SJSU Art Librarian

Those ticklish T's of call numbers and a new favorite project.

2012-01-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

Greetings! Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012 and, on Wednesday, the beginning of Spring Semester at SJSU. I should offer a mea culpa for my lack of updates to this blog during the Fall semester, but rather than make apologies I will instead offer an intention to write more frequently about books, art, and artists' books. One of the highlights already to happen in 2012 was the College Book Arts Association Conference, which I attended a few week-ends ago at Mills College in Oakland. It was an inspiring and educational conference, a well thought out event filled with artists, curators, and the assorted professionals of the book world, librarians included. In the coming weeks, I will be writing more about the artists' books collection at SJSU.

I will also be bragging this spring and into fall that I am now a member of the Book Club of California, an august organization that will be celebrating its first centennial in 2012. I say first because I expect this organization to be flourishing centuries into the future, a magical mainstay of preservation, conservation, and exaltation of the book. Yes, I am excited. If you are interested in the Centennial Conference happening in October, you might like to go to this website for more information: http://www.bccbooks.org/centennial.htm
But I promised you a comment about Ticklish T's and a favorite new project. These two concepts are related. The T's first, specifically, the T in the Library of Congress classification. Since photography has a technical, perhaps we can even say mechanized aspect to it, books on photography are most frequently classed in the T area, rather than N. A hindrance to browsing, perhaps? An opportunity for those expensive books on photography and photographers to be easily accessible to scurrilous hands that mis-shelve or otherwise abuse them? Alas, those problems have plagued any open stack collection and I won't go into those problems right now. My point is, if you are looking for books on photography, particularly the history of photography or photographic techniques, you must betake yourself to the T area of a library that employs the LC classification scheme.

My LC Subject headings for you today are:

Photography -- Printing processesHere are some examples of how this heading can be further subdivided:

Photography -- Printing processes--historyPhotography -- Printing processes- History -- 19th centuryPhotography -- Printing processes -- History -- ExhibitionsPhotography has many intriguing words associated with its processes, properties, and apparati. Platinum, palladium, cyanotype. Gradient, negative, developer. And two very magical words: silver gelatin. Silver Gelatin. Sure, same them out loud, I am. Silver Gelatin.

What comes to mind? Ansel Adams, of course. The Weston family of photographers. Layered tones of silver, black, and white that present a luminous capture of a moment. There are still photographers practicing today the art of traditional photograph printing, and I am going to introduce you to two of them right now.

Anton Orlov and Ryan Kalem are orchestrating the completion of the Photo Palace Bus, a mobile photographic studio. I am proud to say they are also graduates of the San Jose State University School of Art and Design. As the semester begins, it is delightful to see what some alumni are doing with their knowledge and it renews me as an academic librarian to know that on my campus, the next Big Thing in art is quite likely to be found. Every day I am on campus, I see potential. I see it in the conversations students are having, in the way they interact with each other, in the questions they ask, or when look up a book record and see the book is checked out. Sure, by mid-March I'll be bleary eyed and maybe a little overwhelmed, but there is really nothing like the beginning of a new semester, when we go, armed with fresh enthusiasm, to meet the future.
I'm going to let Anton and Ryan explain their vision via their Kickstarter video. After you watch it, I want you to go get your preferred form of commerce, and make a pledge. I can't think that you'll need more motivation than just watching their video to make a contribution to the creation of The Photo Palace Bus, but just in case you do, I'll tactfully remind you tomorrow is my birthday, and if you prefer not to publicly admit to your reading of this blog don't worry, you can also pledge anonymously! I'll never know, dear reader, that it was you who helped make this vision into a road warrior of Photographic Fantastic-ness, but you will, and that's what matters, isn't it?

Without further ado: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/351976604/the-photo-palace-bus

What a Dictionary of Modern Design can do for you.

2011-06-27T15:44:00.000-07:00

The thoughtful foray into the 2nd floor reference collection needs to move at a less stately pace, lest deadlines creep into danger zones, but how can I hurry when I keep finding sources I want to page through from cover to cover?

I once commented to a person interested in librarianship, yes, if you want to read encyclopedias, you probably should be a librarian. Reference sources often trick me into the thinking the whole world can be an organized place. Let's take Johnathan Woodham's 2004 Dictionary of Modern Design as an example.

This is a very useful book for short but well written definitions of concepts and events and materials, as well as brief biographies of major designers. This is another example of the type of source I would advocate as a tool for choosing a topic. Before plunging into article databases, or even browsing the stacks, start with this one volume and let your mind wander through the entries on topics such as Fiskars, Fordism, Ikea, and mail order. Besides the entries specific to design, Woodham also includes entries on writers like Vance Packard and Betty Friedan.

In addition to the individual entries, Woodham also provides three things most librarians love: a bibliography (well, we all love those), an index, and a timeline. The bibliography is a helpful tool for collection development. The timeline is a useful tool, and I apply my typical approach in looking up a year I am interested in. 1900--the year of the Paris Salon, but also the year Bakelite was patented. For every decade, there is a section on Design Landmarks, Technology, Processes, and Materials, as well as Key Exhibitions and Publications.

Besides having this title available on the second floor of King Library, it can be accessed via the Library Catalog with an SJSU id and pin.

Summer also is for Reference Books.

2011-06-20T16:24:00.001-07:00

Greetings! In reviewing the reference books in Art, I have had a chance to revisit some of my favorite titles and get acquainted with new favorites. I'm going to make this a short entry in order to keep moving through the collection, but I wanted to write up today's find so it will be more firmly embedded in my memory.

An illustrated dictionary of ornament / by Maureen Stafford and Dora Ware. London: Allen & Unwin, 1974.

I was particularly enamored of this title because of the illustrations used as examples. The entry on heraldic ornament gives several pages of "devices", the symbols chosen as insignia. The black and white drawings range from the crowned owl of Leeds to the winged horse of Exeter. This source would be an excellent choice if you wanted to review the Order of Architecture in regard to columns. You might be able to rattle off Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, but do you know your dentils from your modillions?

More on Decoration and Ornament in my next post!

Summer=museums

2011-05-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

Today is May 26th, 2011. Over the course of the week-end, literally thousands of San Jose State University students will become SJSU alumni! Congratulations to everyone who will cross a stage in a cap and gown and find new ground under your feet.

What do librarians do in the summer? Well, some of us have mapped out grandiose schemes of updating all manner of policies, web pages, and procedures. Some of us aspire to tidy our offices. Many of us will submerge, quietly, into the cool, quiet stacks and let our minds expand with thoughts of how we will reorder out thoughts and plots to be ever better librarians when Fall comes round again.

