Academic Library Division
 

Current Programs
 
1999 Conference in Vancouver
 

• Panel Title:  When Finally Aroused:  Advocating Against Art Book Censorship

Sponsor:  Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table
Co-Sponsor:  Academic Libraries Division
Moderator:  Ray Anne Lockard (Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh)

Speakers:

Janine Fuller, Manager of Little Sisters’ Book and Art Emporium, Vancouver, B.C.  Ms. Fuller filed suit against Canadian Customs in 1982 because they censored shipments of books sent to her store from the United States.  The case was not decided by the Canadian Supreme Court until 1996.

Professor Becki Ross, Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Women's Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. Professor Ross was a witness at the Little Sisters trial as well as a similar trial in Toronto.

Kiss and Tell. Members of this lesbian art performance collective, Persimmon Blackbridge, Lizard Jones and Susan Stewart, will debut a piece created especially for this session. Their performances have suffered censorship in the past.

Description:  Censorship continues to plague artists, bookstore owners, librarians and the public.  Such cases have mounted in both number and vigor since the rise of the conservative religious right movement in the United States and Canada.  The censorship issue usually involves sexually explicit images and the debate about “aesthetic value” and/or “artistic merit.”  It is no coincidence that many of the censored materials are also expressive of lesbian/gay sex.  There is no better time to continue the discussion of censorship issues we began at the 1995 conference in Montreal than in Vancouver, the home of the Little Sisters’ Book and Art Emporium case against Canadian Customs.  This session will examine censorship from the perspectives of a bookstore owner, a witness in a trial, and a performance art piece.
 

• Panel Title:  “Calling the Tender”:  The History of Art Libraries in Canada

Sponsors:  Academic Libraries Division
Moderator:  Ray Anne Lockard (Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh)

Speakers: 

Melva Dwyer, Vancouver, B.C. - "The Canadian Art Libraries Section and Its History."

Jo Beglo, National Gallery of Canada Library - "Collecting for a Nation: The National Gallery of Canada Library, Past, Present, Future."

Ilga Leja, The Nova Scotia School of Art and Design Library, "The Development of Art Library Services in Atlantic Canada: The Case Study of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design."

Daphne Dufresne - University of Quebec, Montréal, "The University of Quebec at Montréal and Art Librarianship in Quebec."

Description:  Canadian art librarians have taken important leadership roles and won awards in ARLIS/NA, as well as authored award winning reference tools that provide invaluable access to information on Canadian art.  We members of ARLIS/NA, however, know very little about the history of art libraries in Canada.  These libraries developed without the support of the flamboyant benefactors that established many art libraries in the United States.  This session will examine the history of art librarianship in Canada and the development of libraries in a museum, an art school and an academic art library in Canada.  It is time to continue the discussion of our history that began with a session on institutions in the United States during the 1997 conference in San Antonio.
 
 

• Panel Title:  Staving Off Starvation’s Wolf:  WPA Art and Architecture Projects in the Pacific Northwest

Sponsor:  Academic Libraries Division
Co-Sponsor:  Decorative Arts Round Table
Moderator:  Ray Anne Lockard (Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh)

Speakers: 

Catherine Johnson, Fine Arts Library, Indiana University - "Portland Preserved: The Work of Minor White for the WPA, 1938-1939."

Ray Anne Lockard, Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh - "A Lodge That Would Reign Like No Other: Oregon's Timberline Lodge, A WPA Legacy."

David Martin, Martin-Zambito Fine Arts Gallery, Seattle, Washington - "WPA Artists in Washington State."

Roger Van Oosten, Seattle author - "WPA Murals in the Pacific Northwest."

Description:  Beginning with the Wall Street crash of 1929, US citizens soon found themselves living in an altered world -- unemployment, bread lines and relief lines.  But it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal” that saved the US artist from economic destruction and established a significant historic precedent for federal support of the arts.  New Deal art programs created jobs for destitute artists from 1934-1943.

While research on New Deal art has begun on such WPA projects as those created in Illinois, very little has been published on the WPA projects that saved artists in the Pacific Northwest.  Timberline Lodge, erected on Mt. Hood in Oregon is the most renowned of these projects, but beautiful bridges were also constructed, photographs taken, murals painted and sculptures were erected.  This session will examine important WPA projects in the Pacific Northwest from four different perspectives.
 
 
 

• Panel Title:  The Challenge of Finding Art Information on the Internet

Sponsor:  Academic Libraries Division
Co-Sponsor:  Reference and Information Services Section
Moderator:  Liv Valmestad, University of Manitoba

Speakers: 

Lois Swan Jones, Professor Emeritus, University of North Texas - "Methodology for Locating and Supplementing Web Information." 

Jeanne Brown, Architecture Studies Librarian, University of Nevada, Las Vegas - "Architectural Information." 

Carolyn DeLuca, Electronic Resource Librarian, Hazen Center, Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art - "Reference Using the Internet in the Museum World." 

Description:  Methodology for locating and evaluating web information on the Internet is a sprawling, confusing place--full of graphic and text materials with no central indexing system. Finding what is wanted or needed becomes more complex and time consuming as the sites expand. To be successful at finding pertinent data, it is important to know just what can and cannot be located on this information highway, and most importantly how to appraise and use the material found there. This session will give ideas to assist people in maneuvering the Internet maze:  how to find Internet data and how to use it. The other speakers will focus more specifically on resources for architectural information and other subject areas. We hope to show how information specialists from the various forums (curators, architects) use the Internet for their particular needs. Speakers will have handouts with Internet addresses, etc.

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