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Just completed my second class for my Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) Curriculum and Certificate Program trough the Society of American Archivist to become a certified Archivist and I passed with a 90. Like always I missed the most easy question. Thanks Dr. Susan Rathbun-Grubb, for doing a guest lector in SLIS:777. Two classes down toward becoming a certified archivist. (I look at taking photos of Old Saint David's as an archivist. I preserving what is there for future generations. I hope to do a digital collection of my photos one day.) #SAA#SLIS#Scholar

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Thr0ugh the Arch, 2015
© CC-BY-NC-ND Ron Stafford

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I may have cheated just a bit with this post.  I have had the excellent opportunity to “interview” Joyce Weaver, Director of the Library and Archives at the Mint Museum of Art for almost a year now.  In my first semester at SLIS, I interviewed Joyce for SLIS: 701. We communicated through the semester and this summer I was her intern at the Mint Museum. Yesterday, I helped her give the Library/Archives tour for the Southeastern Museum Conference. Afterwards, we just had to take a selfie with Queen Charlotte. You can easily do it with a DSLR camera if you have long arms.  I have learned so much from Joyce; I am not allowed to call her Ms. Weaver, we are colleagues and friends.  I felt an immediate connection with her, we are both bohemian artist and came to the LIS field as older adults. Joyce left a lucrative job in the publishing field as a copy editor. Her Bachelors is in English from UNC.  She was burned out in the publishing business and wanted a job where she could help others. While pondering what she wanted to do, she remembered a librarian who was a great help to her in undergrad. Joyce is a painter and craft person as well, which led her to earn her MLIS degree in 2002 from UNC-G. Each Fall, she teaches a graduate class on Special Collections Librarianship.

Joyce worked for two years as the librarian at the Art Institute of Charlotte and has begun her 12th year as the Librarian at the Mint Museum of Art. When she arrived at the Mint there had never been a full-time librarian, the catalogue system was party card catalogue and partly kept in a binder.  Within two years she and a group of volunteers had written and received a grant to modernize the catalogue system.  MARCO the Mint’s catalogue is searchable online.  Joyce also wrote and received a grant from the National Archives to begin the Archives at the Mint Museum. (where you can often find me).  In addition to these challenges, she wrote and received a grant for an appraiser to report on the Mint Collection of rare books that date from the 14th to the 19 century.  The Friends of the Library host a book sale annual to purchase climate controlled storage for these treasures. These are significant challenges and success she has seen happen at the Mint.  As the technological curve moves upwards, she is always trying to stay abreast of new technologies.  She has a Wiki Page for the exhibitions at the Mint. (Highlighted the one I created) During my internship I learned some of her challenges at the Mint have been modernizing the library and keeping up with trends in digital reference.  She tells everyone that one major think she learned on the job, as a single librarian is “IT CAN WAIT” if it is not a pressing issue, she will move it to the back burner. For us interns, we usually get “it can wait” pile.  Dealing with curators and their ego was another thing she learned to handle at the Mint. To stay

Currently, Joyce is a member and was Advisory Board member January 2006 – March 2012 of ARLIS/NA.  The future of the field to Joyce is wide open. She believes it will be as imaginative as future LIS professionals want to make it. Digital, in her opinion, will continue to be the medium of choice.

Working in an art museum library is a challenging job if you are the only LIS professional.  What classes could we take in school that might help us if we are in this position?  Do you think classes dealing with management would be good choices? How about an introductory business or accounting class?

Jobs are harder to get in a museum library. What can we do as students to help us more marketable to employers?

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Oh Queen Charlotte,  2016
© CC-BY-NC-ND Ron Stafford

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It is National Ask An Archivist Day. I feel SO strongly about the values of Archives. They are the repository of a community, an institution or nation. We each have our archives at home - in photo albums clippings from papers, and school yearbooks. If you have a burning question, Ask An Archivist. #AskAnArchivist

http://www2.archivists.org/assoc-orgs/directory

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The Met has multiple locations click each museum for their hours and admission fee

The Met Fifth Avenue
The Met Cloisters
The Met Breuer

The Met Breuer

Photograph by Ed Lederman

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The collection of the Met is EXPANSIVE, ranging from Egyptian art to selected modern art.  There is not a period not represented in the collection.  The Met is the centerpiece of the art world in NYC.  The digital collections are easy to navigate. The best way to find what the Met holds is the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. I have found this to be the place to start when delving into the Met’s collection.

The Met has a very good policy on digital use.  Most of the art is in the public domain and free to use for academic non-publishing purposes.  Scroll to the bottom of the page. Click on the tab, About the Met. Then select Polices and Documents. On this page click image resources.  Next, click the tab Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC) via The Met's Website.  Within this section is a hyperlink that reads the collection, by clicking on this will show works of art that are in the public domain.
Evening ensemble

Design House:  House of Chanel (French, founded 1913)
Designer: Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (French, Saumur 1883–1971 Paris)
Date: 1933-35 Culture: French Medium: Silk, Feathers Credit Line: Gift of Miss Isabel Shults, 1944

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The Met has many libraries under their roof, with some of the best resources available to scholars and the general public. There are ten libraries and an institution archives.  These libraries are general art one to more specific ones like their world-renowned photography gallery.  My favorite part of the Met are the four readings rooms, each with a different theme.