Some of us, and I'm not saying who, will be running amok and trying to catch all the museum exhibits as humanly possible. If you are in San Jose, or near here, I highly recommend the San Jose Museum of Art's current exhibition titled The Modern Photographer: Observation and Intention | Selections from the Permanent Collection which will be on display until July 3. It is a very well curated show of early 20th century photography, including stellar examples from Ruth Bernhard and P.H. Polk. If you hurry, you can also see the impressive Mapplethorpe Portraits show, which is only up 'til June 5th.

Words about Images

2011-04-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Begging your pardon for the lapse in posting--can it really be as long as last November when I was moved by the muse to contribute to this blog? Maybe it really has taken that long to mull over thoughts until they have become malleable into sentences.

Words, sentences, paragraph: idea, concept, representation. How's that for a GRE question? I have been reading about cataloging and searching of images in several different venues. Much like the warp speed of book catalogs going from print to online beasts, online access to images, or the knowledge of where an image resides in a printed format, has gone from a moseying pedestrian to high-speed rail. (Although here in California the concept of high speed rail continues to be a mythical creature.)

I am frequently asked, in my lucky position as an O-fficial Art Librarian, my thoughts about services that provide access to online images. Let me go ahead and throw my hat on the dinner table and say that ARTSTOR is indeed the current ne plus ultra of online image libraries. It is. Yes, it is expensive. Yes, it takes time to learn how to use. But with a million images and counting, it is outpacing the collections of would-be competitors.

But the purpose of this post is to draw attention to current Anglo-American methodologies of how images are cataloged, how are images represented in databases that rely on text. I refer you to, and defer to, the expertise of librarians at The Getty and the Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA). One may see the CDWA online at: http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/

If you would like a good introduction to what the CDWA is for, and how librarians feel confident (it is one of our charming attributes, our confidence) in assigning subject/content labels to works of art, I refer you to Patricia Harpring's excellent chapter The Language of Images: Enhancing Access to Images by Applying Metadata Schemas and Structured Vocabularies which appears in Introduction to Art Image Access: Issues, Tools, Standards, and Strategies, 2002, Edited by Murtha Baca. You need just lift a finger, and gently click:

http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/intro_aia/harpring.html

Go! Read! I have to go to the desk.

A few thoughts about color

2010-11-19T15:14:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

Just a few mid-November thoughts about color for this entry. The changing light of our days in California brings to mind the role of light in color. The mid afternoon light on our sunny days is nothing short of enchanting, which makes our occasional rainy afternoons that much more dramatic.

How are books on color organized? There are some recent titles that focus on the cultural history of specific colors, such as:

Black : the history of a color / Michel Pastoureau.
Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2009.

This book has the following subject headings:

Black.
Color -- Psychological aspects -- History.
Color -- Social aspects -- History.
Symbolism of colors -- History.
Black in art.

I was thinking about the role of color in photography today when I was sharing a 1925 publication with a colleague and we were looking at the fashion photos. He made the observation, "But how would people go shopping from these, they are not in color."

Now, since my colleague is a whole 12 years younger than I am, he probably doesn't recall color tv being anything less than a household staple.

So I offer this question to you, readers: what has been/is the role of color photography and color television in the history of fashion? For example, some pages of the famous Godey's Lady's Book included color plates, but often one might have a black and white plate with an accompanying description.

A few other related links on this rainy Friday:

The International Colour Association: http://www.aic-colour.org/index.html

Did you know that color juggernaut Pantone has been purchased by a company with the puzzling moniker X-Rite? Have a look:

http://www.xrite.com/home.aspx

Virtual Discoveries: The Frick Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

2010-07-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

Midsummer Greetings! Once again, I write from a cluttered desk, with hopes of achieving a sense of tidyness, if not order. Today's intended task was cleaning up the avalanche of electronic bookmarks with which I have deluged my "Del.ic.ious" account--a handy tool for stashing bookmarks for websites.

I set out with good, good intentions. I log into Del.ic.ious, which fortunately saved my passwords and set right out to do some editing, tagging, refining.

I am immediately distracted. The first item on my list of unsorted bookmarks is for CRSA, the Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association. (That fluttering sound you detect is my librarian heart--an association for that most valuable of genres? The Catalogue Raisonne!) I take a moment to skim the latest issue of their forum, and must explore, at once, the topic of a major article in the issue, The Frick Collection: Archives Directory for the History of Collecting.

What is the Archives Directory for the History of Collecting? As described on the site, it is a "resource created to help researchers locate primary source material about American collectors, dealers, agents and advisors, and the repositories that hold these records."

Besides being able to search and browse this database, another valuable feature is the timeline. Have a look here: http://research.frick.org/directoryweb/timeline.php

I'm quite interested in the possible uses of this resource--it seems very flexible in terms of helping a novice quickly understand major figures in American art collecting as well as the expert in rapidly determining which archives to consult.

Nicely done! A bibliographic salute to Frick!

Now, let's see what other gems are waiting for me in my del.ic.ious account!

Rebecca

A pomological tribute to Spring Break

2010-03-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

As the campus grows quiet during the approach of Spring Break, I attempt a minor spring cleaning of my office. A week away means judicious selection of what can be fit into my bookbag and which books must be returned to the circulation counter. One item that must be returned is called Celebrating Research: rare and special collections from the membership of the Association of Research Libraries (editors, Philip N. Cronenwett, Kevin Osborn, Samuel A. Streit ; introduction by Nicolas Barker. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries, c2007). It is a nice bit of library history, each of the 50 ARL libraries contributed an essay and supporting images of rare/unusual items in their respective Special Collections/Rare Books. I was happy to see the essay by Dr. Patrick Scott of the University of South Carolina, describing the very Audubon Birds of America folio volumes I have myself seen in the Graniteville Room.

The item I wanted to write about comes from the introduction of this book, a very nice overview itself of the collections described in detail in the rest of the book. Nicolas Barker provides a list of highlights, including the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection.

Pomological? I had never seen this world before. In conjunction with the Library of the US Department of Agriculture? And Watercolors? What could this possibly mean?

Searching ensues...yes! It has been digitized! Here's the description of the collection from the website:

"In 1886, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the Division of Pomology to oversee the collection and distribution of new varieties of fruits, and to disseminate information to fruit growers and breeders. Since the use of scientific photography was uncommon at the time, the USDA commissioned artists to create technically accurate illustrations of newly introduced cultivars. In 1887, William H. Prestele was appointed artist for the Division of Pomology.

Today, the collection of approximately 7,700 watercolors is preserved in NAL's Special Collections, where it serves as a major historic and botanic resource to a variety of researchers, including horticulturists, historians, artists, and publishers. Selected images from the collection are also on permanent exhibition on the first floor of the library.

The exhibit presented here consists of approximately 300 images of fruit watercolors. All of the fruit varieties featured in the exhibit were introduced and described in the Report of the Pomologist between 1886 and 1900. The actual watercolors of the varieties may not have been completed until sometime after the report publication. The exhibit selections are arranged under the common fruit names listed below and by the USDA artist."

A quick hop into the Oxford English Dictionary online reveals:

Pomology: The branch of horticulture concerned with the cultivation of fruit.

Delightful! I know a new word, and a delightful archive of watercolors of botanical illustration!

Now, to get back to clearing off my desk...Happy Spring Break everyone!

Illustration: Deborah Griscom Passmore, Prunus avium "Schmidt Bigarreau" 1895. An interesting biographical essay on this artist is available here: http://www.nal.usda.gov/speccoll/collectionsguide/passmore/124ExtBio.pdf

Spring and LCSH on Botanical Illustration

2010-03-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

I have recently had some very kind praise about earlier entries, so I hope to delight you with a little entry on one of my long time favorite topics, LCSH of course, and Botanical Illustrations!

I adore flowers, pictures of flowers, paintings of flowers, sculptural representations of flowers. I do not like fake flowers. A recent student inquiry about the role of hand drawing botanical species rather than photographing them lead to a great conversation and exploration of the literature of and about botanical illustration.

Where do I always begin? With subject headings, of course! Here is how LCSH represents this topic:

Botanical Illustration
Botanical Illustration Australia
Botanical Illustration Biography
Botanical Illustration Catalogs
Botanical Illustration Early Works To 1800
Botanical Illustration England
Botanical Illustration England London Catalogs
Botanical Illustration Europe
Botanical Illustration Europe History
Botanical Illustration Exhibitions
Botanical Illustration France
Botanical Illustration France History 17th Century
Botanical Illustration Great Britain
Botanical Illustration Handbooks Manuals Etc
Botanical Illustration History
Botanical Illustration Ireland
Botanical Illustration Italy
Botanical Illustration Minnesota History
Botanical Illustration Netherlands Exhibitions
Botanical Illustration North America
Botanical Illustration North America Catalogs
Botanical Illustration Periodicals
Botanical Illustration Technique
Botanical Illustration Technique Juvenile Literature
Botanical Illustration United States

I know that list is a bit long, but each entry is a nice example of how subject headings are subdivided to show the scope of the source as well as the type of source.

The winning subject heading for this title is:

Botanical illustration -- History.

Which is linked to this title:

Saunders, Gill.
Picturing plants: an analytical history of botanical illustration / Gill Saunders.
Chicago ; London : KWS, 2009.

Description 153 p. : col. ill. ; 23 cm.
Published in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subject Botanical illustration -- England -- London -- Catalogs.
Plants in art.
Botanical illustration -- History.

How perfect is that!

For your further reading pleasure, the American Society of Botanical Artists has several issues of their lovely journal online!!! Get ready to procrastinate!!!

http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/ASBA/ASBA-Journal.html

What, you want more examples of botanical illustration? How about a virtual visit to Botanicus the freely accessible portal to historic botanical literature from the Missouri Botanical Garden Library?

http://www.botanicus.org/browse/year

Happy Spring!

Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay

2009-09-09T10:50:00.001-07:00

I'm having trouble finishing this book, specifically, achieving a sense of completion and preparedness to return it to the stacks.

Let's start with the bibliographic information, of course:

Finlay, Victoria. Color: A Natural History of the Palette. New York: Random House, 2002.

The subject headings assigned:
Finlay, Victoria -- Travel.
Colors -- History.
Colors -- Social aspects.

The author as a subject heading makes sense. The following two headings on color are representative of the immense richness of subject headings. History and Social Aspects of color--those few words are incredibly powerful. Finlay's chapters are organized by color, beginning with ochre and continuing through indigo and violet. Her chapter on ochre--even as I page through the chapter now looking for a choice quote to offer you, reader, I find I can't stop reading, can't even make myself skim. Her investigation into the earliest form of paint explores the role of painting in indigenous Australian culture. I can't do justice to this chapter with a summary. You will have to read it.

White? Lead based paint in Europe? Lime? No, not the fruit, calcium oxide. Zinc? You must also read her chapter on the chemical forms of white paint and the potentially deadly forms.

Her adventures in tracking down the elements of yellow and blue are also satisfying and well written. Having read this book, I look at paintings with a new eye.

I promise, I'll return the copy soon so you can read it too.

What's happening to the Bibliography of the History of Art?

2009-07-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

The Art Librarian is doing her internet housekeeping today, trying to update the Art and Design webguide on the library website. The database descriptions seemed muddled even to me, so I set about going to the database provider sites for more information the scope and coverage of these sources.

I was stopped in my electronic tracks when I went to the Getty website and read the following:

http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/bha/

"In response to current economic conditions, the J. Paul Getty Trust recently announced it will significantly reduce its 2010 fiscal year budget. This will have an impact on all of the Getty's operations, including the Getty Research Institute (GRI). Since news of the Getty's budget reduction became public, including information about the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), we have received some inquiries about the BHA's future. We thought it would be helpful to review the history of the Getty's involvement with the BHA, the current status of the database, and our expectations for its future.

From 1990, when the International Repertory of the Literature of Art (RILA) and the Répertoire d'Art et d'Archéologie (RAA) came together to form BHA, it was a joint project between the Getty and the major database producer, the Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique-CNRS. At the end of 2007, this collaboration ceased and BHA formally came to an end. Since January 2008, the GRI has continued production of the database on its own, under the name of the International Bibliography of Art (IBA), and over the last sixteen months, the GRI has made an effort to forge collaborative partnerships on the IBA both nationally and internationally.

While there is interest in seeing the database continue, there have been no formal partnership commitments and no guarantees of outside funding for the project. Unfortunately, with the GRI facing severe budget challenges and without strong and committed partners to share the work, it has become impossible for the Getty to maintain the IBA on its own. Nevertheless, the GRI continues to be interested in seeing the IBA continue its service to the art historical field.

In the near term, the IBA will continue its work, and the first of three updates to the database will be on June 30, 2009. This update will include new data (IBA), and all of the past data of BHA and RILA. It will not contain RAA. This June 30 update will also include the updates from December 31, 2008 and March 31, 2009, which were delayed for technical reasons. All subscribers will also receive scheduled updates on September 30, and December 31, 2009.

