Dear ARLIS/NA and GLIRT Members,
Since my name was listed in the first message about this subject, I think
it is time I responded to it. I was a founding member of GLIRT and
moderated the first officially sponsored GLIRT session at the 1993
ARLIS/NA confernece in San Francisco. I was also the first moderator of
GLIRT (1993-1994).
I did volunteer to become the new GLIRT Vice-Moderator prior to the
Houston conference. And I, sadly, did not go to the GLIRT business
meeting as planned. I became ill while I was in Houston and was not able
to attend as many sessions and events as I had hoped to attend. I
sincerely apologize for not informing people about what had happened to
me.
I feel that I must say, however, that it would have been nice if a GLIRT
member had contacted me personally by email or phone prior to discussing
my named absence from the meeting globally via the Internet! I have not
receive a single personal email or phone call asking me why I failed to
attend the meeting or asking me if I could continue as the GLIRT
moderator! Now that I have vented that disappointment, I want to address
my thinking about GLIRT.
If GLIRT is to be dissolved, it must be done according to ARLIS/NA Bylaws
and it should issue forth from a GLIRT business meeting in which all
members have had an opportunity to think about it, discuss it and then
vote on it. I would hope that the ARLIS/NA Executive Board would agree
with me!
During this email discussion we have heard from Ted, Miguel, and Sherman,
but I would also like to hear from other signers of the email calling for
GLIRT to dissolve. As stated in Ted's first email, those people are:
Milan Hughston, Greg Most, Clayton Kirking, Daniel Starr, Eric Schwab,
Allen Townsend, Hugh Wilburn, Andrew Gessner and Tom Young. I want to
hear the reasons you think GLIRT should dissolve. If members are not
attending the GLIRT business meetings, why do you think that is the case?
In my own personal case, as some members of ARLIS/NA and ARLIS/Ohio know,
I taught Library Science for the University of Pittsburgh in China during
2002. I became quite ill after I returned home. The illness was so
serious that I had to take a medival leave from my position as Head of the
Frick Fine Arts Library. When I returned to work, I found I could only
work part-time for a period. I have not felt well enough to attend
ARLIS/NA conferences in recent years. I only began to feel as if I am
regaining part of my normal energy level this past summer (2004)! I find
myself now living with a compromised immune system that may well be
permanent. My doctor has prescribed a permanent Rx for an antiboitic
because I am so prone to colds, flu and other infections now. I did not
attend the Baltimore or NYC conferences because my health didn't allow it.
In spite of that recent health history, I am still willing to serve as the
Incoming Moderator at the Banff conference in 2006. I am still willing to
formulate a program proposal for that conference IF a GLIRT member will
take the time to email me ASAP with ideas that may have been discussed in
the NYC business meeting during 2004. In spite of the fact that I am on
sabbatical through August 31, 2005, I am willing to see what I can do to
bring back the GLIRT web site and update it. It was produced at Pitt when
Jim Viskochil worked here. I am quite certain that I can find an
interested Library Science student who would be willing to work with me to
make another GLIRT web site happen.
GLIRT programming at annual conferences has always been high in quality,
dynamic and provocative. And, judging from the GLIRT session at the 2004
NYC conference, it continues to be so! GLIRt programming has covered
everything from queer scholarship, censorship, management issues and
collection development to archival resources and Andy Warhol's Time
Capsules. Speakers at those sessions have included such internationally
and nationally known artists and authors as Jonathan Katz, Nayland Blake,
Thomas Waugh, Patrick Moore (Estate Project for Artists with AIDS) and Tom
Sokolowski and John Smith. GLIRT sessions have played to standing room
only audiences, gotten local press coverage (i.e., 1995 Montreal
conference on art book censorship at the Canadian-US border), and even
been videotaped to be partially used in a film by the National Film Board
of Canada (1999 Vancouver conference). It was also a GLIRT session that
featured a world-preiere of a performance artist piece (1999 Vancouver
conference). And it was for the GLIRT session at the Pittsburgh conference
that for the first time, the Andy Warhol Museum took a Time Capsule off
museum premises and opened it for a conference audience. GLIRT has even
jointly sponsored a session with the Gay and Lesbian Caucus at an annual
CAA conference! It was the 1995 CAA conferece in San Antonio that featured
the jointly sponsored session moderated by internationally known US artist,
Tee Corinne, and included papers by 2 West coast artists and three art
librarians. Do GLIRT members REALLY want to loose such programming from
ARLIS/NA and CAA conferences in the future?
