Thursday, March 15, 2018
8:30 -10:30am Session | Information Literacy & Experts in the Library
Location: Silver Room, Mezzanine Level
Moderator: Jeff Alger, Humanities/VetMed/Animal Science Librarian III, Iowa State University
In this first season, the presenters will speak to the challenges and opportunities that arise when providing research support in the design disciplines. Information Literacy & Experts in the Library will offer original research, a case study, and a reframing of the librarian’s identity.
Lucy Campbell, Librarian, NewSchool of Architecture and Design</strong
The Information Seeking Habits of Architecture Faculty: Perception and Reality
What if your faculty could research five times faster? What if all their information needs were right at their fingertips, readily available in your libraries? That may be an unattainable dream for most architecture librarians, but if we encourage feedback from faculty, we could get closer to realizing it.
To that end, the information seeking habits of architecture faculty across the United States were surveyed to help us be more efficient and helpful than we already are. Findings were published in the September 2017 issue of College and Research Libraries (C&RL) journal and this conference presentation will outline those findings.
As a profession and field of study encompassing the arts, sciences, social sciences and humanities, architecture is all of these and yet none of them. Design requires an indefinable combination of disciplines which makes it both fascinating and frustrating. Because of this unique cross-disciplinary nature, the survey was especially interested in how faculty information needs differ when applied to pedagogy, trends in the field, and personal inspiration.
This survey did not provide all the answers, but findings will engender valuable conversation among colleagues and provide opportunities to share stories of success while shedding light on the particular and unique aspects of what we do on a daily basis.
Lucy Campbell is Librarian of the Richard Welsh Library at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design. Originally from London, England, she completed her Masters in Library and Information Science at University College London. Lucy is an active member of AASL, serving as co-editor of the monthly ACSA column. She holds membership with the American Library Association and the Art Libraries Society of North America, and volunteers with the Friends of San Diego Architecture, the San Diego Architectural Foundation, and the NewSchool Arts Foundation.
Alexander Watkins, Art and Architecture Librarian, University of Colorado Boulder
Rebecca Kuglitsch, Head, Gemmill Library of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics, University of Colorado Boulder</strong
Information Literacy between the Applied and Academic World: Relevant and Transferable Instruction for the Dual Information Needs of Architecture, Art, and Engineering Students
The specialized instructional needs of practitioner communities in academia—the people who apply knowledge to create things, whether art, buildings, or bridges—is frequently underappreciated in information literacy. Often library instruction lumps the needs of this group with a typical group of scholars. An overly strict adherence to a purely academic approach fails to serve students who will encounter very different norms in their future workplaces, and leads to the impression that information literacy is irrelevant for practitioners. A shift to understanding the unique needs and approaches in the applied fields will lead to richer and more effective instruction and outreach to practitioners. In this paper, we take a broad approach to this group to investigate how architecture information literacy instruction intersects with instruction for art and engineering. Practitioners in the academy often move between two communities of practice, the academic sphere and that of their applied work, each with their own norms, jargon, and requirements. Students must master both these communities. By adopting the norms and language of students’ applied as well as academic activities, library instruction can be more effective and relevant to students’ future careers. Experts in practitioner fields are often identified by their long professional career, mastery of a craft, and tacit knowledge, rather than academic credentials. Students of practice must be able to recognize others as information resources, a skill that can be challenging to students trained solely in an academic tradition. All of these fields share a reliance on spaces for building and creation. Their unique spaces—labs, makerspaces and studios—have unique affordances for library outreach, and their own associated information-seeking behaviors that must be acknowledged in information literacy. These spaces of doing have strong correlation with students’ future workplaces, allowing information literacy learned in this context to be more easily transferred.
Alex Watkins is the Art and Architecture Librarian at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research investigates the unequal distribution of art information worldwide and how to facilitate global scholarly conversations by reducing information inequality. He is also interested in how we can advance the pedagogy of information literacy in art and architecture. He received a BA in the History of Art and Anthropology from UC Berkeley, and Masters degrees in the History of Art & Design and Library & Information Science from Pratt Institute.
