Carol,
I have redirected the related postings from ARLIS-L to VRA-L. I
cannot promise they will all go through: the system may not recognize
ARLIS-L members (if they bounce back, I will forward them).
Mark
At 10:50 AM -0400 6/30/06, Carol Graney wrote:
Dear colleagues,
I believe that many of the people who
have commented on this issue are members of both VRA and ARLIS/NA. I
am curious to know what VRA members are saying or would say about
this. Is there a discussion about this issue going on on VRA-L as
well?
I fully support John's idea of creating a
joint task force to investigate merging the two organizations. As we
are currently taking a hard look at the organization of ARLIS/NA, it
seems that this is the ideal time to form the task force.
Carol
Carol Graney
Director of University
Libraries
The University of the Arts
320 S. Broad St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-717-6281
215-717-6287 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
http://library.uarts.edu
On Jun 30, 2006, at 10:23 AM, John
Taormina wrote:
Everyone,
If the lines along the traditional art
library and visual resources professions are blurring due to changes
in those professions and the disciplines themselves-and they are-then
real, productive reciprocity to me means looking beyond mere
affiliation, which doesn't really get us much, or a joint conference,
into the merging of both organizations so members of both can benefit
from a larger collective body of expertise and programs without having
to divide funds, loyalties, volunteerism, and time between the two
organizations and end up in a pick-and-choose situation. Such a coming
together within one organization would even mimic the collaboration
and joint initiatives that most of us are seeing between people in
libraries, visual resources centers, information technology offices,
new media projects, museums, archives, etc.
I think Mark's term of "art
information professional" is key here. This isn't about books, or
digital images, or serials, or digital text, or digital video, or
architecture, design, or visual resources specialties. It's about
effectively providing art information to our patrons, no matter what
the media interest, administrative structure, educational background,
or institutional location of members.
One fact remains in all of this: ARLIS/NA
and VRA are currently distinct, separate, incorporated organizations,
with separate budget structures, separate governing processes,
separate missions, different goals, etc., but with some overlapping
members and, occasionally, colliding histories. In fact, it is this
separateness that often makes a joint conference so difficult. But
none of this is insurmountable, as many have already pointed
out.
I find Gregg's last comment exceedingly
relevant: "I believe that if ARLIS and VRA do not merge, they
will continue to lose membership (or more basically, the interest of
its members) to other groups that better address their needs to grow
and develop as art information professionals in an age where libraries
and our profession is evolving so swiftly." There are many
more interesting, focused, educational, and appropriate venues to find
continuing professional development than there were twenty years
ago.
As a long-time member of both
organizations, I would heartily support a joint task force to look at
the issue of merging. This discussion has been brewing for some time.
We have one thing going in both organizations' favor: ARLIS/NA-VRA
joint task forces have all been very productive and successful to
date.
Do a group of us need to officially
petition the Executive Board?
Best,
John
I would second all of these points, and would add the
enormous financial burden faced by those of us who try to be active in
both organizations. This was always difficult, but it's now
becoming almost prohibitive. It is also ironic, in that we need
the interaction of our various constituencies more now than ever
before. We have so much to share with each other, as was amply
demonstrated at this year's SEI. But we seem to be two organizational
trains on two parallel tracks that rarely, if ever, arrive at the same
station.
Eileen Fry
Indiana University
From: ART LIBRARIES SOCIETY DISCUSSION LIST [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Pompelia
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 2:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARLIS-L] VRA & ARLIS
Maryly,
Susan Jane, and ARLIS Members,
I realize
that this addresses much larger issues, but I am amazed at how VRA &
ARLIS can have such close and normal relations at the local levels
regarding how our chapters interact but at the national levels we
cannot manage to have a joint conference more than once in twenty-five
years. I recognize that our associations do relate in other arenas
(SEI, joint sponsorships, shared position papers, etc.) but this
strikes me as a minimal cooperation, not one that recognizes that
anymore we are the same audience, drawing upon the same issues, the
same pool of volunteers, the same experts, etc.
I remain
impressed by Sherman Clarke's Distinguished Service Award in Banff
when it was clear how elegantly and effortlessly he has managed to
serve both associations, and all to our collective benefit.
I have
personally felt for many years that ARLIS and VRA should enter into a
federation of sorts, one that preserves our individual strengths but
steers us toward our common goals as art information professionals, a
federation where a joint conference is the norm, not the unlikely. Yet
it happens year after year that we are no closer to such relations.
Why is this so? Is it that this relationship is not working, or is it
that this is the way this affiliation works? I do not have the
answers, but the questions have never been formally asked.
Furthermore,
if the questions cannot be asked at the board levels (for whatever
reasons, but it goes beyond any one board or any one organization),
then as members we should seek answers under a member-driven
arrangement (petition? blog?). Is joint conference registration the
best we can do?
Thanks,
Mark
Mark Pompelia
Director, Visual Resources Center
Dept. of Art History
Rice
University
PO Box 1892, MS
21
Houston TX 77251-1892
Editor, VRA Bulletin <http://www.vraweb.org/>
Past President, ARLIS Texas-Mexico Chapter <http://www.arlis-txmx.org>
e: [log in to unmask]
p: 713-348-4836
f: 713-348-4039
URL: http://arthistory.rice.edu
At 12:12 PM
-0400 6/29/06, Susan Jane Williams wrote:
I agree with
Maryly.
I understand
that this opens an even more complex set of issues, but since the
ARLIS board and membership are going to reconsider Chapter issues, I
would strongly urge that they take a look at the important symbiosis
between VRA regional chapters and ARLIS chapters. I think we can do
much better than a conference discount in terms of real reciprocity at
this critical time of change in both the librarian and visual
resources professions.
Since Ann
has been president of VRA and is now president of ARLIS, I think she
has the background information necessary to help this process and
I would hope for a simple solution along the lines of a slightly more
expensive per meeting charge for "cross-over" attendance
(which would equal annual chapter dues if two meetings were attended).
I don't think the benefits of such interaction can be boiled down to
only revenue.
Best,
Susan
Susan Jane
Williams
Data
Specialist and User Services Liaison
Saskia Ltd./
Scholars Resource, Inc.
susanjane_williams@hotmailcom
or
[log in to unmask]
Cell: (203)
927-3640
-----
Original Message -----
Sent:
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 4:50 PM
Subject: Re:
[ARLIS-L] VRA & ARLIS
Maryly,
Members of
ARLIS/NA and VRA are affiliated and through that affiliation members
from both organizations receive the member discount at each
organization's conferences. This is the agreement between ARLIS/NA and
VRA.
Ann
Subject: [ARLIS-L]
VRA & ARLIS
Since ARLIS is affiliated
with VRA and because many of the ARLIS chapter members who are NOT
members of ARLIS/NA are dues-paying members of VRA, shouldn't they get
some reciprocal privileges?
Thanks,
Maryly
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--
John J.
Taormina
Director, Visual Resources Center
Dept. of Art, Art History & Visual Studies
Duke University
Box 90764
112 East Duke Building
Durham NC 27708-0764
Ph: 919-684-2501
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.duke.edu/web/art/
"The spice must flow."
-Frank
Herbert, Dune
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