Art Libraries Society
Central Plains
ARLIS/CP is a chapter of:
Central Plains Irregular
Number 38, March 2005
MEMBER NEWS
Arkansas
Patrice O’Donoghue resigned from the Arkansas Arts Center Library
in December to take a position with the Central Arkansas Library System
as a cataloger in the technical services department. “Beginning
in January,” says Patrice, “I will be working at the Main
Library in downtown Little Rock, a short walk from the new Clinton
Presidential Library.”
“
This will be a new adventure for me since I have never worked in
a "non-special" library before. This has been one of the
most interesting jobs I have ever done. It has been challenging too,
and I could not have done it without the support of all of you, my
ARLIS friends. Some of you I just know by name, and others I have
had the good fortune to meet in person at the conferences in St.
Louis and in New York. You are a wonderful group of professionals.”
Kansas
Kansas State University in Manhattan has a new art librarian. Ellen Urton started work in November as a subject specialist in the areas of art, apparel, interior design and textiles. Ellen received her MLS from the University of Missouri in 2003 and a B.A. in history and art history from Augustana College. Her most recent position before coming to KSU was with Expressions Bindery Consultants in Chicago.
KSU Libraries received a $1000 Interlibrary Loan Development Program
(ILDP) grant from the Kansas Library Network Board in FY2004 to purchase
39 books on digital graphic design and digital photography. Libraries
receiving ILDP grants must make all circulating items in their collections
available through interlibrary loan. To see a list of the purchased
titles, go to KSUL’s online catalog, http://catnet.ksu.edu/catalog and perform the following “Guided Keyword” search: Digital
Graphic Design and Photography ILDP Grant.
Congratulations to Rachel Crane and her husband Songbin as well as
to new grandmother Lois Crane.
Rachel and Songbin are the proud parents of a baby girl, Maya Nah-Yun
Chon, born in November.
Missouri
Leslie Simpson, Director of the Post Memorial Art Reference Library in Joplin, MO was awakened at 3:00 a.m. on the morning of January 23 by a phone call informing her that a drunk driver, being pursued by police at 55 mph, had smashed through the brick wall of the library. When she arrived at the library, she found the impact had propelled a heavy 16th century English oak court cupboard out into the room and two 18th century Chinese ginger jars, which had been displayed on top, were lying on the floor; one completely smashed while the other remained mostly intact. A 17th century carved and polychromed wood Madonna and Child sculpture was hurled across the room and lay broken on the floor.
After some of the shock and distress wore off, Leslie turned to ARLIS/CP for help. Susan Bobo got the word out, and within the next few days, Leslie received dozens of replies. Leslie wishes to thank everyone who responded during her hour of need. The art objects are now in the hands of restorers.
Deborah Tinsley, Associate Librarian of Visual
Resources at Kansas City Art Institute, received a $5000 federal “Library
Services and Technology Act” (LSTA) grant administered by the Missouri
State Library. The “Bring in An Expert” grant enabled
the Visual Resources Library to use the services of a consultant
for programming improvements to the FileMaker Pro database cataloging
KCAI’s slide collection.
Jane Zander retired in September after almost 24 years as an art library
cataloger at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. “My husband and
I and our two cats are retiring to a house on Sugar Loaf Mountain at
the Lake of the Ozarks here in our home state of Missouri. We will
be located about 30 minutes from my hometown of Lebanon, Mo. They have
a new library that includes a new Route 66 Museum and I will probably
volunteer there in the future. We will be about 40 minutes from my
sister's farm and will be able to spend more time with our nephew who
will be eight in October.
While I'm obviously looking forward to this next chapter in our lives,
it is also a sad time and hard to take leave of my friends and fellow
art librarians, “ writes Jane. “ I will particularly
miss my colleagues from ARLIS/NA and the ARLIS/CP chapter. I hope
to attend some the future ARLIS/CP meetings. But for now, au revoir,
and keep on crankin' out those beautiful art books.”
