Judith Holliday, the fine arts librarian at Cornell from about 1970 to the mid 1990s, died last Friday at home in Ithaca. I first knew her when I was a copy cataloger at Cornell from 1969-1971 and her fine example as librarian played a part in my evolution from art history grad student to library school student. Judith was a consummate bibliographer in architecture, both for the Cornell collections and as compiler of the SAH Newsletter booklist for many years. When I was back at Cornell in the 1980s, Judith and I had a zillion conversations about architecture and she taught me how to say Italian words better if not always correctly. Her attendance at ARLIS/NA was mostly early on but she continued to attend ARLIS/Western New York meetings. Margaret Webster and I remember riding with her in the orange VW to various ARLIS/WNY meetings.
At one ARLIS/NA annual conference (I think it was NYC in 1978), there was a panel with publishers. Judith stood up and asked the Abrams representative why they didn't put dates in their books. He said something about wanting them to appear new when they were on the shelf for Christmas presents and didn't realize how troublesome it was for librarians. As far as I know, Abrams has put the date in all their books since then.
I'll miss Judith a lot. The link to her obituary in the Ithaca Journal is below, as well as the text of the short notice written by the Interim Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell.
Sherman Clarke
New York University Libraries
[log in to unmask]
Link to obituary: http://www.legacy.com/TheIthacaJournal/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=102975202
Dean's tribute, forwarded from SAH-L:
> Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 16:55:48 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
Judith's long service to the JSAH is to be remembered, to say nothing of
her warm companionship, keen eye and ready wit.
With best regards,
Michael [Tomlan]
> >
> >Dear Friends,
> >
> >I learned this afternoon that Judith Holliday, former Librarian of the
> >Sibley Fine Arts Library passed away this morning at 10:00 at her home.
> >Judith was a dear friend and valued colleague of faculty and staff in our
> >college for many years, and a generous and dedicated mentor to generations
> >of students. As you may know, Judith had struggled with cancer for some
> >time. I understand that for the past couple of days, Judith was surrounded
> >by family and friends and supported by Hospicare. A tentative date for
> >Judith's memorial service is Saturday, March 1. Her obituary will be in
> >tomorrow's or Monday's newspaper.
> >
> >Stan.
> >Willard Stanley Taft
> >Interim Dean
> >Associate Professor, Department of Art
> >
> >Cornell University
> >College of Architecture Art and Planning
> >129 Sibley Dome
> >Ithaca, NY 14882
> >College of Architecture, Art & Planning
> >Cornell University
> >129 Sibley Dome
> >Ithaca, NY 14853
P.S. A friend of Judith's is planning on a memorial gathering on March 29th at her gallery in New York City. If you would like details, let me know.
__________________________________________________________________
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]
