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Dear Colleagues,

 

I hope you are having a productive and pleasant fall.  Many of you are probably getting ready for the holidays, the end of the term, or the end of the calendar year.  I am writing to provide the membership with an update on the happenings of the society.

 

Conference Planning

Conference planning is going very well.  The St. Louis conference co-chairs, Jenny Atkins, Andrea Degener, Skye Lacerte, and Rina Vecchiola are working diligently to host an educational and enjoyable conference.  Hotel information has been made available, the conference schedule will be published in early January, and we plan to open early bird registration on January 15, 2020.  We all know how much goes into putting on a successful conference and I would like to thank the planning committee for their work. 

 

I would also like to recognize the work of the development committee led by Gregg Most and the awards committee and subcommittees led by Karyn Hinkle.  The development committee has been fundraising and managing in-kind donations for the conference in addition to its work to fundraise for the society, all of which are essential to the financial health of ARLIS/NA.  The awards committee and subcommittees have been working on conference travel awards, research awards, the Distinguished Service Award, publication awards, and student advancement awards.  These awards recognize our members at all stages from emerging professionals to those who have made an indelible mark.  And they recognize the most important arts publications of the year.  I would also like to mention that ARLIS/NA has received a generous donation from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation whereby we can continue to offer International Conference Exchange.  This award will be formally announced after Thanksgiving.

 

The 2021 ARLIS/NA Annual Conference in Montreal is taking shape.  We are working on a hotel contract and dates and hope to make a formal announcement before the end of the calendar year.

 

Committee and Liaison Assignments

Committee chair, committee membership, and liaison assignments are in process.  Thank you to everyone who volunteered.  Amy Trendler, Vice-President/President-Elect, has been working on this challenging task.  Speaking from experience it is definitely like putting a puzzle together.  I would like to thank the Strategic Directions Committee led by Emilee Matthews for inspiring Committee Chairs to publicly share their work and solicit volunteers for their committees.

 

Advocacy

One of the Strategic Directions of ARLIS/NA is Leadership and Advocacy:  The Society shall speak and act on behalf of its members to advance, validate, sustain, and advocate for the profession and the value of art libraries, as well as train its members to be advocates within their individual context.  Over the last few weeks there was a discussion on ARLIS-L led by Sam Duncan about the cost prohibitive pricing of OCLC and how many of our small art libraries are contributing cataloging records essential to research but are not openly exposed.  The executive board decided the best course of action is to contact OCLC directly with a statement of the issues and propose recommendations.  I am very hopeful that the statement from ARLIS/NA will effect an internal review of OCLC’s pricing structure.  This is a great example of how ARLIS/NA will advocate for our members and our research communities.  Please know that you are encouraged to bring issues to the advocacy and public policy committee led by Serenity Ibsen or to anyone on the executive board.          

 

Membership database, membership renewals, bundled membership and the ARLIS/NA Commons

I want to thank all of our members for their patience as we transition to a new membership database.  This transition was essential to implement the ARLIS/NA Commons.  We were also able to realize a longstanding goal of establishing a bundled membership option.  I know both our chapters and our members have questions about our new system.  Executive board members Stefanie Hilles and Suzanne Rackover have developed an FAQ to answer your questions which will be on the ARLIS/NA website shortly.  If the renewal system is not working for you, please contact Nancy Short, Executive Director, and she will help you through the process.  I would like to thank the membership committee, led by Laurel Bliss, and the all of the chapter chairs for supporting this change through its long development process.

 

Education Initiatives

I would like to commend the professional development – education subcommittee for collaborating with the Spectrum Advisory Committee on Recruitment, Retention, and Experiences of Art Library Professionals, a webinar around the experiences of people of color in art librarianship and beyond.  Thanks to Carol Ng-He for moderating.  The recording will be available in the Learning Portal soon and I encourage the membership to review this important work.

 

Our SEI representatives Courtney Baron and Molly Szymanski have also been busy working on a transformed curriculum and renaming the Institute to Summer Educational Institute for Digital Stewardship of Visual Information.  The 2020 SEI will be at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, June 23-26.  I encourage you to attend.

 

Management Review Task Force

In October, the executive board charged a task force to begin working on a management services review.  Our contract with AEG is set to expire in the first quarter of 2021 and we will need to determine a way forward at the end of 2020.  Amy Trendler is chairing the task force.  Heather Gendron, Matthew Gengler, and Kristen Regina have graciously volunteered to serve.  They will provide the executive board with a report and recommendations next summer.

 

Nominations

Finally, I would like to recognize the important work of the nominating committee led by Debbie Kempe. I am thrilled to welcome our new leaders to the executive board in the spring.  In case you missed the message, our new officers will be:

·         Vice President/President-Elect: Mark Pompelia

·         Treasurer: Doug Litts

·         Canadian Liaison: Amy Furness

·         Education Liaison: Heather Slania

 

If you have questions or thoughts about anything in this message, please get in touch with me or a member of the executive board.

 

Happy Holidays everyone! 

 

Best, Laura

 

Laura Schwartz

Arts & Humanities Collection Strategist

Visual Arts Librarian

Subject Librarian for Film Studies

UC San Diego

858-534-1267

 

President

Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA)