Information Alliance
Counterpart Projects: Art
Art Project Completed June 2005
Counterparts Jennifer Beals, Meg Shaw, and Yvonne Boyer applied the "brief tests of collection strength" methodology to determine collaborative areas of collecting emphasis. Vanderbilt will continue to emphasize collecting of Latin American Art material to support an extensive Latin American collection. VU will also be the resource library for French art 18-20th century and English art 18-20th century. Tennessee will be the Information Alliance resource library for African art. Kentucky will be the resource library for northern European Renaissance art. Each library will emphasize acquisitions in the area where it serves as a resource, and reduce its expenditures in areas of emphasis for the other libraries. This information is recorded on the Information Alliance collection development website. Librarians will compare collections with the WorldCat Collection Analysis service to record existing collection strengths and overlap in these areas and to measure progress.
Information Alliance Collaborative Collection Development Project
February 2005 Progress Report
Art Counterparts:
Jennifer Beals, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
The University of Tennessee offers a M.F.A. in Studio Art and a B.A. in Art History
African Art
Yvonne Boyer, Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University offers a M.A. in Art History and a B.A. in Studio Art
Latin American Art
Meg Shaw, University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky offers a M.F.A in Studio Art and a M.A in Art History
New Media and Women in Art
Proposed Project :
Provide an assessment of each of the Information Alliance's collections in the three subject areas of African art, Latin American art and women in art. Create a bibliography to be used by scholars, students and librarians at all three institutions. The resulting tool will assist in future selection and retention decisions.
Part I. Collection Assessment
Goal: Complete a collection assessment of print materials for the selected subject areas using Howard White's brief test methodology outlined in “A Validation of Brief Tests of Collection Strength” by Thomas M. Twiss in Collection Management , V25 (3) 2001, pp. 23-37.
According to White's process, 10 titles are assigned to each of the 4 conspectus levels. The comprehensive Level 5 is not used in the assessment.
Level 1: Minimal (over 750 owning institutions)
Level 2: Basic Information (401-750 owning institutions)
Level 3: Instruction Support (151-400 owning institutions)
Level 4: Research (less than 150 owning institutions)
The titles were selected from authoritative bibliographies while holdings and Library of Congress classification were verified in WorldCat. An attempt was made to balance the list to reflect different areas of interest and research. Only materials published before 2004 were included in the assessment. Rare or special collections materials were not included.
All three institutions should ideally achieve a Level 3 ranking for each collection area while the designated library should strive to reach a Level 4 ranking. Collective ranking of the Information Alliance libraries should also be considered.
African Art Progress Report
Jennifer Beals, University of Tennessee
Selected Bibliography:
Stanley, Janet L. African Art: a bibliographic guide . New York: African Pub. Co., 1985
Stanley, Janet L. Modern African Art: A Basic Reading List. A Work in Progress. National Museum of African Art Library. Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Gaskin, L.J. P. A Bibliography of African art; compiled at the International African Institute. London: International African Institute, 1965
The Grove Dictionary of Art Online , (Oxford University Press)<http://www.groveart.com>
Thorough assessments were completed for N General Art and NB Sculpture using the brief test methodology.
N General Art:
University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt: Level 3
University of Kentucky: Level 2
NB Sculpture:
All three institutions: Level 3
Modified assessments were completed for NA Architecture, ND Painting, NK Decorative Arts and Design, and NX Visual Arts. There were insufficient titles owned by more than 750 libraries to fill the Level 1 for these areas, or owned by 401 to 750 libraries to fill the Level 2. The modified assessment consisted of selecting 40 titles for each of the remaining LC classification, ranking the titles by number of holdings and then placing them in four levels for the assessment.
NA Architecture:
University of Tennessee: Level 3
Vanderbilt and University of Kentucky: Level 1
ND Painting:
All three institutions: Level 1
NK Decorative Arts:
University of Tennessee: Level 4
Vanderbilt: Level 2
University of Kentucky: Level 1
NX Visual Arts:
Vanderbilt: Level 2
University of Tennessee and University of Kentucky: Level 1
The areas of NC Graphic Design and Illustration and NE Printmaking did not yield even 40 titles so no assessment could be conducted.
