Dear Judy and Shelly:
Both of you are correct in assessing that we're going to be involved with
print for a long time to come, especially in the fine arts where students
depend on browsing and handling materials and art books, etc. I would argue
that we actually need to be thinking in dual formats--print (because this is
what has been the standard) and digital (which is a long way from being
ideal but is going to be necessary in years to come) especially as
commercial vendors start encroaching on content and image delivery). Maybe
someone out there in ARLIS-Land is conducting research in this area, but I
hold that although other areas invite digitization and e-journal formats, in
the fine arts, we're going to have to continue to have students handle
books, and other items such as photographs, drawings, etc. And just because
digitization is becoming a priority in the states, it isn't the case for
foreign vendors, hence, print will be a reality for years to come. It would
be great to see a panel on this issue at the ARLIS/NA Conference in St.
Louis--I think the time has come for us to explore this topic with pertinent
data.
Miguel Juarez, Fine Arts & Photography Librarian
University of Arizona Library
Center for Creative Photography Library
-----Original Message-----
From: Judy Donovan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 4:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: text vs. electronic
At 03:31 PM 10/9/00 -0400Shelly Emmons wrote:
>We are in the early, early planning stages of building a new library. I am
>wondering:
>What are your thoughts on the amount of electronic vs. text information.
>Everyone seems to be going towards electronic these days, but I wonder how
>wise that is for an art (mainly sculpture) library.
>
Shelly,
Here at Drexel University, we're on the 'bleeding edge'--our Library Dean's
vision is the total electronic library. It's a very exciting vision and
works extremely well for hard sciences, engineering and even business.
But my experience here has taught me that we have a long way to go before
"the arts" are adequately represented in digital format.
Granted, there are lots of excellent sites with images (AMICO, American
Memory Collection, etc) but electronic books and journals are missing
the key element--IMAGES--that are crucial to art, design and
architecture. Besides this, most faculty and students in the arts are
still very print-oriented. We've recently had a lot of publicity about
having a "wireless" campus. The engineering students are ecstatic over it,
as well as
many in business and science. But those in the College of Design arts are
not--largely because the materials they need and use (slides and books) are
not available electronically. The few that are have substandard
images. Students often are assigned the task of scanning images and making
slides from books for their presentations. Given that the electronically
available image sources are so paranoid about people downloading images,
the electronic environment currently does not meet the needs of students in
the arts.
Our latest round of circulation statistics revealed that the
most-circulated books come from two areas: Computer science and art
(architecture in particular). Our annual library survey has shown that,
despite all the hoopla about electronic resources, the most-asked for
resource is still BOOKS.
I guess what I'm saying here is, the electronic world hasn't met the needs
of the art world yet. And, until both the image problem and the user
preference "problem" (arts people prefer browsing the real world and the
printed page), I doubt too much will change in the immediate future.
So go ahead and plan to wire your new library--but don't assume that the
web will alleviate the need for stack space and plan accordingly!
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]
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
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 at: [log in to unmask]
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
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 at: [log in to unmask]
