Sunday April 1, 2001

10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon

• Judy Donovan, Design Arts/Architecture Librarian, Drexel University
• Alexandra de Luise, Coordinator, Instructional Services, Queens College/City University of New York

  Sponsors:

• Reference and Information Services Section; Cataloging Section

Abstract:

Tom Grieves: Just Enough of a Good Thing: Using and Organizing Art Related Web Sites for Reference Resource Guides and Bibliographic Instruction

The rapid increase of high quality art related web sites on the Internet in the last 5 years is changing the way that art librarians answer reference questions and teach faculty and students how to take advantage of these rich resources for their research. This presentation will relate a subjective and practical approach to identifying, organizing, and employing the highest quality and most useful art relate web sites for reference and bibliographic instruction in the academic library setting.

Lois Swan Jones: Not Enough of a Good Thing? Special Needs for Art

Just as serial articles must be indexed in order for them to be located, so do Web sites. With the number of these Internet locations multiplying daily, the question becomes: Are there enough good specialized indexes to art material? Additional, more specialized tools may be required to find pertinent, scattered information. Moreover, the Internet data may or may not be accurate or sufficient. After all, the Internet is just another place where facts—whether true or not--are stored. Those doing serious research will need to evaluate Web information and supplement it with books, articles, and multi-media materials in order to obtain a broad view of a subject as well as the precise details that may be required. And just as students, professors, curators, and other patrons look to reference librarians for assistance in locating pertinent data in the library, they now rely on these professionals for help on the Internet.

This presentation will discuss the various methods by which Web sites can be located and will provide suggestions for developing comprehensive Internet locations that combine the URLs of Web sites and bibliographies of books and multi-media materials on special subjects.

Linda Barnhart: Catalogs, Portals, Pathfinders: How should we organize and access web resources?

People are clamoring for information--images, video, text, sound--and they want it NOW.  Instant gratification and the principle of least effort have become the norm.  There are a tremendous number of art and design-related Web sites, databases, electronic journals, and digital libraries, any of which might contain the scrap--or wealth--of information that is being sought.  How can we find what we need within this diverse and complex environment?   The current organizational tools of library catalogs, pathfinders, and portal/gateway sites will be described, and the workload implications for maintaining them will be assessed.  How many (and which) individual sites can we afford to pay attention to?  Can we identify areas where automated tools and techniques can be better utilized, with more expensive human intervention judiciously and selectively added?  The library community needs to collaborate with computer professionals, linguists, and other communities to create, design, and manage a mechanism to support improved, interoperable access to the full range of Internet resources.  Librarians and information professionals must contribute to advancing knowledge management by envisioning the future, defining what we hope to achieve, and articulating our needs.

Related Event:

• Poster session by Miguel Juarez, Developing Collaborative Web Sites, Tuesday, 10:00 am-10:30 am.

last revised 3.16.01