Sergio Alonso Mislata (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

It was one of the first days that, as a Graduate Trainee Library Assistant, I was left to staff the Issue Desk on my own. An undergraduate student approached me who wanted to know where a book from his reading list was to be found on the internet. I was confused and felt ashamed for being caught at fault and not knowing the answer. The student knew for a fact that the book he needed had to be somewhere on our VLE, or available through one of our databases, right? Nobody had told him this for a fact. It is just that he could not conceive that that was not the case. When I finally realised that his convincement was arising from the fact that he could not conceive the possibility that not all (not most) information is available in a digital format and online, I kind of sighed in relief. I explained him that the book was only available in a physical format, and that he had to look for it on the shelves. I explained him how our shelving system works, and this had the same effect on him as if I had announced that he had to perform the 12 labours of Hercules before being able to read the book. I am not intending to say that this student was not very bright, I have dealt with him again in several occasions and I can assure you that this is not the case. In my presentation I would like to talk about:

Newer generations´ expectations when it comes to online availability of, and access to, material.

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My perception on how the digital shift will affect librarianship, and art librarianship in particular and the questions that this brings:

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• With budget restrictions and publishers setting high prices, is it reasonable to expect that libraries can make available every single book both in a physical and a digital format?

• Can consortia negotiate to a point where this become feasible, or will the growing power of publishing houses in the digital landscape be difficult to deal with?

• Will users understand that, even if a lot is done on this sense, there would still be a restriction on the usage of digital resources (loan time if downloaded, limited copies to be borrowed, limited extent of the text that can be copied, …etc.)?

• When it comes to art books, will a digital item provide the same information as a physical item (in terms of quality, size, texture, etc.)?

• How far can we go on any digitisation projects on a very limited budget?

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The feeling that, as this digital shift deepens (and tasks as acquisitions and cataloguing will seemingly become more centralised and automatised), a bigger effort might go into curating contents on the library´s website.

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What new skills will I need to learn in order to deal with this? Will, for example, an understanding of programming help me (as I have heard suggested at CILIP´s New Professionals Day and DPC Student Conference 2018)?

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Sergio Alonso Mislata was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1978. He studied Philosophy at the University of Valencia. He moved to London at the end of 2004. he worked in different bookshops for 12 years. In 2009 he started working on his own on a PhD thesis about the aesthetic ideas of Georges Bataille at the University of Valencia. He finished it in 2015 and after that felt it was time for new adventures. In 2016 King's College London gave him the opportunity of becoming a librarian, and for the last year he has been a graduate trainee library assistant at The Courtauld Institute of Art Book Library. Right now, he is trying to figure out what comes next.

Joanna Baines (University of Kent)

This presentation will explore the challenges and opportunities facing art librarians today through a case study of one of the biggest collections held at the University of Kent: the British Cartoon Archive (BCA). Founded in 1973, the BCA contains over 200,000 artworks from over 300 artists, focusing primarily on political cartoons in the UK from the 19th century to the present day. There is also an extensive reference library of books relating to the history of cartooning, from its origins to more modern forms such as the graphic novel.

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As a growing, well-known collection with a variety of stakeholders, the British Cartoon Archive requires unique care and attention in addition to the other 150 collections held in Special Collections & Archives at Kent. This paper will explore the following themes through a combination of the author’s professional experience and postgraduate studies:

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• Mixed format art collections: how do the BCA’s book, object, artwork and cuttings materials link together? How does this impact on the type of professional expertise needed to manage the collection?

• Collection management: how do we best develop political art collections in the digital age?

• Information organisation: how do we best classify books on a single subject? What impact does this have on access? How do we catalogue art collections sustainably?

• User access: how do we deliver effective services to users of the BCA for both physical and digital collections? How does department strategy inform our decision-making?

• Learning, teaching and outreach: How do art collections interact with other material held by Special Collections & Archives? Is there a link between visual art and accessibility?

• Knowledge management: How is the BCA managed in a large, dynamic academic library?

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The paper will reflect on taught MA modules to explore how art librarians of the future are equipped to support visual collections in the digital age – and where further development may be necessary. The paper will also explore the importance of collaborative working and professional skills for art librarians, who may require knowledge of archives and curation in their daily roles. The paper will argue that the British Cartoon Archive represents a strong case study through which to examine art librarians’ role, as well as suggesting many exciting projects for the future.

Joanna Baines has worked as the Senior Library Assistant for Special Collections & Archives at the University of Kent since 2016, after six years in a variety of roles across Special Collections, Collection Management and Lending Services. As Senior Library Assistant, she is responsible for delivering outreach and seminar sessions for Special Collections & Archives, which means she spends a lot of time being enthusiastic about user access, pantomimes and windmills. She is currently studying for an MA in Information and Library Studies at the University of Aberystwyth; her upcoming dissertation will explore how to develop archival literacy skills in undergraduate students.

Katie Learmont (University College London)

For my Library and Information Studies MA at UCL I completed a two-week work placement at the National Art Library in London. I mainly assisted with the library’s large-scale digitisation project along with some public service work. This presentation will explore the challenges and opportunities faced by NAL staff presently digitising V&A content. 

The National Art Library is one of the world’s leading art reference libraries. Its nineteenth-century publications, such as the South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks, are of interest to academics, artists and students studying the V&A Museum’s history and the development of its collections. However, many of these titles are only available to view in the reading rooms or via the Hathi Trust Digital Library. This is problematic for UK library patrons who are unable to visit London easily or have limited access to full text Hathi Trust material. Consequently, NAL librarians are currently scanning and uploading a number of out-of-copyright exhibition catalogues, guidebooks and other items onto the Internet Archive, a non-profit library of freely accessible digital resources. 