Rebecca Kuglitsch’s research currently focuses on information literacy, particularly in the sciences. She is especially interested in how students learn to distinguish appropriate sources in complex, interdisciplinary contexts. Another strand of her research focuses on the library’s role in informal scientific learning and the role of library spaces in embodying scientific literature. Finally, she is very interested in library outreach targeting retention, especially at the sophomore level, which aligns with current trends and interests in higher education.
Sarah Dickinson, Research Support Services Librarian, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Research . . . and Beyond: New Engagements with the Design Academy
At the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Frances Loeb Library is engaging in new ways with student and faculty scholars through initiatives that directly support the creation and dissemination of scholarship. From collaborating on mapping projects to providing guidance on copyright, licensing, and open access initiatives, librarians are extending the concept of research support by engaging at more stages of the scholarly process. These initiatives have provided opportunities for librarians to develop new skills, build and refine programs, and cultivate partnerships within (and beyond) the library and GSD communities.
Since the fall of 2015, the Frances Loeb Library has provided writing support to students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. This program will be the focus of this paper, and serve as a case study to illustrate the opportunities and challenges of coordinating and refining a program of peer writing tutors in a school with a student population with wide-ranging writing and language expertise, writing in and from disciplines with different writing cultures and expectations. This presentation will also provide information on the challenges and opportunities of using Canvas as the platform for the program.
Sarah Dickinson has worked in academic design libraries for over 30 years, two institutions, and innumerable title changes. Her most recent focus at the Harvard Graduate School of Design has been on providing and coordinating in-person and virtual research support for faculty, students, and visiting researchers. Sarah serves as Open Access Liaison for the GSD, and has recently joined the Harvard Copyright First Responders team. Since 2015 she has overseen the Academic Writing Services program.
Amy Trendler, Architecture Librarian, Ball State University Libraries
The Expert Architecture Librarian as Research Resource
The idea of forefronting librarians as experts doesn’t always come naturally to professionals in a field focused on empowering library users, but our expertise is often just as important as the library’s collections and services. What does it mean for the architecture librarian to be an expert? How does this help our efforts to support students and faculty members in their research pursuits? What are some ways we can emphasize the part we play as another one of the library’s resources? In this presentation, I will focus on the role of professional librarians working with schools of architecture or architecture collections, explore what it means to be an expert in that context, and identify ways we can use our role as experts to further our objectives in information literacy, instruction, reference, and outreach.
Amy Trendler is the Architecture Librarian at Ball State University, where she supports student and faculty research in the College of Architecture and Planning. Before joining the University Libraries staff she worked with researchers, curators, and interns as a librarian at the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago. Amy holds master’s degrees in art history and library and information science from the University of Illinois.
10:45am-12:15pm Panel | Identity + the City
Location: Silver Room, Mezzanine Level
With this panel we will continue our exploration of identity but through the lens of the city of Denver. What do we think of when we think of Denver? Our panelists will share their perspectives regarding the city’s identity, how it developed, and how Denver continues to establish a multi-faceted urban and cultural identity.
Panelists
Jayne Buck, VP of Tourism, Visit Denver
John Desmond, Exec. VP of Downtown Environment, Downtown Denver Partnership
Peter Park, City Planner and Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Colorado, Denver
Tracy Weil, Artist and Co-founder of RiNo – River North Art District
1:45-2:45pm Ignite-Style Talks | Sparking Conversation
Location: Silver Room, Mezzanine Level
Moderator: Jill Luedke, Art & Architecture Librarian, Temple University
In this session, the presenters will speak on Information Literacy & Research, Outreach & Collaboration, and Collections – but they will do so at warp speed! If you are unfamiliar with Ignite-Style presentations, our speakers have 5 minutes and 20 slides to share their work with you.
Sprint: Collections
Maggie Portis, Art & Architecture Librarian, Pratt Institute
From Pop-up to Permanent: library interventions in the School of Architecture building
This talk describes the evolution of physical library representation at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture building from an improvised pop-up to a new, permanent reading room. Designing and building is in progress, but is scheduled to be complete by Fall 2018. The “Library Pop-Up” began with a folding table and went through several design iterations. Faculty enthusiasm led to proposing a further intervention and the process leading to upper administration approval will be discussed, as well as the design process. It’s agreed that the reading room will be a dynamic collection, but what exactly that means is being negotiated among librarians, faculty, administration, and architects. The space itself must be designed to accommodate multiple modes of use and levels of access, so movable and transformable furniture and partitions are being explored. Negotiating logistical issues (security, staffing, and more!), programmatic concerns, and departmental territory is an ongoing process.