Photo by Filip Wolak

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I chose the Metropolitan Museum of Art – simply because it is my favorite general art museum.  The collection spans the age from Egyptian to Modern.  There is no period of art history that cannot be found within her walls.   To wonder her storied halls makes me feel safe, secure and happy.   I love the Met.  My all time the favorite museum is The National Museum of Women in the Arts. I, however, wanted to do a general art museum.

© Public Domain

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A wonderful new trend for libraries is the embracing of social media.  You can find most museums on Facebook, Instagram, and twitters.  Some museum libraries even maintain a blog presence on the web. The Met blog In Circulation is amazing. It is full of great articles and information.  It is visually pleasing.  It is easy to navigate. The visual aspect is what I find the most intriguing. It is like visiting the museum itself. Each post has a full image of the subject, along with text, and even some videos. It is a great learning tool because it presents information in a variety of forms that all learners can access.  It is a beautiful blog.

In Circulation. (2015). Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/in-circulation

Zweig, Janet, and Holly Anderson. Sheherezade: A Flip Book. Massachusetts: Janet Zweig, 1988.

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I want my readers to know who I am and what is important to me.

I’m Ron, a second year MLIS student at the University of South Carolina. My current emphasis is Digital Image Management.  I am co-enrolled in the Certificate of Graduate Study in Women and Gender Studies program.

In my MLIS program, my focus is on archives, specifically Art Museum and Women Art. I would love to work at Smith College, Oberlin or Charleston, the home of British Artist Vanessa Bell.  In the arena of Women and Gender Studies, my focus is on Wealth and Privilege in Antebellum South Carolina.  I am placing a Third Wave Feminist Spin on my studies. My focus is the Grimke sisters of Charleston who left the south to become Abolitionist.  The walked away from a world of wealth and power to fight for their convictions.

At the heart of everything I do, I am an artist. I work primarily in photography, pastel, and mixed media. I am a purveyor of high-quality portraits of nature, landscape, and people that capture the evocative beauty and gracefulness of the south. My works center on documenting the ever-changing world we live.  I work as a freelance photographer, for local and national museums.  I am a great lover of Opera, Ballet and visiting art museums.

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Collage,  2016
© CC-BY-NC-ND Ron Stafford

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Digitization is a progressive practice in the LIS profession. It bridges the equity of access by bringing materials to researchers and the general public. Institutions like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, have outstanding collections, the people see the public sees only a fraction.  The Met has gone a step beyond the norm by providing digitized copies of works free online.  The whole collection is not available the website for The Thomas J. Watson Library states the mission is to provide books that have fallen through the cracks of others services.  They recognize these tomes are vital and needed, to expand current scholarship and the curiosity of future scholars.

Source:
Digital Collections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries. (2015). Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/

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Red, Ochre and White
Artist: Fritz Bultman (American, 1919–1985)
Date:1952
Medium:Gouache and graphite on paper
Dimensions:
23 x 29in. (58.4 x 73.7cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Gift of Estate of Fritz Bultman, 1994

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When you need a concise easy to understand explanation of art movements, artist or paintings where do you go? Is there a good general source to be found. As a student of Art History, I have relied on the Met’s  Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.   It can be approached from a basic level of inquiry to very scholarly research.  There is general encyclopedia entry up to scholarly essays. While doing research for the exhibition Women of Abstract Expressionism, this became my go-to source. Articles for the general public are written in a straightforward manner, aiding comprehension of abstract arts terms.  It is a wonderful source to find kernels of information you had no idea you wanted.

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The Glass Looker, 2015
© CC-BY-NC-ND Ron Stafford

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Archive Love...

I moved from smitten to in love with Archives during my internship at the Mint Museum of Art. I entered my internship thinking I wanted to be an Art Librarian. I worked in the Library and Archives to experience both worlds. After, a day in the archives I was hooked. There has never been a moment in my life when I was not aware of the Mint Museum.  It was the backdrop for much of my life.  Art Exhibitions, classes, my sanctuary in a hectic world.  I found life stories in the archives that inspired me.  People I could look up too. I found a great mentor and a friend.  I am lucky to be at the Mint Museum for my first internship and my second in the spring, during The Great Lady 80th Birthday, this is the Year of the Women. I was the Mint’s founder Mary Myers Dwelle, strengthened my interested not only in art but Women’s History. #YearofTheWoman

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The Mint Museum’s 80th Anniversary – Year of the Woman

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Uploaded by The Mint Museum on 2016-05-06.

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In a world filled with instant information, why archives?  Why would I devote my life to a world filled with papers, folders, and boxes?  Rooms full of maps, photos, and charts?  My natural curiosity has always been my driving force; I just have to know why? My love of history propels me into archives. The simple answer is I love it. To search for documents a researcher needs. To help a curator find a vital piece of information makes it worth while.  Archives in my mind are history. They are the living breathing embodiment of a communities past.  In their hallowed halls, voices from the past speak.  From inside boxes of gloves, a hand reaches out to touch.  The veil is thinner,  allow us to peer more precisely into the past.

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Tools of the Trade,  2016
© CC-BY-NC-ND Ron Stafford