At the Toledo Museum of Art, we serve the University of Toledo
Department of Art as well as the Museum staff and the public. So we
have elements of being an academic art library as well as a museum
library and, to some extent, a public facility.
We have over 20,000 artists' files that contain the usual stuff -
postcard announcements, press releases, dealer brochures, and one-person
catalogues under 100 pages (those over that limit go into the monograph
collection). The accumulated files take up about 380 feet.
In the days of a card catalog, we had a card in the files for each
artist represented (indicated by a VF, then the artist's name) and those
were meticulously morphed to a database that was uploaded into our
online catalogue when we automated.
At this point, we are at the beginnings of providing more in-depth
access to the treasures in these files, by downloading records for items
over about ten pages. Granted, this serves not just the university
population, but we know that here is a wealth of information (including
images) that does not appear on the internet. Our files are used quite
heavily and I see no reason to dispose of them.
For the most part, we do not purchase materials for them, do not clip
or photocopy from journals, but simply process those items that come by
the bushel in the mail and from donors (both public and museum staff).
By being essentially a museum library, we are likely to get more of this
kind of material without asking, than would an academic library.
Anne O. Morris
Head Librarian
Toledo Museum of Art
Box 1013
Toledo, OH 43697
tel: 419-254-5771, ext. 7379
fax: 419-255-5638
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>>> Leslie Abrams <[log in to unmask]> 3/24/2004 1:37:36 PM >>>
Thanks in advance to ARLIS/NA members for your input to the following
questions!
If you work in an academic art library, do you currently maintain
artists'
files?
If yes, has the advent of the web impacted maintaining such files? How
so?
Has your institution disbanded or discarded artists' files? What were
the
reasons?
Much thanks, and I look forward to seeing everyone in NYC!
Leslie
Leslie Abrams
Head, Arts Libraries
University of California, San Diego
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__________________________________________________________________
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]