Latin American Art Progress Report
Yvonne Boyer, Vanderbilt University
Selected Bibliography:
Bailey, Joyce Waddell, Ed. Handbook of Latin American Art: manual de arte latinoamerican: A Bibliographic Compilation . Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Information Services, 1984-
Congdon, Kristin G. and Kara Kelly Hallmark. Artists from Latin American cultures: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992
Covington, Paula Hattox. Latin American and the Caribbean: A Critical Guide to Research Sources. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Findlay, James A . Modern Latin American Art: A Bibliography . Westport, ct: Greenwood Press, 1983
Turner, Jane. Encyclopedia of Latin American & Caribbean Art . London: Macmillan Reference Ltd.; New York: Grove Dictionaries, 2000
Assessment completed for N6501-N6538 Latin American Art
Vanderbilt University: Level 4
University of Tennessee: Level 3
University of Kentucky: Level 1
Women in Art Progress Report
Meg Shaw, University of Kentucky
Multimedia, New Media, electronic media, digital art, cyber-art, computer art, technology and art, video art, interactive art
Initially, Video Art and New Media were areas selected for assessment, because collection building in this rapidly evolving discipline is vital to keeping the art collection current. University of Kentucky has several faculty members that teach in this area.
Selected Bibliography:
Antrin, D. et al. Video Art . Philadelphia: U.P.A., Institute of Contemporary Art, 1975
Boulter, J. David. Remediation: Understanding New Media . Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1998
Lunenfield, Peter, ed. The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media . Cambridge, Mass., MIT, 1999
The Grove Dictionary of Art Online , (Oxford University Press)<http://www.groveart.com>
Call numbers researched: N7433.8, QA76.575, N6494, PN1992.8
The quantity and type of items required for the brief test methodology could not be found to satisfy the numbers of holding libraries needed.
- Difficult to define and narrow subject
- Many different call numbers
- Very few bibliographies
- Not enough volume of books yet for over 750 libraries to have holdings, even though technologies have been used since the 1960s
Women in Art
Then, “Women in Art” was selected as a potential category for assessment. This is a Library of Congress Subject Heading.
Selected Bibliography :
Bachmann, Donna G. and Sherry Piland. Women Artists: An Historical, Contemporary and Feminist Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1978
The Online Grove Dictionary of Art (Oxford University Press). “Women and Art History”
Assessment completed for Call numbers : N43, N8354, N72.F45 Women and art
All three institutions: Level 4
Although Women in Art may not be the ideal subject area for cooperative collection development, it was instructive to explore the area and several items were added to the collection as a result of these investigations.
Summary
The “Brief Test of Collection Strength”, developed by Howard White and examined by Thomas M. Twiss in his article “A Validation of Brief Tests of Collection Strength” ( Collection Management , 25 (3) 2001) is not appropriate for all disciplines in the field of art history. A minimum number of thirty titles must be held by 151 to 751 or more libraries to adequately apply the tests which can be challenging, if not impossible, in some areas.
Other problems encountered in all the areas studied included:
- Many books in level 1 category
- Difficult to find materials for levels 2, 3 & 4 in the same call numbers
- Levels 2 & 3 most difficult to find
- Level 4 books are very old or very obscure, probably difficult to obtain
The brief test method was more useful in application to the subject areas of Latin American Art and African Art than Women in Art and New Media. It is helpful for the subject under consideration to have a geographic orientation and a diversity of easily defined media to categorize the titles involved in the assessment into the art classifications (N, NA, NB, NC, ND, NE, NX).
Part II. Bibliography
The second phase of the project will consist of creating a selective bibliography of Information Alliance Library holdings for the areas of African Art, Latin American and Women in Art. Each bibliography will include a list of core materials which ideally would be held by all three member libraries and a list of specialized materials. Materials which did not meet the necessary criteria to be applied to the assessment may be added to the bibliography. A variety of media including periodicals and audiovisual materials may also be incorporated.
