ARLIS/NA-Northern California Chapter Spring Meeting Minutes
Friday, June 13, 2008
Anne Bremer Memorial Library, San Francisco Art Institute
The spring meeting of ARLIS/NA-NC was attended by 33 people and generously hosted by Jeff Gunderson, Librarian at the Anne Bremer Memorial Library, San Francisco Art Institute, in the scenic Russian Hill area of San Francisco.
Ann Armstrong, chapter Chair, opened the meeting promptly at 10:00 a.m. by thanking our host, Jeff, and past chair Dayna Holz for her work in the chapter. After introducing the meeting agenda, Ann turned the meeting over to Kay Teel for the Secretary/Treasurer's report.
Lisa Velarde, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, moved that the Secretary/Treasurer's minutes of the November 2007 meeting be approved. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Kay Teel reported about the Chapter's membership renewal drive, printed membership directory, and chapter finances. As of June 12, 2008, there were 42 members, affiliates, and student members in the Chapter. There were 21 non-renewals from last year. Reasons for non-renewals were retirement, change in careers, and moving away from the Bay Area. During the meeting, several attendees renewed their chapter memberships, bringing the membership total to 47 by the end of the day.
As of June 12, 2008, the Chapter had collected $320 in revenue since November 2007, including $280 in dues, $5 in unrestricted gifts, and $35 in donations to the Ann Gilbert Travel Award. The Chapter had spent $290.37 since November 2007, including $74.25 for refreshments for the autumn business meeting, $66.12 for the membership directory printing and mailing, $100 donation to ARLIS/NA for the Welcome Party at the Denver conference, and a $50 donation to the Prelinger Library (http://www.home.earthlink.net/~alysons/library.html), approved by the Chapter's executive board following the Chapter's tour of the Prelinger Library in March 2008. This year, none of the chapter officers applied for the Ann Gilbert Travel Award to attend the Denver conference, so the Chapter's expenditures were reduced considerably from last year to be more in line with its revenue. The Chapter's bank balance on June 13, 2008, was $1380.72.
In past years, the Northern California chapters of ARLIS/NA and VRA had issued a combined membership directory. Many people are members of both organizations. Kay asked if she should approach the VRA chapter about doing another combined directory. The attendees agreed that this would be useful if the VRA Northern California Chapter was amenable to the idea. Kay said she would contact Howard Brainen, chair of the VRA chapter, about issuing a combined membership directory for 2009.
Next followed Lisa's report on the Chapter Leaders meeting at the ARLIS/NA annual conference in Denver in May 2008. Lisa said that the main topic of the meeting was the new Memberclicks database where ARLIS/NA members can update their own information online. She urged everyone to update their personal profiles and include their chaper affiliation. In addition, the ARLIS/NA website has undergone some changes. Less information is restricted to members, and there are more online documents available on the website.
Lisa next reported that there is a mentoring program in place within ARLIS/NA, and the Society wants to extend the mentoring program into the chapters. The Society would like a representative from each chapter to attend the mentoring workshop at the next ARLIS/NA annual conference in Indianapolis. After the workshop, the chapter can start its mentoring program, and it can be designed around a specific topic or to suit a specific need.
Lisa also addressed the topic of joint meetings with other ARLIS/NA chapters. There are plans to submit a special funding proposal to ARLIS/NA for a 2009 joint meeting with the Southern California chapter that might also serve as a regional meeting with the Mountain West chapter. There was a brief discussion of joint meetings, including possible venues, and many attendees said they would be interested.
Barbara Rominski, Chapter member and ARLIS/NA Communications & Publications Liaison, reported about the restructured ARLIS/NA executive board. There are no regional representatives anymore. These executive board positions became liaison positions to cover specific functional roles. One board member is a chapters coordinator who works with all of the chapters. Barbara's role as Communications and Publications Liaison will oversee the ARLIS/NA website, Art Documentation and ARLIS/NA publications. The executive board liaisons are also liaisons to committees. Barbara said that the Board is committed to ensuring a broad geographical coverage among board members. She said that what the Board is aiming for is greater transparency between the Society, the Executive Board, and the chapters. The Board wants to revamp the ARLIS/NA website and make the Society more responsive to members' needs.
Next Barbara reported on the membership meeting at the Denver conference, and the announcement that there are no round tables in ARLIS/NA now. Instead, there will be special interest groups for interests that are timely but may not last permanently. These special interest groups will be more informal, and they do not have to be voted on by the Board.