Beginning January 1, 2010, the Getty will no longer support the ongoing IBA. We are hopeful that by this time the IBA will be transferred to an organization that can provide continuing support for this valuable resource. Our goal is to move the BHA/IBA to an organization that will provide a transfer in service smooth enough that subscribers may not even notice. We are hopeful that the same distributors will be used after January 1, 2010, and that updates will continue in a regular way."

This is terrible news. I rely on this database for effective access to the journal literature. I will spend some time on the ARLIS site (Art Libraries Society) to try to find out more.

Mind the "U"! Locating the Splendours of Iran

2009-07-01T14:46:00.001-07:00

When should you accept "no results" for a search? Never!

I was skimming a literature review that cited a three volume work, given in the citation as: The Splendor of Iran. Giddily, I consult my personal oracle, the Library Catalog of SJSU. What? Not owned? I immediately select "Search Link+" to hop into the regional consortia catalog, and still no luck. What, no holdings?

Grouchily, I flip to the web to see if OP copies are available...and quickly detect that in a title search, one must employ the British spelling: splendour.

Giddiness restored, I return again to the catalog and am delighted to find:

The splendour of Iran / originator E. Booth-Clibborn, general editor N. Pourjavady.
London : Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2001. 3 vols located at N7280 .S65x 2001, although I note with pleasure that volume 2 is currently circulating.

Note to self and readers: always doubt "no results"! Try to verify the title, or change search to author.

Reference Book to know: Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography

2009-06-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

I discovered this wonderful reference source yesterday and spent some time with the two volumes of: Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. editor, Helene E. Roberts. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998.

As the review in Booklist comments this source is, "thorough, scholarly, and effectively arranged with its numerous access points" (Booklist v. 95 no. 3 (October 1 1998) p. 358).

I am particularly impressed with the scope of topics: representations in art of concepts ranging from Abundance to Vices!

Dear to your blogger's heart: Reading. This entry discusses representations of reading in Ancient and Modern eras, including letter and newspaper reading. A list of artworks is provided and an excellent bibliography follows the entry.

Let's apply our learning from yesterday and examine the LCSH subdivisions applied to this set!

Art -- Themes, motives -- Encyclopedias.

If one searches this LCSH, the catalog then displays:

Art Themes Motives 24
Art Themes Motives Congresses c1989 1
Art Themes Motives Dictionaries 3
Art Themes Motives Encyclopedias 1998 1
Art Themes Motives Influence Exhibitions 1
Art Themes Motives Juvenile Literature 4
Art Themes Motives Sources

As you can see, Art--Themes--Motives has the largest number of entries.

I am wondering if "motives" is used as the plural of motif? An OED search to ensue.

Happy Day! My library has _two_copies, one set in stacks and one set in Reference! You may find them on the 2nd floor at N7560 .E53 and the same number on the 7th floor of King Library. The Bookcharmer is charmed by good fortune.

What you need to know about searching book catalogs!

2009-06-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

I am delighted to be reading, perusing, skimming, and consulting the book Magic Search: Getting the best Results from Your Catalog and Beyond by Kornegay, Buchanan, and Morgan. (ALA editions, ISBN 978-0-8389-0990-4). In particular, I am soaking up all the subdivisions related to Art and finding lots of useful information!

For example:

"Art topics usually receive the century treatment, with three exceptions: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Art" (p. 50). (Hint: think how eras regarding these cultures are defined....)

Best of all, the authors direct seekers here http://authorities.loc.gov/ in order to know all possible chronological subdivisions!

Pages 62-63 detail the differences between

--catalogues raisonnes
--Art collections
--In Art

Chapter 3 is all about the subdivisions relevant to finding images. Happy sigh--I'm in heaven. I am very happy to have at hand this extremely clear and cogent guide to subdivisions!

So many great exhibits!

2009-06-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on exhibits I hope to see this summer:

Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe at SFMOMA: http://www.sfmoma.org/

An exhibit on photographer Robert Frank's and his seminal work, The Americans, is also running at SFMOMA through August 23.

Several exhibits at the Santa Clara Triton Museum: http://www.tritonmuseum.org/index.php

I have yet to visit the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and I should as the website tells me, "Highlights include important works by Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Albert Bierstadt, Paul Gauguin, Helen Frankenthaler, Jay DeFeo, Joan Brown, Jonathan Borofsky, and Shirin Neshat."

And for an extended field trip, The Crocker Museum in Sacramento!

Artist Books Links

2009-06-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

I just discovered this wonderful set of links about artist books:

http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/artbkmks.htm

This is from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK.

Arts Education in California K-12 schools

2009-05-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Reading: http://policyweb.sri.com/cep/publications/AnUnfinishedCanvasLocalPartnerships.pdf This is a report on school and community partnerships to support Arts education in California public schools. Six case studies are presented.

This is a follow-up to SRI's initial publication, An Unfinished Canvas:

http://policyweb.sri.com/cep/publications/AnUnfinishedCanvasFullReport.pdf

I'm skimming this report now with a bookmark to return to it later, but the question I have in mind is this: what is the impact on high school graduates who don't have preparation in analyzing images on attending and succeeding in college? Or, getting into college at all? From page 25:

"In California, however, meeting the minimum high school graduation requirements is not sufficient for admission to the state’s public institutions of higher education. In 1999, the UC and CSU systems instituted a new VPA requirement, adding 1 year of arts coursework for university admission.8 The VPA requirement was phased in for students beginning high school in 1999.
Starting in 2003, when the first cohort of affected high school students reached college, they were required to have taken any two semesters of arts to be admitted; starting in 2004, students admitted were required to have taken two semesters of the same arts subject; and, starting in 2006, students were required to have taken a single course in a yearlong sequence, with the second-semester course a continuation of the first-semester course (Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, 2000). These university policies are a means to increase arts curriculum at the secondary
level without statewide legislation."

How do call numbers and subject headings get created and assigned? A virtual field trip to the Library of Congress!

2009-05-14T10:20:00.001-07:00

Call numbers and subject headings are key to locating relevant books. The Library of Congress is the entity that creates and assigns these headings, as well as the classification for providing call numbers.

On this Library of Congress (LOC, or LC) page you will find a description of the collection scope and guidelines of our nation's library for Fine Arts: http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/fineartsbooks.html

This subject is organized as follows for classification purposes:

N (Visual Arts General including the History of Art)

NA (Architecture)

NB (Sculpture)

NC (Drawing, Design, Illustration)

ND (Painting)

NE (Print Media)

NK (Decorative Arts, Applied Arts, Decoration and Ornament)

NX (Arts in General comprising material dealing with 2 or more of the arts in broadest sense; also includes other subjects such as funding for the arts).

