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Art Library Manual: A guide to resources and practice by Philip PaceyReview by: Joan Hugo and Juan R. FreudenthalARLIS/NA Newsletter, Vol. 5, No. 6 (OCTOBER 1977), pp. 162-163Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27945908 .
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BOOK REVIEWS
Robin Kaplan, Editor
EDITOR'S NOTE: Please note the altered format of the Book Review Section, which results from a delay in the arri val of fall titles at ARLIS/NA Headquarters.
American Crafts Council .Contemporary Crafts Market Place, 1977-1978 Edition. New York, R.R. Bowker, 1977. 341p.
LC 75-518 ISBN 0-8352-0920-2 $15.50
This second edition of an invaluable contribution from the ACC and Bowker is a larger, more efficiently designed work than the previous edition. Its format accomodates a greatly expanded and edited compilation of galleries and shops, or
ganizations, courses (both degree and workshop programs), suppliers and products, shipping information, and regularly scheduled shows and events. For the librarian building a crafts collection the very large AV section and periodical and reference book section is an excellent aid. Both of these sections are by media broken down into many special cate
gories. The subject headings alone will be appreciated as useful cataloging aids. A random count comparing the 75-76 (reviewed here in
Spring, 1975) and the 77/78 editions reveals that the cur rent volume lists almost twice as many entries in most ca
tegories: from 69 to 101 California shops and from 8 to 14 in West Virginia; from 13 to 23 national organizations; from 2 to 13 Alabama events; from 36 to 101 periodicals. Book titles are up from approximately 2800 to 3800. Three aspects of the current crafts scene are reflected
here; many shops and galleries listed two years ago have
disappeared and have been replaced by new ones; greater awareness of the value of professional associations such as the ACC and special interest groups like the Hand weavers' Guild, and a blurring of territorial lines between the fine artist and the artist-craftsperson. Given the continuing expansion in popularity and diver
sity in contemporary crafts, this publication is a must for all
public libraries, any school or museum libraries with any crafts interest. Unless you have no budget at all for the crafts
area, you should buy the new edition although you may already own the first.
?Joan M. Benedetti
Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles
Art Library Manual: A guide to resources and practice. Ed. by Philip Pacey. London and New York, Bowker, in assoc. with ARLIS (UK), 1977. LC 77-702-90 ISBN 0-85935-054-1 $22.50
The work of pioneers is always difficult to evaluate. One owes them such a debt for having ventured into uncharted territories that to take exception seems to mitigate unnec
essarily one's gratitude.
162
The very real landmark that the publication of this book represents, after some ten years of an ever-increasing world
wide sensibility that art librarianship is an autonomous
specialty, with its own particular problems and rewards, can hardly be overestimated. Although library literature of the past twenty years has engaged in the discussion of various aspects of art library collections, no systematic attempt to outline problems and suggest standard pro cedures has been published until now. This volume of contributed essays on some twenty-four topics covers a range of thematic categories (e.g.: bibliographies, the art book, exhibition catalogues, periodicals and serials, primary sources, various non-print materials, ephemera, artists' books, loan collections of original works of art, etc.) and anticipates most of the kinds of materials which an art library collection might include.
Some of the essays are thoughtful and complete; some are cursory at best. In particular, the chapter on slides and filmstrips only begins to address the problems of this kind of material and offers some curious speculations on
procedure (especially, the consequences of not binding slides which circulate (that is, which are handled by non-professionals
- including art historians)
- do not seem to be completely understood.) The argument that the time and expense of binding are offset by the limi ted life of the slide simply is not substantiated by practice. However limited the life of a slide, it is still a matter of several years; the time/cost factor amortized over this
period is negligible, whereas one good fingerprint or melted slide means an instant cost of 100% to replace it, plus the
housing slides (in plastic sheets) is a method unknown to me, although I am sure it would work well in a personal collection. Metal frames or drawers seem to have become standard here. The idea that these methods do not allow for expansion and should be considered only for "static, reference collections" is bewildering; obviously one allows for anticipated growth of the collection in organizing a se
quence of slides just as one does with shelving for books.
And surely vertical files become full just as do cabinets
and drawers? Very odd. I am sure that other speculations in this chapter will disturb many slide curator/librarians as well.
The chapter on artists' books is helpful, although the
blithe statement that artists' books present few cataloguing
problems makes me wonder if we have been talking about the same thing. The need for careful descriptive cataloguing and the total lack of suitable standardized permutations of
subject headings (e.g.: Artists' books; artists' publications; artists as authors; bookbinding, artistic; bookbinding, unu
sual; privately printed books (art); art-periodicals-privately printed; publishers and publishing (art); publishers and pub
lishing -history-20th century; artists' periodicals; book
rarities; books as art; books as objects; writing in art;
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concrete poetry, etc.) requires fastidious cataloguing or ima
ginative alternatives as yet to be developed and resolved; in the meantime one tends to do nothing so as not to have to do it over again. And it is unfortunate that a few of the
existing sources for these elusive materials are not listed
(Nigel Greenwood, George Wittenborn, Jaap Rietman, Walther Koenig, Printed Matter, Other Books and So, Art
Metropole, Robert Self, Arnolfini) particularly since several of them are British.
