The 3 C’s: Colophon, Catalogs, and Curating:
A panel discussion on access to artists’ books
Sunday March 1,
Archives & Special Collections, Collins Memorial Library
2:00 – 4:00
This session will focus on the process of documenting artist’s books so that they can be accessible to a broader community. What do museums and libraries need to ensure that your artists’ book can be discovered by a broad range of users ? This panel brings together the perspectives of a cataloger, curator, and library director to discuss the challenges of and strategies for accessing artist books. How does each of these gatekeepers of collections provide keys for discovery to students and the broader community? How can makers, catalogers, curators, and educators refine practices to foster readership? Through this discussion, we will provide a framework for what makes a good colophon as well as the value of a common set of terms that can be used by makers to support cataloging and curation, and in turn, access.
This session will also have a hands on component where participants will have the chance to review books and create colophons and descriptions.
Panelists:
Amy Goldthwaite: Curatorial Associate, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Amy has worked in BIMA's Sherry Grover Gallery, where Cynthia Sears's collection of more than 1,600 Artist's Books is stored and displayed, for five years. She assists Cynthia in the planning and preparation of three shows a year, each featuring 60-80 works. Over the last 8 months, Amy has been fully involved in an inventory of the books, in preparation for its transition to BIMA's permanent collection.
Jane Carlin: Library Director, Collins Memorial Library: Jane’s remarks will focus on working directly with artists and aspects of presentation and your own representation of work to librarians and special collection managers.
Hilary Robbeloth: Systems and Discovery Librarian, Collins Memorial Library. Hilary is responsible for establishing cataloging guidelines for the Collins Collection of artists books as well as developing metadata standards. Currently she is working with a student to photograph the current collection for an online catalog. Her presentation titled “description and discovery” will provide you with key concepts to describe your book.
Helen Edwards: Project Archivist, The Evergreen State College: Helen has always been interested in the intersections of art, archives, and books, writing her MA thesis on the way artists use archival material in their art. Working with artist's books was the natural progression. Since September, Helen has been creating an inventory of artist's Books owned by Jessica Spring of Springtide Press and has been interested in the way artists can catalog their own collections."