If you would like to see a detailed breakdown, please visit this document:

http://www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/classification/lcco/lcco_n.pdf

The twin star of classification is subject headings. The master list of subject headings is endearingly known as "the red books", now in a five volume set! And as the Library of Congress tells us, "LCSH 31 provides the most comprehensive list of subject headings in the world. It's the best way to keep your subject headings current--the key to accurate cataloging and topical searching."

How are these broad headings applied to art? Subdivisions are applied to indicate time frame, geography, and type of source. Here are examples of how these rules are applied, from http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/h1148.pdf

And what about access to images? For that, a good starting point will be:

http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2005/2005-dp01.html

And I've also stumbled upon a site that collects this type of information:

http://artcataloging.net/index.html

Looks like this art librarian has some reading to do over the summer. I make absolutely no claims about really knowing how to catalog, but I have found that understanding how the records are structured makes me a much better researcher.

The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989

2009-04-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

SJSU Library has just received in acquisitions this exhibition catalog:

The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989.

I am taken with this title, not only for its expanse and extravagance--it is truly a lush monograph, but also with wondering how in the world all of the ideas packed into it will be expressed in a future bibliographic record. This is a stunning book. Just in leafing through it, I am experiencing the flow of ideas and images that knit this massive work together. I try to "librarianize" my skimming, try to pay attention to chapter headings, but instead lapse into rich browsing, the images placed so perfectly that sense making of this information is like breathing clean air. I would buy this book for the chronology alone, a twenty page illustrated timeline of American encounters with Asia from 1800-1989. Further skimming reveals notes on the artists in the exhibition and bibliographies of further reading on each one. Bibliographic crush!!

Images are online at:
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view-now/third-mind

and any dear readers on the east coast, get thee to the Guggenheim by April 19th. You might even send me a postcard.

Things to think about during Spring Break

2009-03-20T12:27:00.000-07:00

Your librarian will be on spring break March 23-27, a time to relax and let the bibliographic subconscious process all the images, text, and subject headings experienced so far this semester.

The article I continue to mull over is "The Map of Art History" by Robert S. Nelson
The Art Bulletin, Vol. 79, No. 1 (Mar., 1997), pp. 28-40. If it available full text in JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/stable/3046228

Nelson writes about how the organization of information about art history influences our understanding of art. He demonstrates this through a discussion of three things, "a grid of fields into which new Ph.D. dissertations are set, a library classification of art history, and the structure of basic survey books" (28).

His discussion about the categorization of dissertations focuses on the categories employed by the journal Art Bulletin (29-30). I wonder what Nelson would make of the broad, broad categories employed by Dissertation Abstracts International? As a librarian, if I wanted to know what dissertations were available, I would be searching the database rather than just looking at a particular periodical, but that is also because I am a generalist. However, the "organization" of knowledge in DAI (fellow librarians, join me now in a dissatisfied guffaw) makes the categories in Art Bulletin look pretty handy. But I get Nelson's point about the geo-centricism evident in the AB headings.

I am quite interested in what Nelson has to say about the Library of Congress Subject Headings for Art. He gives quite a nice explanation about the history of LCSH, including how many libraries are using this classification, as well as some of its growing pains as the controlled vocabulary has struggled with adequate representation of topics in a bias free way.

A comparison...finding images

2009-02-02T14:33:00.001-08:00

The post below this one might explain why large libraries still advise an active use of print resources when locating images. I am now interested in how librarians advise researchers to locate images. Here's the advice from the Los Angeles Public Library:

http://www.lapl.org/resources/guides/search_images.html
Researchers, what do you think?

The Getty explains the why and how of digitized collections!

2009-01-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

Having access to many databases, librarians can sometimes lose perspective on just how significant the change to digital can be in terms of access. Fortunately, the Getty's marvelous publication, L.A. Art Online: Learning from the Getty’s Electronic Cataloguing Initiative provides a clear explanation of the raison d'etre for the massive effort of digitizing collections. While it is written from a museum perspective, I think it has extremely useful advice for libraries.

Have a look: http://www.getty.edu/grants/pdfs/LA_Art_Online_Report.pdf

Cartoons at the Library of Congress?

2009-01-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, there is a cartoon collection, a large one, at the Library of Congress!

Check out this link: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/cartoon_research.html

The items in this collection are described as, "Spanning four centuries, they range from seventeenth-century Dutch political prints to contemporary caricatures by David Levine, and include drawings for cartoons and comic strips, printed satires and caricatures, comic books, illustrated satirical journals, and comic ephemera."

What should we know about research?

2009-01-05T17:51:00.000-08:00

The Art Libraries Society has an extensive document detailing what art, design, and architecture students should know how to do in terms of conducting research. It is posted here: http://www.arlisna.org/resources/onlinepubs/informationcomp.pdf

Seattle Art Museum Libraries web catalog!

2008-11-21T16:18:00.000-08:00

Delightful! A good research/collection development tool, the book catalog for the Seattle Art Museum Libraries: http://207.67.203.53/S10035/

It also provides links to:

Getty Institute

Library of Congress

Metropolitan Museum of Art Library

MOMA Library

National Gallery of Art Library

International Directory of Art Libraries

Happy searching!

Louis Sullivan

2008-11-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update today: a very nice exhibit on Louis Sullivan is online at

http://www.sullivan150.org/

Links of interest

2008-10-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

Illustrators, cartoonists, have a look at: Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog.

I found reference to author Keri Smith from Drawn! in relation to her book Wreck This Journal. While the Art Librarian, much less the bookcharmer, cannot endorse the verb "wreck" anywhere in relation to anything bookshaped, I find I am much intrigued by the role of employing destruction as a method to increasing expression.

Author Keri Smith has some other glorious suggestions here: http://www.kerismith.com/blog/

Library Catalog vs. Bibliography of the History of Art

2008-09-29T15:21:00.001-07:00

This round goes to BHA, for its indexing of this title:

The intellectual life of the early Renaissance artist.
Francis Ames-Lewis
2000
In English. Book x, 322 p. :; ill. (some col.), 1 plan; bibliogr., index
New Haven, CT : London : Yale University Press, ; ISBN: 0300083041

BHA provides this tasty summary:

"Explores how early Renaissance artists gained recognition for the intellectual foundations of their activities and achieved artistic autonomy from enlightened patrons. Focuses especially on the ways such artists as Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Dürer, and others pressed for intellectual independence and status."

and more importantly, these index terms:

Artists.
Italy.
Germany.
1400-1600.
Intellectual life.
Social status.
Renaissance.
Dürer, Albrecht, 1471-1528.
Mantegna, Andrea, 1431-1506.
Raffaello Sanzio, 1483-1520.
Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519.
Humanism.

