
        http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html
Send 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]