EXHIBITION CATALOGS: WE NEED AN APPROACHSource: ARLIS/NA Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 6 (OCTOBER 1973), p. 34Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27945216 .

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A NOTE FROM THE ANTIPODES: THE FINE ARTS LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND, N.Z.

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to your very much appreciated Newsletter. Contact with similar libraries and librarians working in the same field is very helpful to those who are somewhat isolated from the art centres of the world. The advent of ARLIS and the resultant ARLIS Newsletter and ARLIS/NA Newsletter as well as columns such as Clive Philpott's "Feedback" with their comments and details about catalogues, publications of interest and art library news, has proved invaluable to us, especially in the speeding-up of acquisition of new material. It is gratifying to be able to produce an important new exhi bition catalogue for a returning staff member who has flown in from, say, Los Angeles, enthusing about the Bruce Nauman exhibition...

When approaching ARLIS/NA some time ago about member

ship, I thought it would be more relevant to belong to the North American group, since many of your libraries would be

young in years and therefore still very much in the developing stage, and also far enough from the major bookselling markets to suffer similar difficulties when trying to purchase out-of

print material to fill gaps in the collection, especially those caused by late beginnings, i.e. the early art historical publica tions. We, too, rely on reprints and second hand copies of im

portant books which are, of course, very expensive and a strain on our somewhat limited resources. Add to this, however, our isolation as a country (12,000 miles from Europe and 6,000 from the western seaboard of North America) and you can see why I feel a trifly bitter about the pile of "sorry, it's

already sold" letters we constantly receive from booksellers in reply to our airmail request for a much-needed text. Long

mail delays, sometimes 20 weeks from Europe, 6-10 weeks from, say, New York, mean that we receive lists from booksellers long after similarly placed libraries in Europe or North America, and we frequently miss such offerings. However, we do purchase many titles in this way, and the collections are growing rapidly in spite of late beginnings.

This library is one of several on-campus divisional libraries of the University of Auckland (student roll: 10,000) Library, serving the needs of the Departments of Art History and Fine Arts. Of some 600 users, about 180 are full-time fine arts stu dents (and staff of the School of Fine Arts) and 200 are staff/ students concerned with art history courses. The Collection consists of 13,000 books, bound serials and exhibition cata

logues, 200 current serial titles and supporting collections of

press cuttings, technical pamphlets, reproductions and illustra tions. Except for a small collection of material transferred from the main collection, the library has been developed since 1961

when the first professional librarian was appointed and new accommodation opened. Courses offered by the Departments dictate the direction of acquisition, and the emphases have been: European art history from medieval to present, North American art since 1800 and Australian-New Zealand art

together with collections for photography and film, design including industrial design, graphics, typography and jewelry, and printmaking, painting and sculpture. Present changes emphasise the development of the collection around 20th

century movements. Slides and photographs are administered and housed within the Art History Department.

The Press-cutting collection was set up to augment the New Zealand collection since there has been very little art history scholarship in this field and we rely on exhibition catalogues and ephemera for source material. The cuttings come from New Zealand newspapers with additions from Australian and, occasionally British newspapers, and these are indexed, pasted on sheets and stored in vertical file drawers. Much

use is being made of the collection which, after eight years, is providing useful information for those studying New Zea land topics.

For visual stimulation, students must go to the Auckland

City Art Gallery which is within 2 blocks of the University campus (the University does not have a gallery). Recent additions to the City Gallery have provided excellent space for visiting exhibitions and we have been able to enjoy French

Medieval art from France; Picasso prints from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and paintings by John Constable chosen by Graham Reynolds during this year alone.

A final grouch and a comment: I wonder how many other librarians are disgruntled by early pre-publication notices which give dates of publication in time for courses, are then added to course lists, then either much delayed and even cancelled without notice. A serial which I find very useful in providing news about publications (those mentioned

excepted) is The Pnnt Collector's Newsletter, published in New York.

?Valerie Richards Fine Arts Librarian

University of Auckland

EXHIBITION CATALOGS: WE NEED AN APPROACH [ EDITOR'S NOTE: We need articles on art exhibition catalogs and how

you deal with them. Instead, we are printing news about catalogs. ]

From John D. Byrum, Jr., Head Cataloguer, Princeton Uni

versity Librarian, we read: "Our policy is to list these materi als (exhibition catalogues) in our Public Catalogue, developing entries for them in full conformance with the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules. For different reasons this practice has come under criticism from both technical services and public services staff, and many of us have therefore been following with interest the articles on controlling exhibition catalogues in the ARLIS/NA NEWSLETTER. It is possible that this series

may provide us with some means for making available some or all of our catalogues other than the time-consuming one of full cataloguing.

Many libraries with substantial art collections, like Prince ton, which undertake conventional cataloguing for exhibition

catalogues might benefit from a public discussion of the AACR as it relates to these publications. The rules governing choice of main entry for exhibition catalogues, as you no doubt know, have prompted considerable disapproval, especially from art librarians. On the other hand, much can be said on their be half. Perhaps a debate on the merits of the AACR provisions for exhibition catalogues might result in their improvement or, at least, in a better understanding about them. If you think the matter worth pursuing, the columns of the ARLIS/NA

Newsletter might provide a forum for such a discussion."

a

A very important issue of ARLIS Newsletter was published in the United Kingdom in September. The theme of the issue is Exhibition Catalogs, their importance as art documentation; and then what to collect, from whom to acquire them, how to know what is available, and how to organize them.

Outstanding as the issue may be, some of the articles are more pertinent to the United Kingdom than to North Ameri ca's needs. But the issue is still monumental. Among the impor tant articles are: Exhibition catalogues in the United Kingdom: values and problems, by Gaye Smith; Exhibition catalogues: notes on categories, use and standardisation, by Clive Phillpot; Exhibition catalogues: importance, format, bibliography, by Alexander Davis. I urge all our readers to order this important issue by writing to Philip Pacey, The School of Art, 7 Hatfield

Road, St. Albans, Herts., England.

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