Let's check the same title in the Library Catalog:

Here's the subject headings provided:

Artists -- Europe -- Intellectual life -- 15th century.
Artists -- Europe -- Intellectual life -- 16th century.
Art, Renaissance.

Now, the Bookcharmer understands the "Rule of Three" as so well explained by Thomas Mann in his Oxford Guide to Library Research, but these headings are soooo broad, that unless one went and physically browsed, you wouldn't know the specific artists discussed, and there are more than just a few that will fall into Art, Renaissance.

Normally I'm quite at ease with the idea of searching subject headings in book catalogs and specific artists and pieces in the article indexes...but today I'm experiencing a vague dissatisfaction with this duality!

Getting interdisciplinary with Art History: Islamic Studies

2008-09-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

In navigating to one of my usual favorites, Oxford Art Online (which now includes the Grove Art Dictionary) I happened to notice in the line-up of database titles a new entry:

Oxford Islamic Studies

The database description reads:

"Encompassing over 3,000 A-Z reference entries, chapters from scholarly and introductory works, Qur'anic materials, primary sources, images, and timelines, Oxford Islamic Studies Online offers a multi-layered reference experience. Users can search and browse by era, topic, and geographic region, filter to view a specific type of content, and make use of a variety of search forms to set criteria for locating biographical entries, bibliographic references, primary sources, terms in the Qur'an and Concordance, and much more. Articles from the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, The Oxford Encylopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Islamic World: Past and Present, and the Oxford Dictionary of Islam are included."

For students in Art History 183, this should be a very good source for topic overviews, timelines, and bibliographies.

ARTstor tutorials on YouTube

2008-07-31T15:15:00.000-07:00

YouTube. Such a funny word, and such a funny phenomenon, the YouTube. However, amongst the clips of cute kittens, and adorable puppies (not that I've seen those, mind you, just heard about 'em, you know) there are actual pieces of instructional technology!

ARTstor's new platform, while sleek and powerful, does require some preparation. I recommend viewing the short tutorials available here: http://www.youtube.com/artstor

The three most recent ones are relevant to the new platform.

And a word about the new platform: it is going to require upgrading your browsers if you haven't done so recently, requiring one of the following to allow it to run on your machine: Firefox 1.5+, Safari 3+, Internet Explorer 7+, or Mozilla 5

So you have official sanction from your art librarian: Go watch some YouTube!

Exhibits!

2008-07-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

I went to see the Chihuly exhibit at the de Young museum in San Francisco, and yes, you should go. The exhibit made me think a lot about the affective experience of viewing color, as Chihuly's works are all based on color and form. Here's a link for the exhibit: http://www.chihulyatthedeyoung.org/

I am reminded to check our catalog to see what books and films we have on Chihuly. I will want to make sure we have a copy of Chihuly in the Hotshop, the film.

Also in San Francisco, at San Franciso Public Library:

http://www.sfpl.org/news/exhibitions.htm

Lots of great things going on at SFPL, including Bookworks 2008 on through September 26th and several photographic exhibits.

While I dearly love a day trip to SF, I also love being able to get a sense of the SFPL exhibits right from my desktop, like this online exhibit:

http://www.sfpl.org/news/onlineexhibits/shades/

Family Photographs of Everyday San Francisco

Enjoy!

Really good stuff!

2008-06-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

Continuing to delight in the Kromer gift collection! For example, I can now add to the collection The Big Book of New Design Ideas by David E. Carter. Only one other Link+ library has this 2003 edition, and it is presently circulating. This is a lovely book, packed with color illustrations of everything from Annual Reports to Shopping Bags, the pages cleverly color coded! Happily, the gift also includes The Big Book of Design Ideas, which has been overdue since 2004.

I've also been able to add two volumes we were missing of the Best of Brochure Design Series as well as a title by Rick Poynor previously unowned. Also to add: Type by Joyce Rutter Kaye which contains this well written sentence, "Type is the essence of graphic communication." As someone who adores letters and is fascinated by the thousands of fonts available...of course! Handling this collection is giving me the vocabulary to be a more effective searcher.

I have also learned that one must search Typography as a journal title in order to produce the bibliographic record for the annual (the old monographic series conundrum.)

A gentle request for book designers of books on design

2008-06-30T16:25:00.000-07:00

As previously stated, I'm knee deep, happily so, in a donation of books on graphic design. It has been very interesting to check the titles in the library catalog database to see if the title is owned, and if so, is our copy still available or AWOL, or a high demand title that could use a 2nd copy.

Given the titles of the books, and the spelling of the title, I've often been resigned to searching by isbn when title searches don't work as I think they should. For example, the book Cool Type Two spells the title as CoolType2wo on the title page. Clever, of course, but the library catalog doesn't recognize it, even though we own it! Without the CIP info, I would have been awash in bibliographic confusion.

Many, many thanks to the catalogers who create CIP info!!! And to my fine coworkers in Tech and Access Services here in King Library that will be adding titles from this gift collection to our shelves!

A gift of design

2008-06-30T16:01:00.001-07:00

Many, many thanks to the family of SJSU alum Karl Kromer for donating a very good collection of design books to King Library. Reviewing this gift of 200+ titles has given me the opportunity to learn more about how graphic design is classified as well as learning what our collection holds. Besides adding to our collection, many of the donated titles are able to fill gaps where a title or two has gone missing.

In reviewing the titles, I have pondered the difference in subject headings:

Typography
Illustration
Printing

I add evidence to my argument that understanding that book records only represent ownership rather than fully illustrating (pardon the pun) the actual content of the text makes a significant difference in how people search for information. Consider this title:

Author Pretzer, Mary.
Title Creative low-budget publication design / Mary Pretzer.
Imprint Cincinnati, Ohio : North Light Books, c1999.

The subject headings are:

Graphic design (Typography)
Newsletters -- Design.
Pamphlets -- Design.

Ho hum. What do those words even mean? Do they capture the fact that examples of printing are displayed in color and the book gives discussions of the prize winning designs? Until I handled these books and spent some time looking at them, I had not made the connection between the subject headings and the lushness of the illustrations and depth of explication on the designs.

I quote for you here a comment on a Calendar of Events designed by M. Christopher Jones:

"A square is actually an odd shape in American culture. Most publications rely on more familiar rectangles....'The original concept sprang from a logo composed of four squares. The logo no lnger exists, but the grid stayed.'" (page 50).