Maggie Portis has been Art & Architecture Librarian at Pratt Institute for 5 years. She has also worked in the libraries of The New York School of Interior Design, The Morgan Library, and MoMA. She received her BA from the University of Texas, MSLIS from the Palmer School at Long Island University, and is currently completing a masters in design history. When not working, going to school, or studying, she enjoys sleeping and letterpress printing.
Beth Dodd, Curator Alexander Architectural Archive, University of Texas Libraries
Alternative collections, alternative roles?
The Volz Architects collection is a project in process for the Alexander Architectural Archives and Architecture & Planning Library at the University of Texas at Austin. In this Ignite-Style presentation learn how the archive of this historic preservation firm has offered new opportunities for collecting, practices, services and roles. New knowledge, skills and abilities are necessary for acquisition, processing and access. See how we are cutting our teeth.
Beth Dodd is Curator of the Alexander Architectural Archives where, since 1995 she directs a full archival program of over a quarter of a million drawings, photographic items and over 2,000 linear feet of papers. In addition to her curatorship, from 2007 to 2015 she also served as Head Librarian for the Architecture & Planning Library, which includes over 20,000 volumes of rare and unique publications forming the Special Collections.
Catherine Essinger, Coordinator of the William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston
Designing your Library’s Disaster Response
When disasters strike libraries, the librarians on the ground are often asked to function as facility first responders and forced to make in-the-moment decisions about recovery, salvage, safety, insurance, and risk management, regardless of rank or expertise. This Ignite-Style talk is informed by the presenter’s experience in the aftermath of a hurricane that devastated her library. Quick facts about disaster management provide background information about risk and recovery management. These talking points will suggest how architecture librarians may find leverage in a facility disaster.
Ms. Essinger served as President of AASL in 2011 and is a current board member of ARLIS/NA. She has published articles in Collaborative Librarianship, Houston History Magazine, Cite: The Architecture + Design Review of Houston, the ACSA News, and elsewhere. She authored a chapter in the first edition of The Handbook of Art and Design Librarianship for Higher Education and is currently at work on The Sudden Selector’s Guide to Art Resources for ALA. Ms. Essinger also serves as the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Librarian at her university.
Sprint: Research Needs
Rose Orcutt, Art, Architecture and Planning Librarian, University at Buffalo
Exploring Scholarly Publishing: Graduate Student Research Conference and Early-Career Faculty Workshop
An overview of two conferences conducted in the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017 at the University at Buffalo Libraries on research skills, academic publishing, and copyright.
Rose Orcutt is the University Libraries’ liaison for students, faculty and staff in University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning and the Art Department. Rose offers reference and research consultation services, collection development and provides support for research and teaching.
Luke Leither, Head of K.W. Dumke Fine Arts & Architecture Library. University of Utah.
What are you made of? Studying material selection in architecture
This talk will present current, grant-funded research examining how professional architects select and apply materials in their practices. The process for material selection does not appear to be consistent across the professional landscape, and this study hopes to better understand the tools, resources, and barriers that help determine selection methods. This study consists of in-person interviews and site visits across the country. Following this initial exploratory phase, the investigators plan to survey design programs regarding the current methods for teaching material selection to students. Finally, after all data has been gathered and analyzed, the investigators hope to develop recommendations and resources for architects, libraries, and students to facilitate a more thorough, and deliberate selection methodology. This research is being conducted as a collaborative effort between Luke Leither, Art & Architecture Librarian, and Erin Carraher, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Utah.
Luke Leither is the head of the K.W. Dumke Fine Arts & Architecture Library at the University of Utah. Luke has an MA in Art and Architectural History from Syracuse University in Florence and holds a second MA in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research interests include the information-seeking and decision-making habits of architects, the library’s role in collecting and disseminating non-traditional scholarship, and the life and work of artist Feliks Topolski.