In October, Cynthia Barth joined the staff of the Decker Library, Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore as Library Director. Most recently, Cynthia was Head of Library and Research Services at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Richardson Library launched their Innovative Interfaces Millennium
System in the fall of 2003. The Saint Louis Art Museum shares the system
with the Missouri Botanical Garden Library and the Research Library
of the Missouri Historical Society. For the first time the library's
catalog is available on the web at http://www.slrlc.org/search~S3/
In July of 2004, the Richardson Library was awarded a Missouri State
Digitization Grant to create a digital resource documenting the visual
history of the Saint Louis Art Museum Cass Gilbert building. The
work is at the halfway point; approximately 700 archival slides and
photographs of the museum building throughout its history have been
scanned. The project includes exterior views, plans, and models for
a variety of renovations. Approximately half of the images are interior
views representing a historical perspective of the galleries, shops,
and restaurants. A searchable database will be constructed and linked
to both the Virtually Missouri web site and SLAM web site. The target
date for completion is June 30, 2005.
In May 2004, Marianne Cavanaugh was elected President-Elect of the
St. Louis Metro Area Chapter of SLA. The position is a three-year
commitment to serve on the Executive Board with a progression from
President-Elect, to President and then Past President.
Suzy Frechette has been working on a Virtual Exhibit about the special
holdings of the Steedman Architectural Library of the St. Louis Public
Library. This spring, the exhibit will become available through the
SLPL homepage. Suzy has chosen some of the most spectacular and important
books in the collection, spanning 16th century editions of Vitruvius
through 20th century editions of Frank Lloyd Wright, up to contemporary
holdings. A professional photographer has produced wonderful high-resolution
images of some of the most beautiful pages and bindings represented
in the collection. Suzy has been spending countless hours this winter
researching and writing captions about the architects, buildings, and
books that will be featured.
Suzy’s term as Midwest Regional Representative will come to
an end during ARLIS/NA 2005 in Houston. Leigh
Gates of the Art Institute
of Chicago will be the new Midwest Regional Representative.
At Washington University, construction continues on the Sam Fox Arts
Center project, which will include a new Museum building, Art Annex
and Art & Architecture Library. Completion is predicted for Fall
2006.
In August 2004, Ellen Petraits attended the International Library Federation’s conference in Buenos Aires. Highlights included touring the National library, seeing Luis Borge’s writing desk and meeting colleagues at the Art Library Section tour of the Espacio Fundación Telefónica.
Gloria Short, formerly with the Springfield Art Museum, is happily
retired and living in Fair Grove, MO. “My retirement continues
to be busy making dresses for my daughter’s wedding and a few
other things, like rides on my husband’s Harley Davidson,” writes
Gloria.
Nebraska
Casey Kralik left the Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha, in December to become Technical Services Librarian at Bellevue University in Bellevue, Nebraska. Casey’s new email is kralik@bellevue.edu.
Oklahoma
Matt Stock is the new Fine Arts Librarian at University of Oklahoma in Norman. He is responsible for the subject areas of music, drama, dance, visual art, architecture and urban planning. Matt originally came to OU to pursue a DMA in trumpet performance. Prior to arriving in Norman, he was Adult Services Supervisor at the public library in Lewisville, Texas.
Susan Bobo showcased student work from the Oklahoma State University
School of Architecture at the Oklahoma Library Association annual
meetings in April 2004 and March 2005. Students were challenged to
design new public libraries for an imaginary small town in Massachusetts
and a community branch library for Boston’s North End. Models,
renderings and precedent research were displayed and a bibliography
of selected sources on the library building type distributed to conference-goers.
Tom Young organized an exhibition "Ron King and Circle Press:
Artists' Books from the Permanent Collection." This exhibition
was held August 22, 2004 - January 9, 2005 at the Philbrook Museum
of Art, Tulsa.
The Philbrook Museum of Art library received a grant of $5000 from the Models of Archival Administration Grant Program from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. Fifteen institutions from across the state are participating in this program for 2004-2005. In addition to the funds the program also includes a series of workshops related to archives management. The goal for Philbrook's project is to inventory, organize, re-house and create finding aids for the following two archives collections: The Waite Phillips Collection and the museum's exhibition records.
The Waite Phillips Collection includes documents, correspondence, photographs and plans related to the construction of Villa Philbrook and its transformation into the Philbrook Museum of Art, covering the dates 1925 - 1964. The museum's exhibition records cover the dates 1939 to the present.
Tom Young is also this year’s recipient of the ARLIS/CP travel award. He will be representing the chapter at the Leadership Breakfast during the upcoming 2005 ARLIS/NA conference in Houston, TX.