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Apologies to all for sending this as an attachment. Here is the text
version of the session proposal.
Judy Donovan
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ARLIS session proposal: "Too much of a good thing? Selection, Management
and Collection Development of Art/Design Web Sites
The number of art and design-related web sites is growing at an almost
unmanageable pace. Just several years ago, the number of sites seemed
comparable to the number of key reference sources in a subsection of the
N's in anyone's reference department. Now there are enough sitesmany of
them of high caliberto make up a small electronic art library. And more
"snow" keeps falling every day.
Many art librarians maintain informational reference web pages where they
collect art/design sites for student use, grouping them by subject or
classifying them in some other way. Maintaining this online reference
collection of useful sites is becoming an exausting enterprise because
links have to be checked periodically to see if sites have moved, new
sites are appearing every day that are good candidates for inclusion, and,
if one is to be thorough in what gets included, the sheer number of sites
listed on a reference page can be a real turn-off to students looking for
answers to specific questions. Not to mention a time-consuming headache
for the librarian who must arrange and keep track of the information on the
page.
In this new electronic environment (the Internet) the lines between a
'ready reference' collection online and a veritable online 'electronic
art library' are still very fuzzy. How do we keep control of these "free"
collections? Should they be cataloged and added to the OPAC? If
cataloging is not the answer, is there a method to keeping the sheer number
of sites listed on a reference page to a thorough-yet-not-overwhelming
number? Are we 'collecting' these sites because they are free and of
high quality or just because they're about art and are freely
available? Would we make the same selection decisions if there were
subscription charges for making these sites available on our institutions'
web sites? Has the situation evolved far enough to generate a core list
of web sites for art library reference collections?
This panel will address some of the issues involved in maintaining good
art/design electronic reference pages on an institutional web site,
including evaluation for quality and usefulness as a reference tool, "core
collection" issues, keeping current with new sites, and how to identify
when you've put too much non-reference material online which you ought to
be cataloging some sites for your OPAC.
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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