Josh Meyer, Knowledge Manager at KieranTimberlake | Architecture, Planning, Research
Formalizing a Knowledge Management Program at KieranTimberlake: developing transferable strategies for enhanced research, access, and knowledge sharing
This topic aims to tell the story of formalizing KieranTimberlake’s (KT) knowledge management (KM) program, and how its framework, infrastructure, and implementation has addressed many common challenges not only in the information profession, but architecture practices as well to enhance research, access, and knowledge sharing. Furthermore, the presentation seeks to make connections between the activities of KieranTimberlake and core members of AASL to illustrate how its knowledge management program offers many transferable strategies, tools, and concepts that can be broadly applied to all information professions working with architecture collections, students/interns, and designers. The story is told through the lens of the presenter Josh Meyer, who was hired in October 2015 at KT as their first knowledge manager to help implement its KM plan.
KieranTimberlake is a Philadelphia based architecture, research, and planning firm whose design philosophy is rooted in provocation, research, and environmental sustainability. Aside from its special expertise in the education typology, the firm is also known for its roles as educators, researchers, and innovators. The presentation will begin by explaining KT’s growing challenges in managing knowledge and information in the post big data world, and what prompted them to seek knowledge management principles as a solution. Key buzzwords in this investigation include de-siloing, centralizing, searchability, findability, and transparency. After explaining the key elements of the firm’s KM program, including mission, strategies, and institutional buy-in, the story will continue by sharing several successful components that hold applicability to all information professionals. This includes: utilizing a web-based collaborative platform to organize project work and resources; aggregating documents across multiple locations for enhanced access; incorporating existing research workflows; building a centralized repository of curated images; and developing a social platform for knowledge sharing.
Josh has been in the role of knowledge manager for KieranTimberlake since fall 2015, where he is charged with the mission of connecting people with ideas, knowledge, and expertise. He previously worked in the Office of the University Architect at the University of Pennsylvania as a digital archivist / data manager. He hold degrees in landscape architecture (Temple University, BSLA), sustainable development (University of Exeter UK, MSc) and Library & Information Science (Wayne State University iSchool, MLIS).
Elizabeth Schaub, Director, School of Architecture Visual Resources Collection, The University of Texas at Austin
Open Researcher & Contributor ID (ORCID): Piloting Adoption
Not-for-profit Open Researcher & Contributor ID (ORCID) envisions “…a world where all who participate in research, scholarship, and innovation are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions and affiliations across disciplines, borders, and time.”(1) To this end, ORCID provides a means by which researcher can register for a unique identifier to associate with his/her scholarly output. This presentation will describe efforts by The University of Texas School of Architecture (SOA) and The University of Texas Libraries to work collaboratively to enable development and implementation of a pilot program to encourage ORCID-adoption by SOA constituents. (1)“ORCID Trust.” ORCID, ORCID, Inc., 30 August, 2017.
Elizabeth Schaub has been Director of the School of Architecture Visual Resources Collection at The University of Texas at Austin since 1997. Elizabeth’s areas of responsibility include budgeting, personnel, collection development, training, project management, marketing, and strategic planning.
3:00-4:30pm Session | Building Communities
Location: Silver Room, Mezzanine Level
Moderator: Paula Farrar, Architecture and Planning Librarian, The University of British Columbia
In the last of the paper sessions, the presenters will discuss the challenges and opportunities that arise while building communities through collection development and digital scholarship. Each of our presenters will share projects they have undertaken to strengthen the bonds between their library/archive and their respective Schools of Architecture.
