Vancouver, Canada
March 27, 1999

Present:

Leslie Abrams (98-99 Chair)

Daphne Dufresne (99-00 Chair)

Marilyn Berger, Executive Board Liaison

Jeannette Dixon, IFLA Representative

Ed Teague

Judith Hershman

Carol Terry

Special Guests:

Hugh Wilburn (IFLA 2001 Task Force)

Margaret Shaw (Australia)

Olga Sinitsina (Russia)

Anna Paulo Gordo (Portugal)

Executive Board Report: Marilyn Berger

• Reminder of First Timers party.
• Strategic Planning meetings:
  Sunday - Meeting with Board on developing local, national and international relations.
• Program proposals for ARLIS/NA 2000 in Pittsburgh:
      Deadline: May 3rd
      Theme: Links to the Past, Bridges to the Future
      Budget requests: deadline is May 31
      1998 Conference evaluation form: complete ASAP to help Pittsburgh
      committee
• 1998 Conference proceedings/minutes: deadline June 1st, to Ann Lally, University of Arizona.
• New travel award to bring Asian delegates to ARLIS/NA sponsored by RLG.
• Incoming Chair: Daphne Dufresne is the in-coming IRC Chair.

The Chair, Leslie Abrams, presented a written annual report and highlighted significant points:

• The IRC web page developed by Renata Guttman has proved really helpful to the committee and hopefully to the membership. The page provided content (reports, minutes) as well as hot links to affiliate organizations and the International Art Libraries Directory.
• Vancouver sessions: Connect and Collaborate: Art Libraries Around the World. Seven speakers, all but one from outside North America. IRC is also co-sponsoring a program with the Public Policy Committee: Informed on the Issues: Sharing Perspectives on Public Policy.

  Leslie Abrams was thanked for her work in organizing the IRC program. It was suggested that there should be a photograph of the session.

• It was noted that one delegate, Anja Lollesgaard, received an ARLIS/NA travel grant to assist her attendance. Other attempts to gain funding were not successful. Getty grants are restricted to developing countries that may assist in bringing a wider range of speakers in the future.
• Passing of Jacqueline Viaux, to which was added recognition of the passing of Evelyn McMann.
• ARLIS/NA Update columns were produced for most issues of the newsletter, including a report on the 1997 IFLA conference in Amsterdam.

• Jeanette Dixon reported on the Amsterdam Conference in 1998 at which there were a record number of North American participants. She reminded the committee that, regardless of the location of the IFLA conference, language is not a problem as English is one of the official languages, translations are available and papers are posted in advance on the IFLA web page.
• IFLA 1999 is in Bangkok and, while airfares from North America are not cheap, everything else in Bangkok is. The theme for the conference is Libraries as Gateways to an Enlightened World and for the Art Section Workshop Impact of Technology on Art Libraries Today.
• The Art Section will be holding its workshop in the Silpakorn University and standing committee in the National Museums and will have a 3-hour tour of the nearby Grand Palace. The recommended hotels for art librarians are the Royal Orchid Sheraton and the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza.
• Margaret Shaw added an invitation to join the ARLIS/ANZ Meeting being held in Brisbane in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Triennial one week after IFLA, on the return journey.
• IFLA 2000 will be held in Jerusalem. The tentative topic is The Future of the Art Book. IFLA 2001 will be held in Boston. [see below]
• Copies of the IFLA Section of Art Libraries English-language brochure [foreign language editions foreshadowed] were distributed. Jeannette Dixon was congratulated on the latest issue of the Section Newsletter featuring the Bangkok program. She also agreed to continue as IRC representative to IFLA.

IFLA 2001 Report

• Venue: Heinz Center in downtown Boston near a cluster of hotels. Dates: 16-25 August 2001. Suggested dates for Art Libraries Pre-Conference: 15-16 August 2001.
• ARLIS task force consists of: Hugh Wilburn, Sarah Dickenson, Carol Terry, Jeannette Dixon, and Meryl Smith.
• The National and Local Arrangements Committees for IFLA have been meeting already and the ARLIS/NA task force met prior to this IRC meeting. The pre-conference is to be sponsored by the Task Force and to be opened up to IFLA members. The aim is to be self-supporting with a reasonable fee to cover costs. Questions have been asked about HQ funding but IFLA satellite meetings are generally self-funded. The budget is to be submitted to the September ARLIS/NA Board Meeting.
• The Task Force is fortunate in having Chapter support and a great deal of experience available. In particular, Carol Terry was on the Chicago Committee in 1985 and Jeannette Dixon is the current IFLA Section of Art Libraries Chair.
• The suggestion of a specialist art book exhibit for the pre-conference was welcomed. Theme for the Art Section: Suggestions would be sought, to be discussed further in Bangkok and Pittsburgh. Jeannette Dixon reported a problem of too many multiple, narrowly focused project reports. She would like to promote a panel and discussion format with a concentration on broader concepts and ideas. This could possibly lead to the production of a general text on art librarianship such as was last published under Philip Pacey's editorship. This needs to be balanced against the need many delegates have to present papers to achieve funding to attend.
• Some suggested topics:
  • cross-cultural themes of American Collections in Europe/European Collections in America [would have to be broadened for IFLA which is a global organization]
  • distance learning
  • digital and imaging technology
  • broad scope art librarianship coverage.

• ARLIS/NL to be added to the list of affiliates in the handbook [notify Ashley Prather cc Lee Sorensen]
• Other new organizations:
  • ARLIS/Spain and Portugal [ARLIS/Iberia?] is being developed and has a web-site which should be added to the links list. [Ref. Ana Paula Gordo]
  • ARLIS/Moscow continues to be very active and should become affiliated when ready. It will soon have a web page at www.libfl.ru. Olga Sinitsina reported on the up-coming conference to be held in Moscow. [Details to be available on the web page]

    ARLIS/Moscow continues to be the only really active group and now has good contacts with colleagues in St. Petersburg. There is a section in the Russian Library Association but this is generally too big, too broad and the conferences are too expensive and distant for most art librarians to attend. Although it has been decided that membership of ARLIS/Moscow will give automatic membership of the Russian Library Association, this has not helped much.

    The Moscow/St Petersburg groups are planning a conference in May on museum librarianship. There have been 60 registrations so far, with 100 expected/hoped for. Dates: 17-19 May in Moscow with an extension to St. Petersburg for the international speakers. Funding has been achieved to bring 10 international speakers from the Art Documentation Advisory Group and 10 Russian speakers. The working language will be English with simultaneous translation. Topic: Museum libraries and Museums in Libraries
        Establishment of national standards and evaluation procedures
        Displays by electronic publishers as distribution is not good and this
        will show librarians from outside Moscow what is available
        Assess the current state of publishing of Russian art books and
        periodicals: what is still available and new items
        Exhibition of artists books which are not really recognized yet in
        Russia even though they are held in some collections
    

    Information about Russian museums is available on www.museum.ru

There were no specific items to go to the Board.

Program for Pittsburgh

• The IRC should expand the geographical coverage of participants. Regions for particular targeting are:
      Latin America: Karno Award recipient could be asked to speak
      Asia: new RLG award
      Africa: could seek a Getty grant
  
• It is felt that rather than having a formal program every year it would be more productive to alternate this with a discussion group format. To add structure to the discussion questions for inclusion could be called for and circulated. Specific themes were not identified at this stage but there was a suggestion that attention be given to the possibility of training courses for art librarians along the lines of the Getty course for South America.
• There was also discussion of the need to assist new international visitors with a possible function, mentoring and a special invitation to the new members' party.