Dear Colleagues,
The discussion about the synergy between ARLIS/NA and VRA is very
exciting. I was President of ARLIS/NA in 1978 so I have an appreciation
of the history behind the formation of the Visual Resources Association,
and a deep respect for the contributions of its members. From my
perspective in my current position, I would enthusiastically support an
effort to explore opportunities to build on the strengths of the two
organizations. When I came to work in the Fine Arts Library there were
very separate departments for Book Collections and Visual Collections.
Yet our users mingled texts and images in their research and teaching,
so, I asked, how can we make it easier for them to access and use our
wonderful collections without having to deal with so many challenges of
our traditional functional organization (collection development of
printed material, collection development of images, book cataloging,
image cataloging, book public services, image public services, etc).
Last year we reorganized. Now we are format blind in collection
development and public services, and using authority control as the
intersection of the cataloging systems for images, printed material, and
manuscripts/archival collections.
Many good ideas about what could be gained by more intersection between
VRA and ARLIS/NA have been floated in ARLIS-L, and I just want to lend
my support to the continuation of the brainstorming.
I respect the fact that a merger of the two organizations may be
daunting to some or many of the members. Some have raised the question,
would non-art VR professionals lose a home if VRA and ARLIS/NA merged?
At Harvard, we have wrestled with how to incorporate records for non-art
visual collections (images of botanical specimens, stars, minerals, etc)
into VIA, Harvard's database designed for images of art and
architecture, so I appreciate the question. Perhaps it would be easier
to consider a merger if we discussed commonalities between the two
organization, which I believe are images and the texts about images.
Wolfgang Freitag once told me that when he was a student at Simmons
getting his library science degree, he went on a field trip to the Fogg
Art Library and was given a tour by E. Louise Lucas, perhaps the mother
of our profession. Miss Lucas, as she was known, told the Simmons
students that the Fogg Art Library was a library of images with a
smaller supporting collection of books. I continue to play with that
idea as I think about this library and its users and their expectations,
habits, and current practices.
IMHO, I would like to suggest that if our two organizations do merge, we
consider a new name for the organization that would encompass both
missions, and would like to offer the name "Visual Culture Association
of North America" as a possibility. I have been reading /The
Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture Reader/, edited by Vanessa R. Schwartz
& Jeannene M. Przyblyski (Routledge, 2004), which "foregrounds objects
consumed for their image-value and the institutions that facilitated
such looking...and...aspires to advance not just knowledge of the
varieties of visual experiences...but the very consciousness of vision
and visuality."
Thanks for listening.
Kathy Martinez
--
Katharine Martinez, Ph.D.
Herman and Joan Suit Librarian
Fine Arts Library
Harvard University
32 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 496-1504
FAX: (617) 496-4889
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://hcl.harvard.edu/finearts/
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