Stephanie Tiedeken, Archivist for Access and Preservation, Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas Libraries
Katie Pierce Meyer, Architecture and Planning Librarian, University of Texas Libraries
Collaborating to Develop and Steward the University of Texas School of Architecture Collections
The Alexander Architectural Archives and the Architecture and Planning Library (APL) have a strong history of documenting the identity of The University of Texas School of Architecture (UTSOA) through collecting the work of faculty, students, and staff, as well as the records of UTSOA. As two units within the University of Texas Libraries, the Alexander and APL support instruction and scholarship in the School of Architecture through the doctoral level in architectural design, history, preservation, and community and regional planning, the masters level in landscape architecture and the bachelor level in Interior Design. This presentation will highlight significant work completed at the Alexander Architectural Archives, in collaboration with faculty, students, and staff from a variety of departments, to provide greater access to the UT School of Architecture archival collections, the strategic accessioning of student work both analog and digital, and our refined workflow for acquiring UTSOA’s records. In 2014, the Architecture & Planning Library began developing the School of Architecture Publications Collection, which highlights publications by UTSOA centers, faculty, students, and staff. The collection continues to grow over time and will provide a historic overview of the scholarly output of the School. This presentation will highlight our efforts and challenges as liaisons and information professionals to collaborate with faculty, students, and staff from a variety of departments to build and steward our distinctive School of Architecture collections.
Stephanie Tiedeken is the Archivist for Access and Preservation at the Alexander Architectural Archives. She is responsible for accessioning new collections, overseeing archival processing, facilitating reformatting, implementing workflows related to encoded finding aids, databases, and metadata schemas, facilities monitoring, and supervising student staff from the School of Information and the School of Architecture.
Katie Pierce Meyer is the Humanities Librarian for Architecture & Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. She is responsible for special collections, engagement, and digital scholarship for all subject areas within the School of Architecture. Prior to accepting her position as librarian in 2014, she processed archival collections at the Alexander Architectural Archives. She is currently completing a PhD in the UT School of Information, where her dissertation research explores the artifacts of contemporary architectural practice.
Mark Pompelia, Visual + Material Resource Librarian, Rhode Island School of Design
Digital Commons at Rhode Island School of Design: Building a Repository for Architecture
Rhode Island School for Design launched its Digital Commons institutional repository following a multi-year period of research and investigation that began with preliminary conversations with the school’s Department of Architecture that offers degrees at both the bachelor and master levels. Implemented in 2015 with digital content already administered by the Fleet Library, the two years since have led to uploading nearly four thousand items from offices and departments across the school. The platform includes the school’s strategic plan, commencement addresses, and other speakers and symposia as well as unforeseeable developments such as ephemera from a Cabaret-modeled performance-based class and a faculty-edited journal. Along the way, Digital Commons @ RISD has been presented at faculty meetings, to the school’s Board of Trustees, and stands to contribute to faculty promotion and tenure dossiers while already landing the school into the top downloads for a handful of disciplines at any given time. A stakeholder department from the start, Architecture is represented with the popular collection devoted to the text, images, and videos related to the multi-stage international Techstyle Haus competition. Other initial collections include coursework from a modeling course, department exhibition posters produced over the decades, and a filter that brings ARCH masters theses into the Architecture community. This presentation will detail the considerations leading to Digital Commons @ RISD and the processes of identifying and building communities across the school with a focus on Architecture, targeting and soliciting content from the department faculty and students, digital workflows, content types for differing media, as well as accreditation concerns while forging a much-needed conversation for architectural program content access and preservation in general.
Mark Pompelia is Visual + Material Resource Librarian for the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design. Since 2010 he has overseen the non-text collections that include the library’s digital image subscriptions, film and DVDs, and streaming video platforms. He developed a 33,000-item materials samples collection and is engaged in a shared database project and consortium for materials collections. He administers RISD’s Shared Shelf platform for teaching assets and launched in 2015 the Digital Commons @ RISD institutional repository that now holds 4,000 digital objects from across the school. He has been active since 1995 in various elected officer and appointed positions for Art Libraries Society of North America and Visual Resources Association. He has organized, moderated, and spoken consistently at VRA, ARLIS/NA, ARLIS/Australia-New Zealand, among others. His chapter on materials libraries for the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Art and Design Librarianship was published in October 2017.