Conclusions
At this time, an adjustment in the approval plans is not recommended. The approval plans provide core materials needed to support research and study in these areas. However, this collaborative project will enable all three libraries to be far more selective when choosing additional titles through approval slips, faculty requests, catalogs and specialized book dealers.
In addition, our work on this assessment project, frequent conference calls and meetings have provided the foundation for future cooperative decision-making and collaborative collection development projects.
Information Alliance Collaborative Collection Development Project, June 2004
Art Counterparts:
Jennifer Beals, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
African Art
Yvonne Boyer, Vanderbilt University
Latin American Art
Meg Shaw, University of Kentucky
Media Arts
September 2003 Meeting in Rugby, Tennessee
Art counterparts, Jennifer Beals and Yvonne Boyer were able to participate
in the September Information Alliance collection development counterparts
meeting.
Tennessee and Vanderbilt collection budgets for art are similar. Generally the UT arts program is more applied and Vanderbilt places greater emphasis on art history. UT has a professional school of architecture and offers the MFA. Vanderbilt offers a master’s degree in art history. There might be a natural opportunity for collaboration in purchasing art resources, with Vanderbilt concentrating on historical materials and UT specializing in studio art. New faculty at UT have identified a need for more studio art resources.
UT is developing an emphasis in the art of Africa and Oceana. Vanderbilt has strengths in Latin American and Asian art, areas also of interest to UT scholars. New interests at Vanderbilt include native arts of North America.
Counterparts are interested in digital projects and plan to keep both user needs and differences in mind. UT currently maintains separate art and architecture slide collections in the departments, and the library may be called upon to offer strategies for streamlining. UT’s tradition of having faculty representatives for both art history and studio art is of interest to Vanderbilt.
Proposed Project:
Provide an assessment of each of the Information Alliance’s collections
in the three subject areas of African art, media arts and Latin American art.
Create a bibliography to be used by scholars, students and librarians at all
three institutions. The resulting tool will assist in future selection and
retention decisions.
Part I. Collection Assessment
Goal: Complete a collection assessment of print materials for the selected subject areas of African art, media arts and Latin American art.
Resources:
Twiss, Thomas M. “A Validation of Brief Tests of Collection Strength”.
Collection Management, V25 (3) 2001, pp. 23-37.
The brief test methodology was developed by Howard White of Drexel University
as a means to evaluate a library collection utilizing the Research Libraries
Group Conspectus. Twiss tested White’s methodology by preparing two
brief tests in Soviet history which were then applied to five different libraries.
In assessing White’s methodology, Twiss relied on four set of criteria
applied to the test results: are the results intelligible, sensible, convergent
and in agreement with the libraries’ self rating. His conclusions strongly
supported the validity of the brief test methodology.
According to White’s process, 10 titles are assigned to each of the 4 conspectus levels. The comprehensive Level 5 is not used in the assessment.
Level 1: Minimal (over 750 owning institutions)
Level 2: Basic Information (401-750 owning institutions)
Level 3: Instruction Support (151-400 owning institutions)
Level 4: Research (less than 150 owning institutions)
The titles will be selected from authoritative bibliographies while holdings and Library of Congress classification will be verified in WorldCat. An attempt will be made to balance the list to reflect different areas of interest and research. Only materials published since 2003 will be included in the assessment. Rare or special collections materials will not be included.
