Hello colleagues!

We hope your holidays have been restful. 

As you may know, the ADSL Division is working on a report on the state of independent art and design school libraries. We will soon be sending out a survey to institutions of this type.

In assembling a list of candidates matching this description, a few points of confusion have arisen. We’d like to make these questions public in order to mine the considerable wisdom of the listserv and perhaps stimulate conversation. 

ARLIS/NA’s description of the Art and Design School Libraries division is vague and inclusive in a way that works well for membership purposes. It refers to “art librarians working in institutions that teach and train artists and designers,” the subtext of which seems to be that those institutions are solely dedicated to that pursuit. This, however, is unhelpful for creating a definitive list of survey candidates, given the blurry categories our institutions sometimes occupy.

We know that AICAD membership is a fairly* good indicator that an institution can be counted as a candidate for our survey. But there are others beyond AICAD. If you know of institutions that are not on the attached list, we’d like to hear about them.

*There seems to be a gray area between a ‘fully independent’ art and design school and the growing number that have merged with, or are branches of, larger systems and institutions. Two examples are Parsons (part of the New School) and SMFA (merged with Tufts). Independence of the library (and/or exclusion from the 2019 State of Academic Libraries Report) could be a factor for our thinking here.

We’d like to hear your suggestions for sites to include, and your opinions on these issues in general. The attached doc is our working list, including notes, of survey candidates. You can make notes or email us your comments directly. We appreciate your input!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fvd-vlVrP3AARCPcOnm_BYGt1U7fo8HkREzyqmUJhI4/edit?usp=sharing

Best wishes,

The ADSL Division Report team

Abi Sweeney (Moderator), Margot Nishimura (Moderator-elect), Emily Coxe, Annemarie Haar, Grace Kim, and Alex O’Keefe