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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

 

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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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__________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.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 (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.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 (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]

-- 

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

__________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.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 (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]