Each Library of Congress classification will have a total of forty titles. The holdings will be checked using WorldCat and the collections of University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of Kentucky, and Vanderbilt University will then be ranked according to the results. In order to pass a level, the library must own 50% or five of the titles listed in that level. The highest level passed, is the ranking for that library. In the assessment of African sculpture materials, all three Information Alliance libraries received a ranking of three. (See chart below.)
| Level 1: Minimal. (over 750 owning libraries) | Edition | LC Class | UTK | Vanderbilt | U of Kentucky |
| Allison, Philip. African Stone Sculpture. New York: Praeger, 1968 | All editions | NB1097.W4 | x | x | x |
| Bascom, William Russell. African Art in Cultural Perspective; an introduction. New York: Norton, 1973 | NB1080 | x | x | x | |
| Elisonfon, Eliot. The Sculpture of Africa; 405 photographs. New York: Praeger, 1958. | All editions | NB1080 | x | x | x |
| Fagg, William Buller. Tribes and Forms in African Art. New York: Tudor, 1965. | All editions | NB1080 | x | x | x |
| Meauze, Pierre. African Art: sculpture. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1968 | All editions | NB1097.W4 | x | x | x |
| Segy, Legislas. African Sculpture. New York: Dover, 1958 | NB1080 | x | x | ||
| Sieber, Roy and Roslyn A. Walker. African Art in the Cycle of Life. Washington, D.C.: Published for the National Museum of African Art by the Smithsonian Press, 1987. | NB1091.65 | x | x | ||
| Trowell, Margaret. Classical African Sculpture. New York: Praeger, 1970. | All editions | NB1098 | x | x | |
| Wassing, Rene S. African Art; its background and traditions. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1968 | All editions | NB1091.65 | x | ||
| Willett, Frank. Ife in the History of Western African Sculpture. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967. | All editions | NB1097.W4 | x | x | x |
| Passing Score for each Level is 50% or higher | 100% | 60% | 90% | ||
| Level 2: Basic Information. (401-750 owning libraries) | Edition | LC Class | UTK | Vanderbilt | U of Kentucky |
| Baldwin, James and Michael John Weber. Perspectives: angles on African art. New York: Center for African Art; Distributed by H.N.. Abrams, 1987. | NB1091.65 | x | x | ||
| Carroll, Kevin. Yoruba Religious Carving: pagan & Christian sculpture in Nigeria & Dahomey. New York: Praeger, 1967. | All editions | NB1097.N5 | x | x | x |
| Fagg, William Buller. African Sculpture: an anthology. London: Studio Vista, 1964. | All editions | NB1080 | x | x | |
| Fagg, William Buller. Yoruba, Sculpture of West Africa. New York: Knopf, 1982 | NB1099.N5 | x | x | ||
| Goldwater, Robert John. Senufo Sculpture from West Africa. Greenwich, CT: Distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1964. | All editions | NB1097.W4 | x | ||
| Holy, Ladislov. Masks and Figures from Eastern and Southern Africa. London: Hamlyn, 1967 | All editions | NB1097.E3 | x | ||
| Kerchache, Jacques, et al. Art of Africa. New York: H.N.. Abrams, 1993 | NB1098 | x | x | ||
| Segy, Ladislas. African Sculpture Speaks. New York: DaCapo Press, 1975. | 4th Edition | NB1098 | x | x | |
| Vogel, Susan Mullin and Francine Niaye. African Masterpieces from the Musee del'homme. New York: Center for African Art; Distributed by H.N.. Abrams, 1985. | NB1091.65 | x | x | x | |
| Vogel, Susan Mullin and Jerry L. Thompson. For Spirits and Kings: African art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H.N.. Abrams, 1981. | NB1098 | x | x | x | |
| Passing Score for each Level is 50% or higher | 70% | 70% | 70% | ||
| Level 3: Instructional Support. (151-400 owning libraries) | Edition | LC Class | UTK | Vanderbilt | U of Kentucky |
| Bravmann, Rene A. West African Sculpture. Seattle: Published for the Henry Art Gallery by the University of Washington Press, 1970. | NB1097.W4 | x | x | x | |
| Fagg, William Buller. The Art of Western Africa; tribal masks and sculptures. London: Collins in association with UNESCO, 1967. | NB1097.W4 | ||||
