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Dear Colleagues:

Just as I was beginning to wonder if Art Documentation had been suspended, the Spring issue arrived--I confess I don't at this point remember when, but I'm pretty sure it was after the Atlanta conference.  Soon after that I went on an extended driving vacation and returned home just two weeks ago.  What with one thing and another, it was only today that I finally picked up the issue (with its eye-catching light green and dark teal blue cover) I had set to one side of my desk.  The issue includes several articles that especially interested me (Eileen Fry on folksonomic and expert image tagging; Deborah Boudewyns on digital image collections; Roberto Ferrari on the decision to go for a PhD, reporting on his survey of art librarians that hold the PhD and those who are currently pursuing it), but because of my special interest in art museum librarianship, I turned first to an article near the end of the issue (p. 62): "From Holland to Canada: Karen McKenzie, Art Museum Librarian."

Abandoning the strict Q & A format they have used in past Art Doc interviews, Tom Jacoby and Eileen Markson have woven a seamless narrative of Karen's professional development and career, incorporating quotations from her as appropriate with a narrative story of her development and accomplishments together with a history of the development of one of Canada's pre-eminent art museum libraries, the Research Library of the Art Gallery of Ontario, where Karen has worked, first as a cataloger, and then as Chief Librarian, since 1980.  As always with these bios, the reader learns much previously unknown about the subject, including some personal information.  (Who knew that Karen is originally from The Netherlands?)

For those who have known Karen as an ARLIS member (since 1974!) and leader and for those who have a special interest in art museum libraries, this biographical/historical essay is fascinating and informative about the history of art museums and their libraries over the past 30 years or so.  (The trials and tribulations--and successes--of Canadian art museums over that period of time are not that different from the experiences of U.S. art museums.)  I was especially taken with Karen's list of six qualities desirable in a successful museum librarian (p. 66).  

The essay ends with a plea to the Society from Karen to consider Toronto soon as an annual conference site, "a city in the midst of an unprecedented cultural renaissance."  As someone who attended the wonderful Toronto conference in 1979, I absolutely second the motion.  And the highlight should be the new AGO research library designed by Frank Gehry (with more than a little help from Karen) that will open in 2008!

Joan


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