Would you expect that useful exposition of square vs. rectangle from the above subject headings? Even the Bookcharmer would not have anticipated that, much as she loves to learn and anticipate the meanings of headings.

Clearly, I have a lot of LC Subject Headings to truly grasp in order to anticipate their meanings, but for now, I'm trying to absorb them by handling this wonderful gift collection. Thank you to the Kromer family for donating these books!

Art standards, proficiencies, competencies

2008-05-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

In learning more about the Art Education curriculum, I have identified some useful websites:

K-12 National Standards for Arts Education

From the California Art Educators Association, Art Education Standards and UC/CSU Requirements

From the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS)

Information Competencies for Students in Design Disciplines

Competencies for Art Libraries from ARLIS http://www.arlisna.org/resources/onlinepubs/corecomps.pdf

SJSU Special Collection: Primary Sources and Pop-Up Books!

2008-05-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to add a link to the blog for SJSU's Special Collections. The blog is maintained by my colleague Danelle Moon, who is the Director of Special Collections and incredibly knowledgeable about primary source research.

Special Collections has some delectable fine press books, including two items from the William Morris Kelmscott press. SC also creates extremely interesting displays of unique collections. Currently on display on the 5th floor of King Library is the collection of pop-up books donated by SJSU alumna Jeanne Rose.

Keep up with the happenings in SC with the blog!

http://sjsuspecialcollections.blogspot.com/

Arts and the Economy report

2008-05-07T15:35:00.000-07:00

Useful data and project approach from Americans for the Arts on Arts and Economic Prosperity! See the report at:

http://www.artsusa.org/information_services/research/services/economic_impact/default.asp

Check their blog, which has many interesting links, at:

http://blog.artsusa.org/

Hurray for Courbet

2008-03-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

The library has just received on approval (so we need a few days to process it to be shelf ready for check-out!) the Met's catalog of its current exhibit of Gustave Courbet.

The book itself is lush. 408 pages, 506 illustrations, 470 of them in color!

If you are longing for more Courbet but don't find it convenient to pop over to NYC, you can have a virtual visit including podcast here: http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp

Here's a brief description of what awaits you (from the site):

"This is the first full retrospective of the French artist Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) in thirty years, presenting some 130 works by this pioneering figure in the history of modernism, from his seminal manifesto paintings of the 1850s to the views of his native Ornans and portraits of his friends and family. The exhibition also includes a selection of nineteenth-century photographs that relate to Courbet's work, especially his landscapes and nudes. The works are drawn from public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad."

The exhibit is up unti May 18th, in case you decide you must see it in person!

Image Archives

2008-03-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

I had a great conversation today with Bob Rose, the new curator for the School of Art + Design's Visual Resource Library. We were talking about access to digitized images and how many platforms are currently available.

I'm plotting how I can manage to come up with an effective way of listing all of these resources on the library website for Art + Design resources. This blog will hopefully help shape that process. To begin, just a listing:

The School of Art and Design's online VRL (available to students and faculty)

The CSU World Images database http://worldimages.sjsu.edu/

The Online Archive of California http://www.oac.cdlib.org/about/oacprojects.html

ARTstor, of course!

The Library of Congress American Memory Project

Grove Art Dictionary online has images

And of course, individual museums

In addition, we have access to the Associated Press photo archive

And of course, good old Google image search (does it meta index any of the above collections? What the heck does it index?)

Flickr

Getty Resources

and I believe SJSU's illustrations file is online in the ze library catalog.

I believe that is enough of a list for now.

How to really learn the subject areas of these repositories? Must make plan...think of how to approach this like learning a new reference collection: scope, coverage, date range...How to describe access, where to go for what and when...and purpose.

Learning more about ARTstor

2008-03-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

I continue to experiment with searching ARTstor and learning to create folders efficiently. Fortunately, the ARTstor website has clear documentation! Here's a link to the explanation of basic and advanced searching:

http://www.artstor.org/using-artstor/u-html/search-and-browse.shtml

finding catalogs of art owned privately by individuals or corporations

2008-02-26T11:09:00.001-08:00

A little handful of keywords and subject terms:

Art -- Private collections
Masco Corporation -- Art collections (Name of corporation, example Masco)
Painting -- Private collections
Stewart, David M. -- Art collections -- Exhibitions
Decorative arts -- Private collections

The N Classification of Library of Congress

2008-02-26T10:35:00.000-08:00

N is for Art!

The art librarian would like to have some of the talented students of Art + Design help create an illustrated guide to the N classification!

The Library of Classification system uses the alphabet to classify information. The only one that seems obvious is M for music. Library science falls into Z, History into D. The H range is the most unusual, ranging from statistics to social issues.

So, how to learn your N's? (The why will be explained.) A song? A chart? A beautiful piece of art? Yes. Let's illustrate the N's!

For example,

N1 is periodicals

N40 .D53 Would bring you to a reference source like Dictionary of Artists

N332 will bring you to books on the Bauhaus

Just think of the possibilities! The call number areas spelled out in different type fonts, or displayed in the style of the art it is classifying?

To continue:

N2030 will require a picture of The Louvre

Now what happens when we put a letter after the initial N?

NA is for architecture

NB is for sculpture

NC is for drawing

ND is for painting

NE is for prints

Hey, why doesn't our library have anything in the NG classification?

NK is for crafts!

to be continued...
Of course, all of these categories can be divided further to represent eras or specific artists!

Announcing ARTstor!

2008-01-24T15:30:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce we are part of a CSU system subscription to the visual image database ARTstor! This is doubly good news, as the subscription does not impact the funds allocated for books and journals for art.

There is a link to ARTstor on the A-Z database page and I'll soon be adding one to the list of Art and Design resources on the library subject page. You can also access the database from http://www.artstor.org

What is ARTstor? As the source itself says, "You can search and browse approximately 550,000 images contained in over 50 collections within the ARTstor Digital Library. Once you find images that interest you, ARTstor includes tools that enable you to organize these images into image groups. Image groups can be used to give presentations, study for quizzes or tests, or kept simply for your personal reference. You may also share image groups with other ARTstor users through the use of shared folders."

ARTstor has a great degree of functionality both in searching and storing images. I invite you to try out this database, post your responses and reactions here, and of course contact me directly with questions!

Rebecca

Book Wrangling, in an organized fashion

2008-01-11T16:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings! Only 12 more days before classes begin! What is your Art Librarian up to?

Today, book wrangling. Well, citation wrangling to be more specific. I finished up a journal article today and painlessly, yes, painlessly, created a bibliography with Refworks. The university now has a campus subscription to Refworks, and it is well worth you time to view the tutorials then get started on exporting or creating citations.