GLIRT has NOT exhausted topics for future ARLIS/NA conference programming.
I am brainstorming alone right now and I can think of the following topics
trhat have not been addressed for which a need continues to exist:
workplace issues, cataloging and access issues to relevant information,
collection development issues, public service issuses, VR issues, the
realted issues of racism-homophobia-misogyny-xenophobia, how to find out
who the glbtq artists are, glbtq art from the studio arts perspective
.... I could go on.... I am sure that other ARLIS/NA and GLIRT members
have other ideas.
Yes, GLIRT did have one of the fist ARLIS/NA web sites with substantial
content. This may only happen again if GLIRT continues to exist. Yes,
there are other relevant Internet sites, but they don't offer an art
librarian's or visual resource curator's perspective. The GLIRT web site
also provided a record of the outstanding programs sponsored by the round
table at ARLIS/NA conferences -- a model for other professional
organizations. And was useful for ARLIS/NA historical purposes since the
ARLIS/NA archives are not easily accessible to members. A recent check of
ARLIS/NA conference proceedings shows that reports from several GLIRT
sessions were never submitted, so the historical record at that portion of
the ARLIS/NA web site is not complete.
If GLIRT has entered a "low energy" phase of its life, that is not a
reason to dissolve it. Other Round Tables have had those periods,
resting is one of the universal laws of thermodynamics and can be of
benefit to groups as well as individuals.
Recycling moderators is not necessarily a bad thing either. It's
certainly not a reason to dissolve the organization. We should enourage
younger ARLIS/NA members to join GLIRT, encourage them to be active in the
grup and even mentor them.
Dissolving GLIRT because other ARLIS/NA groups have recently done so it
not a reason for GLIRT to do the same thing. There is plenty that remains to
be done by GLIRT. The list of program possibilities above is only one
example. Other things GLIRT needs to do:
Grow the round table membership! GLIRT needs to make the entire ARLIS/NA
membership aware that it exists and what its mission is. A web site would
help with that sort of communication! So would regularly submitted
reports of the business meetings, small articles in UPDATE and relevant
lengthier articles in ART DOC (as far as I know only two have been
published and they were absolutely top notch!). Encouraging "friends" of
GLIRT to become members wouldn't hurt either!
Recruit women members! GLIRT has been aware of that need for many
years, but I wonder what has been done to make it a reality. Providing
business meetings, conference programming and social events that are
women-inclusive may entice women to join. So might co-sponsoring sessions
with WART. Perhaps a confidential survey of women ARLIS/NA members may
provide us with ideas as to what women may need from GLIRT that we have
not yet provided.
It took courage to establish GLIRT in 1993. We must have the courage and
muster the energy to see that it continues to be a part of ARLIS/NA in the
future! While it is 2005 and we do live in the 21st century now, we also
live in a "backlash" political environment. It is a world in which
diversity, while remaining a vital part of the nation's debate, is also
being dismantled in institutions across the country. It is a world in
which feminists are still cited as "ugly, strident man-haters" and we glbtq
people continue to be discriminated against in ALL aspects of life. If
GLIRT does not remain a presence within ARLIS/NA (as similar groups do
within ALA, CAA, AAM, MLA, AHA, etc.) our issues will not be addressed in
the organization's policy or programming. Do GLIRT members REALLY want
that to happen?
I vote for ending this discussin, calling off the Board's vote and
continuing our GLIRT work in the future!
GLIRTies, please let me know ASAP if you want me to continue as your
Incoming Moderator and send me program ideas that have a chance of flying
at the Banff conference in 2006.
Ray Anne Lockard
Ray Anne Lockard
Head, Frick Fine Arts Library
University Library System
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice: 412-648-2410
Fax: 412-648-7568
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
A book should be a ball of light in one's hands.
Ezra Pound
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