Error during command authentication.

Here’s another story for the continuing “state of museum libraries” discussion on ARLIS-L.

Like many others, we have had staff, public hours and budget cuts, down from 2.5 FTE to 1.5 FTE and operating budget cuts that leave me raiding my less restricted book endowments for supplies, etc. All this in the middle of our centennial year, publishing a book on the history of the Gallery and managing the last year of a grant to bring up the Museum’s mobile app. 

My superiors are beginning to brainstorm ways to “increase the visibility” of the library, perhaps by moving some portion of it closer to the collections galleries.   While I have no objection to increased visibility, as others have noted, the museum library’s primary audience is the staff, and to compare visitation numbers to that of the museum as a whole will never make much sense.  How such a move can be done with minimal staff and decreased hours is a puzzle to me.

We are unique in that the Gallery is both part of the University of Rochester and dedicated to the entire Rochester community.  We are lucky to be part of the university’s library system, although our use by those on campus 4 miles away is mostly through remote delivery of materials. The museum has been challenged for over 50 years to maintain contacts with distant faculty and students.  The best way I can see to assist that, due to the distance between campuses, is digitally. Yet we must balance maintaining our core collections with making more materials (and, I would argue, our unique materials) available online. With the support of our regional library council, we’ve had access to CONTENTdm, and have made a start toward digitizing archival resources, which were quite helpful internally when publishing the history.  I’ve also been the systems administrator for our collections database, making information about our collections available online and connecting it to library resources. 

How do does the library best support and extend the Gallery’s mission to connect people with art, all the while with shrinking institutional resources?  How does library expertise interconnect with IT?  I see the library in a unique position to assist curators and educators in reaching out to our public, both online and in person.  In my institution, I believe the way that will best happen is through increased investment in IT infrastructure and staffing, more than through the library per se.  Too many exciting projects have been postponed indefinitely because we don’t have the IT support to enable them.

Lu Harper

Librarian/Webmaster

Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester

500 University Ave.

Rochester, NY 14607

585.276.8997

[log in to unmask]

It Came From the Vault: Rarely Seen Works from MAG’s Collection

March 17 – June 9, 2013

Art Reflected:The Inspiration of 100 Years

Through April 21, 2013 throughout the galleries

Becoming Modern: Armory Show Artists at MAG

Through May 12, 2013 in the Lockhart Gallery

Celebrate 100 years of MAG 

Save the Date: Cabaret: A Night in Paris 1913 April 12, 2013