There goes the library jargon! Export! Citations! What does it all mean!

Simply put, once you open your account, you can add citations individually or export them from a database (have you been noticing those export option buttons) to create your own personal online bibliography. You can put the citations into folders, annotate your entries, and be prompted to include fields necessary to particular citation styles.

I was inspired to write this post by the mention of LibraryThing on another website I was viewing today, and here pause to muse on Refworks vs. Library Thing.

Disclaimer: I have used Refworks; I have not used LibraryThing.

One of the problems I see with technology is that one can become disorganized by trying to be organized in too many places. Why should I maintain a personal bibliography in two places? I favor Refworks because it also catalogs items besides books (monographs, as we like to say in libraryland) and because it will export them in a literally hundreds of citation styles.

Do check out Refworks--it is best to access it from the library webpage link so you will be recoganized as an SJSU subscriber.

Can you change my mind about LibraryThing? I invite your responses.

Buyin' books

2008-01-02T14:55:00.001-08:00

In preparing to order some titles requested by faculty members, I also decided to review what has previously been purchased to increase my knowledge of the collection. I found this book record in a electronic file in our purchasing program:

Pasts Beyond Memory: Evolution, Museums, Colonialism. Bennett, Tony. London; New York: Routledge, c2004

and promptly looked it up in the online catalog to see how it is represented.

Now, you tell me, based on this catalog record, which museums are discussed in this book:

Museums -- Historiography.
Museum techniques -- Historiography.
Museum exhibits -- Technological innovations.
Evolution -- History -- 19th century.
Evolution -- History -- 20th century.
Science -- History -- 19th century.
Science -- History -- 20th century.
Colonies -- History -- 19th century.
Colonies -- History -- 20th century.

I'll give you another route: let's check the online table of contents:

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Dead Circuses: Expertise, Exhibition, Government
The expert as showman
Time and space in the museum
Evolution as temporal conscience
Expertise, exhibition, government and the 'new liberalism'
International networks and the new museum idea
Chapter 2 - The Archaeological Gaze of the Historical Sciences
The odds and ends of history
Reading the rocks
Filling in time
History in motion
Chapter 3 - Reassembling the Museum
Black-boxing evolution
Bureaucratising the past
Archaeological objects
Chapter 4 - The Connective Tissue of Civilisation
Accumulating pasts: habit, memory and self government
Archaeologising the self and the social
Evolution, culture and liberal government
Evolutionary accumlators
Chapter 5 - Selective memory: racial recall and civic renewal at the American Museum of Natural History
Evolution, ethics, government: philanthropy and the state
Nature's many lessons
Renewing the race plasm: accumulation and difference
Chapter 6 - Evolutionary Ground Zero: Colonialism and the Fold of Memory
Colonialism, liberalism, culture and the state
Vicious circles and rigmaroles: the plan of creation
Shallowing the past
From 'let die' to 'let live'
Chapter 7 - Words, Things and Vision: Evolution 'At a Glance'
The spaces in-between: evolution and its blind spots
Seeing and knowing
Classification and the arrangement of the visible
Object ventriloquism and evolutionary expertise
Developing clear-sighted attentiveness
Postscript: Slow Modernity
Endnotes
List of Illustrations
References
Index

Did that help? No? Of course it didn't!

This is what I call the prickly liminal space of cataloging. This record does in fact conform to the standards of cataloging. However, the essence of how someone might locate this book is not entirely captured, as the names of museums is not one of the searchable elements.

I'm not just picking on this book. Let's try the same exercise with this title:

Museums and social responsibility / edited by Robert R. Janes and Gerald T. Conaty. Co-published by: Museums Association of Saskatchewan.

Now, since the publishers are Canadian, the smart money bets that some Canadian museums might be included in this tome. But do we know for sure? Not 'til we glide to the 6th floor and select this item from the shelf.

There is in fact a reason why books like this have subject headings such as Museums--subdivision here. If a book talks about more than three items in a similar category, instead of listing out all the terms, a plural heading is applied. It took me a thorough read of Thomas Mann's Oxford Guide to Library Research (Oxford, 2nd edition, 1998) to really get this concept, but understanding it has helped me enormously as I know now when I simply have to hit the stacks and browse. Art researchers, do not despair and think that your discipline is the only one subject to the tyranny of the "more than three" rule of subject headings. Mais non! Here are some of my other favorite pluralistic subject headings that require physical browsing of titles:

For Belinda Edmondson's title Making Men, here are some of the subject headings:

Caribbean literature (English) -- Women authors -- History and criticism. Caribbean literature (English) -- Male authors -- History and criticism.
Indian literature (English) -- History and criticism.

Which authors??? Which titles??? And how many of you would have typed in the name of a character of you were researching a novel?

I shall begin winding down this tirade with just one more example:

The book Insatiable Appetite: the United States and the ecological degradation of the tropical world by Richard P. Tucker has the following subject headings:

Tropical crops -- Economic aspects -- History -- 20th century.
Tropical crops -- Environmental aspects -- History -- 20th century.
Investments, American -- Tropics -- History -- 20th century.
Environmental degradation -- Tropics -- History -- 20th century.

Now, part of the reason I am so intrigued with subject headings is that I struggled mightily with cataloging as a graduate student. Mightily. It took me several years of "on the job" investigation and actually handling sources and getting deeply acquainted with the structure of information in different fields before they truly made sense.

You, dear reader, are likely to be more adept at matching up the question you have with the representation of the knowledge storage container (catalog record) where the information resides. However, if you find your self at sixens and sevens with subject subdivisions like "handbooks, manuals, etc." or marvel that the subject heading for pop-up books is "Toy and movable books -- Specimens" then my friend, I can be of use to you!

Getting ready for prime time as the new SJSU Art Librarian

2008-01-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

This initial post is to put my fingertips to the keyboard in an attempt to put off perfectionism in favor of productivity. While researching congressional districts, I came across this fantastic link for images in the Senate Art Collection. Have a look here:

http://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_index_subjects/Art_in_the_Senate_vrd.htm

Of course, I also followed the link about information on the book containing all the images:

U.S. Congress. Senate. United States Senate Catalogue of Fine Art, by William Kloss and Diane K. Skvarla. 107th Congress, 2d sess., 2002. S. Doc. 107-11. There is a print copy in the King Library Reference collection, or you may link to the online version at:

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/cdocuments/sd107-11/browse.html

Have a look! Write me or post to the blog about what items you were surprised to learn are in this collection.

Rebecca