| Goldwater, Robert John. Bambara Sculpture from the Western Sudan. New York: University Publishers, 1960. | NB1097.S8 | x | |||
| Guillaume, Paul and Thomas Munro. Primitive Negro Sculpture. New York: Hacker Art Books, 1968, c1954 | 2nd Edition | NB1080 | x | x | |
| Korn, Jorn and Jesper Kirknaes. Modern Makonde Art. London: Hamlyn, 1974. | NB1255.A4 | x | x | ||
| LaGamma, Alisa. Genesis: ideas of origin in African sculpture. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002. | NB1080.5 | x | x | x | |
| Serageldin, Ismail, et al. Home and the World: architectural sculpture by two contemporary African artists: Aboudramane and Bodys Isek Kingelez. New York: Museum for African Art,1 1993 | NB1080.5 | x | x | ||
| Sweeney, James Johnson. African Sculpture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970, c1964 | Revised Edition | NB1098 | |||
| Thompson, Jerry L. et al. Closeup: lessons in the art of seeing African sculpture from an American collection and the Horstmann collection. New York: Center for African Art, 1990. | NB1080 | x | x | ||
| Vogel, Susan Mullin and Mario Carrieri. African aesthetics: the Carlo Monzino collection. New York: Center for African Art, 1986. | All editions | NB1091.65 | x | ||
| Passing Score for each Level is 50% or higher | 60% | 50% | 50% | ||
| Level 4: Research. (less than 150 owning libraries) | Edition | LC Class | UTK | Vanderbilt | U of Kentucky |
| Arnold, Marion. Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture. Bulawayo: L. Bolze, 1986, 1981. | All editions | NB1209.Z55 | |||
| Fagg, William Buller, et al. Yoruba: sculpture of West Africa. London: Collins, 1982. | NB1099.N5 | x | |||
| Hocchegger, Hermann. Sculptures nouvelles de Bandundu, Rep. Du Zaire. Bandundu: CEEBA, 1980 | NB1099.C6 | ||||
| Kuhn, Joy. Myth and Magic: the art of the Shona of Zimbabwe. Cape Town: D. Nelson, 1978. | NB1096.6R5 | ||||
| Lem, F.H. Sudanese Sculpture. Paris: Arts et metiers graphiques, 1949. | NB1097.S8 | ||||
| Museum of Modern Art (Oxford, England). Makonde: wooden sculpture from East Africa, from the Malde Collection. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art, 1989. | All editions | NB62 | |||
| Rankin, Elizabeth Deane. Images of Wood: aspects of the history of sculpture in 20th-century South Africa: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1989. | NB1255.S6 | ||||
| Stout, J. Anthony. Modern Makonde Sculpture. Nairobi, Kenya: Kibo Art Gallery Publications, 1966 | NB1097.A34 | ||||
| Winter-Irving, Celia. Contemporary Stone Sculpture in Zimbabwe: context, content and form. Tortola, BVI: Craftsman House, 1993. | All editions | NB1096.6R5 | |||
| Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Contemporary Stone Carving from Zimbabwe: 22 July- 25 November 1990. Wakefield, West Yorkshire: Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1990. | NB1209.Z55 | ||||
| Passing Score for each Level is 50% or higher | 0% | 10% | 0% |
All three institutions should ideally achieve a Level 3 ranking for each
collection area while the designated library should strive to reach a Level
4 ranking. Collective ranking of the Information Alliance libraries should
also be considered.
Part II: Bibliography
Goal: Compile a bibliography for each assigned subject area.
A variety of formats will be covered, including electronic resources, periodicals, and multimedia materials. Both recently published and out of print materials will be included.
Materials will be divided according to the four RLG conspectus levels. Ideally each institution should seek to acquire materials from Level 1 through 3. Only one institution will collect Level 4 materials and serve as the repository for the designated area.
Timeline:
September 29, 2004 – presentation on project, process made thus far
and goals.
January 1, 2005 – Collection Assessment complete
July 1, 2005 – Bibliography complete
Resources:
Student or clerical assistance during project – 2004-2005
Collection funds to purchase materials – 2005-2006