Another subject that is hinted at from time to time but which deserved a chapter of its own is the in-house produc tion of reference tools and sources (scrapbooks, indexes,
development of local collections, archives, etc.). The remarks on conservation promise more than delivered;
a touchy subject at best, art materials have special conserva
tion problems which need to be discussed; certainly more
information is needed than is given here, even for a genera} survey.
While the decision to organize the materials to be presented vertically, by form, clearly is an editorial option and an
acceptable approach, I must confess that my first reaction was to wonder why the chapters were not developed hori
zontally, around general problems like administration, col lection development, reference, problems of size, staff con
siderations, book vs. non-book collections (media center vs. library), problems of the types of libraries and so on.
This reaction may only be the result of habit, since we have tended to organize our conferences and chapter activities
along these lines, as do the articles in Art Libraries Journal. I cannot fault an editor for organizing material differently than my own biases would indicate. Yet this approach makes
me wonder for whom the book is published? The art libra rian who has been developing and administering a collection for some time will perhaps feel the need for more detailed discussion of familiar problems; the newly appointed art librarian will find the information generally useful, but
incomplete, since the other point of view is not developed; and the student will have much that is of value, albeit without sufficient discussion of principles. (The use of this volume for teaching is outlined in another review in this
issue.) The fault, if any, lies perhaps in the suggestion im
plicit in the words "manu?l" and "practice" that this will be a vademecum for problem-solving. That volume remains to be written, but the one at hand is certainly a step toward that end.
The production could certainly be better and would be
expected, given the price. Uneven typesetting, particularly at the beginning, makes the book tiring to use; narrow
gutters don't help. Notes at the end of each chapter are set in the same size type as the text, surely making a larger volume than necessary. More disturbing is the form of
entry. What ever happened to the conventions of bibliogra phic style? (e.g.: last name first?) and why put the paren theses around place, publisher and date? And what ever
happened to the use of op. cit.l I do not know if these are editorial oversights or publisher's vagaries, but one would have hoped that a book by and for librarians would have been exemplary in this regard. And yet, for all these quib bles, it is a "first"; ail concerned are to be commended for their efforts.
[Another review of this milestone in the literature of art
librarianship can be found in the Art Libraries Journal ?Joan Hugo
Otis Art Institute
Another view from an educator:
I was asked by Judith Hoffberg to comment on Philip Pa
cey's Art Library Manual as a possible textbook or at least, as a focal resource in an Art Librarianship course. Her re
quest came just while I was asking our College Bookstore to order ten copies under the rubric "recommended" reading. (My average class size for this specific course fluctuates between fifteen and twenty-three students, and I never
"require" a textbook in any of my courses). The Manual was compiled to "tackle the whole range of
practical librarianship with reference to the documentation of art and design in all its forms." p. xx. This claim is a bit
exaggerated particularly when we are not given a satisfactory definition of "art" and are not given a good explanation of the scope it professes to embrace. Nevertheless, the Manual offers the collective experience of British art librarians, cura
tors, lecturers, authors, art historians and artists. Pacey has edited in 423 pages an array of topics peculiar to art libra
rianship such as audiovisual resources, exhibition and sales
catalogs, printed ephemera, loan collections of original works, and so on. Each topic is followed by references and/ or bibliographies. Most articles emphasize selection, acquisi tion, organization and dissemination of information as prac ticed in art libraries in England. A majority of the reference sources are of European import. The prose is quite often stil ted and one has the feeling that some contributors have
written notes for a mini-lecture.
In the Introduction the editor infers that the Manual has been written more for the practicing librarian and library student than for the general reader and art student. I would
say that this book will be particularly useful to the library student because it highlights and codifies some of the major concerns of contemporary art librarianship. It will be less useful to the practicing North American librarian because the Manual does not offer new insights beyond those already discussed in the current literature. One cannot bu^welcome this informative compendium and
feel a certain pride that art librarianship has finally seen its first Manual published. My students will use it in class next
Spring, therefore the final verdict is still to come. ?Juan R. Freudenthal
Associate Professor Simmons College School of Library Science
DIRECTORY OF MEMBERS TO BE AVAILABLE SOON
The Directory of Members, edited by Amy R. Navratil, Mem bership Chairman, will be available sometime in December. All members who were paid up during the 1977 financial year will receive the Directory free of charge. Additional copies will be available to those who order it for $5.00. Please do not order the copies now. You will be informed where to order the Directory of Members after 15 November.
163
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