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Hi Robert:

First, a question: Which accrediting body is coming to visit? I had my final
site visit from the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges last week,
so if this your evaluating body, feel free to give me a call. As my school
is a two year institution that teaches other subjects besides art and
design, I used ACRL's 2 year college standards as a reference point when
assessing my school's collection. The ACRL standards are not in the least
bit prescriptive. It's up to you to define what you should have. (BTW, if
you need the standards, you can find them on ALA's website.)

Hollis is on the right track in suggesting use of one of the basic ALA
master lists. You've got to start somewhere. You'd also probably want to
check out Lois Swan Jones' Art Info on the Internet book, because I've
noticed it contains what looks like a lot of electronic versions of
core-like things.

In my experience, faculty don't have the energy to tell you what is core off
the top of their heads. But they do appreciate you finding or creating lists
for them, then asking them if you got it right. If you have the time to do
this, you'll get the input you need.

One very quick and dirty way of getting an idea of what's core is to call
colleagues in fine art dept libraries at nearby big schools, and ask them to
tell you what books they keep in reference and use all the time. A quickie
survey like this would create quite a wish list. As a former ref librarian,
I know that what I kept within fingertip range usually was "core" to my
subject area.
Best wishes

Cathy Donaldson
lib dir
Art Institute of Seattle