National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 70 | August 2004


NLA Hosts Visual Arts Forum

On 7 May  the National Library hosted a meeting to discuss information resources in the visual arts in Australia. The meeting was organised by representatives of the National Library, the University of New South Wales, and the Arts Libraries Society–Australia and New Zealand (ARLIS-ANZ).

Visual Arts Forum conducted at the NLA in May
Visual Arts Forum conducted at the NLA in May

During 2003, a survey of visual arts libraries was conducted by the National Library to update what was known about those libraries in Australia. Libraries surveyed were identified from the Australian Libraries Gateway and ARLIS-ANZ. The results of the survey, which are available upon request, indicated that for many smaller libraries, the cost of access to electronic resources was prohibitive. It was also clear that a number of libraries have information resources which they would like to make available more generally.

The May meeting was attended by 40 interested stakeholders. The papers from that meeting will be made available by ARLIS-ANZ through its website and journal, and can also be requested from the National Library (shenders@nla.gov.au). 

Topics of particular interest were local indexing and database endeavours, digitisation, and the possibility of forming a consortium to assist the smaller libraries access electronic resources. A number of actions were identified as a result of the discussions, and it was resolved that a second forum on this topic be held in May 2005.

Key action items include the following:

  • Kinetica will design a workshop on cataloguing for visual arts libraries, to be run in conjunction with the ARLIS-ANZ conference in September. (This has been organised for 8 September)
  • Kinetica will investigate access to SCIPIO, an RLG database
  • a working group will be established to examine further issues raised in the indexing and databases paper and discussion
  • a working group will be convened to discuss digitisation issues
  • the CASL Consortium will investigate the idea of including a state art gallery in its negotiations for access to Grove Art Online (this is being used to assess the feasibility of including smaller visual arts libraries in the CASL Consortium) and
  • participants were encouraged to participate in and publicise the Learnscope project which is looking to stimulate development of an online community of practice in digitisation of images for educational use.

A full list of the action items can be found at <http://arlisanz.anu.edu.au/projectsavaforum.htm>.
—Sandra Henderson, Manager, Research, Coordination Support

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