The Art of Change: The Impact of Place and the Future of Academic Art Library Collections

Abstract

Academic institutions have long supported stand-alone branch libraries devoted to fine arts, architecture, and other allied fields. As subject specific collecting on campuses has been decentralized by collaborative collection development, consortial borrowing, and the quick availability of materials in both digital and print formats, the need for the physical space of the art library for research has diminished. The authors, both of whom are in administrative positions at ARL art libraries, explore how collections are directly tied to use of space in architecturally significant spaces and conclude by offering suggestions how space can help heighten collections access and emulate greater value on their campuses.

KEYWORDS:

• collection management
• library buildings and space
• researchers
• university libraries
• users

Notes

¹This excludes the Health Sciences Library, which is a part of the Wexner Medical Center, and the Law Library, which is affiliated with the Moritz College of Law.

²An excellent description of the layout of the Fine Arts Library can be found in Susan Wyngaard's 1996 Art Documentation article.

³These statistics were pulled just before the end of the 2014 calendar year, on December 12. With the end of the fall semester on December 17, they would not have increased much and would still show a sharp decline.

⁴This figure combines OhioLINK, Interlibrary Loan, and campus document delivery.

⁵Examples of the Page Collective's work, including the August 2014 Fine Arts Library installation “Where We Left Off” can be found at http://www.thepagecollective.com/.

⁶An article on the glass exhibition “For the Love of Glass” can be found in the campus newspaper, the Lantern. http://thelantern.com/2014/12/class-of-glass-students-create-display-delicate-art-form/

⁷See PowerPoint proceedings from Hibben and Keogh's ARLIS/NA session “A Place for Us: Art Students in the Centralized Academic Library,” May, 2008. http://arlisnamw.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/a_place_for_us_71.ppt

⁸Jesse Vestermark's 2011 article in Art Libraries Journal, “History of the Rise and Progress of the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library at Yale University,” is an excellent resource and narrative of the history of the many visual arts collections, facilities, and services since the nineteenth century.

⁹Many studies and articles have been written, most notably by Yale's University Librarian Susan Gibbons who took an anthropological approach to student needs and the results clearly point to the lasting desire to experience the “library as place.”