Barbara's next topic concerned a dues increase for the Society. It would be the first dues increase in 10 years. The Society has around 1100 members and is financially spread thin. This dues increase is viewed as a cost-of-living increase for the Society to continue its functions and improve its services to members. There will be a vote in the autumn. The increase would be 30%, raising the individual membership to $120. Barbara noted that this still costs less than other societies such as VRA and SLA. Barbara also mentioned that there may be an introductory membership category for people to "test the waters" of ARLIS/NA to see if it suited their professional needs. The Society had already raised the price of conference fees from last year, but the Denver fees were less than VRA's conference fees.
The 2009 ARLIS/NA annual conference will be in Indianapolis. After 2009, the next proposed conference venues are Boston, Minneapolis, and Toronto.
Following Barbara's report, there was a brief open discussion about the ARLIS/NA Denver conference. Lisa pointed out that the conference proceedings will be online (http://www.arlisna.org/news/conferences/2008/proceedings/proceed_index.html), and some PowerPoint presentations from sessions were online already.
Lisa attended sessions on reference and instruction. Session topics included advocacy, assessment, how a library characterizes its services, government art resources from Mexico, Canada, and the United States, and how libraries are using games in library instruction. Many sessions covered technology trends such as using YouTube videos to introduce library assignments, interactive instruction, and free web-based computing resources (cloud computing).
Barbara clarified that there are 2 mentoring programs within ARLIS/NA. One is the year-long mentoring program, which is the one the Society would like the chapters to develop as well. The other program is just during the annual conference, and will be renamed the conference networking program.
Barbara highlighted the Artists' Files Working Group within ARLIS/NA. The group built a database for artists' files collections and hope to have the database online shortly. The database documents the collections so researchers will know what collections different institutions have, what their strengths are, etc. The working group is partnering with ARLIS/UK and is developing a wiki.
The final agenda item for the business meeting was an open call for announcements and new business.
Karen Kessel from Sonoma State University announced her guide for Native American Art. The bibliographic guide covers image collections, how to find reference information, cataloging, chronology, symbolism, 18 maps of regions, and a glossary of terms. It will be available as PDF. Karen was not sure how much it will cost. She expected it to be advertised in VRA within a month.
Andrea Segall from Berkeley Public Library announced her retirement, and said that her position would be open with a job posting on June 23. Andrea stressed how much she valued the Northern California chapter, and how it had helped her to work with other art libraries and meet new librarians. Andrea described the BPL's collection as a good art department in a public library that is heavily used. The collection is circulating. There is a slide library. Andrea hoped that someone with a strong art background would be recruited for the position. After some discussion of salary ranges and the application process, Andrea introduced her colleague, Michelle McKenzie, and 2 library school students who were working at BPL, Kara Flanagan and Leia Casey.
Ann asked if there was interest in having a social event in the summer. Although the summer is a busy time, she decided to send out ideas via e-mail and follow-up on events when there was enough interest.
Ann and Lisa issued a call for chapter officers. New officers will need to be elected at the autumn business meeting. Barbara pointed out that the chapter needed to form a nominating committee per its by-laws. Lisa said she would form a nominating committee to contact members who may be interested in becoming officers.
Peter Blank from Stanford University introduced Anna Fishaut, the Assistant Art Librarian at Stanford's Art and Architecture Library. Anna came to Stanford from the Art Institute of Chicago. She is in charge of the new exhibitions program in the library and had already developed 2 shows from the library's special collections material. Anna also oversees interns, and she introduced Alexis Adkins, the San José State University summer intern currently working on a project to inventory art journals owned by the library in original or facsimile form.
Ann adjourned the business meeting at 11:00, and after a short break, attendees gathered for the tour.
Beginning in the peaceful courtyard, Jeff Gunderson led the tour of the San Francisco Art Institute, from the student gallery with its Diego Rivera mural, through the 1926 building, and ending in the modern addition, with its open roof spaces and amazing views of the Bay and Coit Tower. Rounding out this introduction to SFAI, Jeff treated attendees to an entertaining and fascinating presentation about the history of the Institute, highlighting the influential artists who studied and/or taught there.
Mary Marsh then gave a brief presentation about a special project she worked on about the art at San Francisco's City College. The impetus for this project was a guide to the art on the City College campus, much of it created for the Art In Action program during 1939-1940. Mary researched the artworks and artists and compiled a guide, bibliography, and webliography, including where to find some of the artists' current works. She handed out flyers and bookmarks promoting the project.
After a break for lunch, attendees wearing their most comfortable walking shoes embarked on an afternoon tour of Coit Tower and its murals.
Submitted by Kay Teel, August 4, 2008