A key difficulty for staff is determining which V&A publications are in a suitable condition for digitising. As I discovered, works such as “The collection of pictures found by John Sheepshanks” were fragile and manufactured using ground wood fibres potentially containing resins, tannin and lignin. Such items could become brittle and bleached if exposed to scanning equipment for long periods. In addition, the pressure of a heavy glass sheet, together with the heat and shining light of a scanner, could damage tightly bound volumes as well as cause red rot. To minimise the deterioration of Special Collection material NAL librarians have been scanning duplicates held in General Collections; however, determining whether an item does indeed have a legible General Collection copy using the online catalogue is a time-consuming and repetitive process. The unreliability of technology is another challenge to digitisation at the NAL – the Bookeye scanner will occasionally pick up noise and external light, resulting in the production of unrepresentative images of materials on BCS-2 computer programme. 

Nevertheless, scanning and uploading V&A publications onto the Internet Archive offers numerous long-term advantages to the NAL. For example, it provides an opportunity to increase the visibility of the library’s collections online and opens up new areas for research. As long as there is a decent internet connection, a library patron can download, print and manipulate scanned PDFs from the Internet Archive at any time of day in any location. Digitisation also promotes user self-service, allowing staff to devote more time to other events such as the V&A Illustration Awards 2018. 
It is clear that digitisation can benefit the National Art Library’s collections in various ways. However, art libraries should use digitisation equipment which does not damage materials. The originals also need to be effectively preserved to meet the information needs of art researchers who may be interested in the material aspects of a book as well as its content. 

Katie Learmont is currently studying for a Masters in Library and Information Studies at UCL. She has volunteered and worked in academic and public libraries, and recently completed two work placements at the Royal Academy of Arts and the National Art Library, V&A Museum. Some of her interests include digitisation, cataloguing rare books and special collections and collection care.

Sarah Kafala (University of Essex)

I have been working with Emma Wisher on her remit for Student Engagement and Learning Support at the University of Essex’s Albert Sloman Library. We wanted to create a programme of events working in collaboration with the wider cultural outreach of the university community. Initially we thought of a book club, but then decided to go with a more creative personal event with a writer/performer, co-hosted by the Lakeside Theatre team and the Albert Sloman Library at Colchester – the theatre is part of the same building as the library, sharing the physical space, and we wanted to offer an “'interpretation of the creative process of writing and the hinterland between the library, with its resources of words, and the theatre, with its performance aspect” [Lakeside Theatre: https://lakesidetheatre.org.uk/events/words-with-a-l-kennedy/]. 

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We entitled our event “Words with…” and invited our first guest, the writer and performer A L Kennedy, currently based locally in Wivenhoe [offering her a small fee]. She accepted and suggested a date in her busy schedule, so we launched into marketing the event to students [free tickets] in the summer term, after exams. Using Eventbrite and both the theatre's and the library’s nascent social media accounts and talents we set the scene, having perused various events that A L Kennedy had taken part in previously. On the day, we had the 40-seat theatre studio space with about 27 places pre-booked, although fewer actually attended, a mix of students and staff and Wivenhoe locals; the local Wivenhoe Bookshop set up a pop-up stall which was popular after the event with A L Kennedy staying to sign/personalise items.

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A L Kennedy was witty and insightful and the audience participation was good; we recorded the event, and went on to plan some more for the new academic year, hoping attendance might be better mid-term. Malika Booker and Dina Nayeri were approached but it proved hard to find a suitable date; after a successful Welcome Week “Blind Date with a Book” stall and Black History Month book club [Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie] I wrote to Caleb Femi, Young People’s Laureate for London, to ask if he would perform and talk about his poetry and other work; we held the next “Words with...” in December. Several days in advance the event was sold out [40 capacity] with a waiting list of 15, but on the night only 18 arrived [and all rather last minute after some frantic tweeting!]. They were very enthusiastic though, and Caleb seemed to appreciate this and it was a lively interactive evening. We decided to look into charging for tickets and/or offering an incentive on the night to encourage turnout.

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After a wipe-out in snowy/striking March, we eventually secured “Words with…” Bidisha in April. Essex’s own Annecy Lax offered to host a [very well-researched] Q&A with Bidisha, as well as showing Bidisha’s first short film. Again, despite good tickets bookings [35] we had a turnout of 19/20 on the night [all quite late arriving too!] but a fascinating and interactive evening. Our next one is with Essex’s Professor Katharine Cockin about her work on literature around the suffrage movement.

Having successfully worked with Arts Education Outreach at Essex, hosting schoolchildren’s visual explorations of Wivenhoe Park alongside our Special Collections in the Library, we would like to expand the collaboration into the arts spaces on campus too with talks and possibly small displays/exhibitions e.g. Art Exchange and ESCALA.

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Our challenge is how best to market and inform students about an event/exhibition and then maintain the promise of advance bookings so that students turn up [on time!] and sample this free cultural engagement that they appear to be interested in, and which we want them to have free access to. 

Sarah Kafala is currently studying for the MA Library & Information Studies at UCL and working as Library Assistant (Collections) at the Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex, after a career in publication design and editing at The Architectural Association, National Gallery Publications, London School of Economics, and the Greater London Authority. My dissertation topic is about teaching and research using Special Collections and I am interested in digitisation and the use of exhibitions and events at libraries.