----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Dear ARLIS/NA Members,

I want to thank everyone who participated in the recent discussion on
ARLIS-L concerning Christie's current method of providing auction sales
results.  Your interest and concern prompted the ARLIS/NA Executive Board
to write to Christie's about possible enhancements to their current web
service.  A copy of this letter follows.

Thanks also to Deborah Kempe, Northeast Regional Representative, for her
help in compiling the letter.

Kathryn Wayne
ARLIS/NA President


August 16, 1999

Mr. Ed Dolman, Managing Director
Christie's, Inc.
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Dear Mr. Dolman:

On behalf of The Art Libraries Society of North America, an organization
representing nearly 1,500 art information professionals, I am sending this
letter to inform you of problems that many of our members are encountering
while trying to access sales results for Christie's auctions.

When Christie's ended the long-standing service of mailing auction results
to its subscribers late last year, librarians immediately began voicing
their frustrations, at professional meetings and on the ARLIS-L listserv,
with the new web-based service.  Libraries and research centers are now
forced to make cumbersome adjustments to deal with a much more time- and
paper-consuming procedure.  Based on suggestions posted to the listserv, as
well as conversations with our members who subscribe to the auction
catalogs of Christie's and other houses, we feel that the web-produced
lists would be improved with a few format changes.

Because most libraries have a procedure in place to tip sales results into
their corresponding catalogs, they would prefer to see a more compact,
multi-column format resembling the mailed lists.  Currently, much staff
time is spent essentially trying to recreate that original format, i.e.,
reformatting and printing the document, copying it onto acid-free paper,
and often copying it again to create two-sided pages.  Our members also
would welcome an option to call up several sale dates at a time and print
multiple results at one session.  They also would like to see the addenda,
which may have important additional information and corrections to the
catalogue entries, included with the price lists on the web.  Finally, I
must add that many subscribers would welcome the option to receive mailed
results, either by postal service or via e-mail. Regardless of whether this
option is reintroduced, we recommend that sales results be archived on your
website.   If access to past sales results via the web were guaranteed,
libraries might end the practice of tipping in printed lists.

It is the hope of the Executive Board of ARLIS/NA that these suggestions
will be helpful to you and your staff as you consider enhancements to the
web service.  Because Christie's and ARLIS/NA share the goal of ensuring
access to sales results, we encourage you to pursue improvements so that
libraries can continue to make available this essential information for art
research and documentation.  Our colleague Shira Nichaman, Director of
Christie's Library and Research Center and an ARLIS/NA member, can no doubt
serve as an excellent soundboard and conduit for our membership's concerns
and needs, and we encourage you to engage her perspective with regard to
decisions that affect libraries around the world.  Thank you very much for
your consideration of our concerns.

Yours sincerely,



Kathryn Wayne
ARLIS/NA President
On behalf of the Executive Board