Maya Gervits, Director, Littman Library, College of Architecture and Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Burcak Ozludil, Coordinator of Accreditations, Digital Platforms, Media, College of Architecture and Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology
(not presenting) Augustus Wendell, Director, Motion Analysis Lab and Co-Director, Virtual Reality Lab, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Evolving Through Collaboration and Partnership
Digital Humanities has had a significant impact on academic libraries for more than a decade. However, digital scholarship in art and design disciplines is still defining the parameters of the field prompted by several challenges and questions. How can digital methods and tools benefit research in this area? How do digital initiatives facilitate collaboration between different disciplines? How can a small branch library support faculty and student projects with a limited budget? This presentation will discuss the way in which the Littman Library at NJIT attempts to answer these questions through establishing a space dedicated to Digital Scholarship. The space aims to foster research that bridges the gap between digital design, computer science, art, and architecture, and improves collaboration between different departments and institutions. The presentation will focus on several multidisciplinary projects started in collaboration between NJIT faculty and staff as well as with several local institutions. Some of these projects employ virtual reality techniques, crowdsourcing, visualization, to name a few, using GIS and Omeka among other tools. This presentation will also discuss opportunities and plans for future growth and development.
Maya Gervits has been Director of the Barbara and Leonard Littman Architecture & Design Library at the New Jersey Institute of Technology since 2002. Prior to her appointment at NJIT, she worked as a curator at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, as the Western Art Bibliographer and a lecturer at Princeton University, and as Art Librarian at Rutgers University. In addition to MLS, she holds a PhD in Art and Architectural History and combines her research background with interests in various aspects of librarianship and digital scholarship. Maya extensively published in both architectural history and librarianship and presented her research at local, national and international conferences. She is experienced in developing digital projects, such as Littman Library Image Database, Digital Archive of Newark Architecture, and her recent collaboration with A. Wendell which explores integration of VR technique into architectural history.
Burcak Ozludil is an architectural historian with a strong interest in digital art/architectural history. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Systems (NJIT and Rutgers University). She received her architecture degree from Istanbul Mimar Sinan University, and M.Arch. degree in architectural history and theory from Yildiz Technical University. She worked as the managing editor of Arredamento Mimarlik, the Istanbul-based architecture/design monthly. She taught courses at NJIT and Istanbul Okan University. She has been working at the intersection of digital initiatives and design since 2011. She received NJIT Seed Grants for her collaboration with a team from the College of Computing Sciences on the visualization of biomedical terminologies in 2015-16 and for the temporospatial analysis platform, SpatioScholar, that she has been developing with A. Wendell in 2016-17. Burcak Ozludil is currently the Coordinator of Accreditations, Digital Platforms, Media in the College of Architecture and Design (CoAD) at NJIT.
Augustus Wendell is an educator, technologist and designer. He is the director of the Motion Analysis Lab and Co-Director of the VR Lab at NJIT. Augustus has an MFA in Computer Art from The School of Visual Arts and an undergraduate degree from Northeastern University. He researches the intersection of the built environment and digital tools and has published conference papers on digital humanities and heritage, digital design research and education. Prior to his appointment at NJIT he taught at Parsons the New School for Design, The New York School of Interior Design and Virginia Tech. As owner and creative director at kim.wendell design llc, Augustus has directed visual imagery marketing campaigns for numerous national and international clients. He received an NJIT Seed Grant in 2016-17 for the SpatioScholar project.
Friday, March 16, 2018
7:15-8:15 Breakfast sponsored by On Architecture and The Plan Magazine
Location: Silver Room, Mezzanine Level
8:15-9:30am AASL Membership Meeting
Location: Silver Room, Mezzanine Level
9:45-11:30am AASL Strategic Directions
Location: Silver Room, Mezzanine Level
3:30-5:30 pm Poster & Vendor Session | On Paper
Location: Exhibit Hall, South Convention Lobby
Please take this opportunity to learn about the various projects on which our members have been working whether it is art in the library, unique collections, or the creation of information resources such as databases and the AASL Core List. Our presenters will be stationed at their posters from 3:30-5pm to answer all your questions! This session is also your chance to chat with vendors and review the work of our colleagues in ACSA.
Kathy Edwards, Research Librarian for the Emery A. Gunnin Architecture Library at Clemson University and the Clemson Design Center in Charleston
Rose Orcutt, Architecture & Planning Librarian, University at Buffalo
Barbara Opar, Architectural Librarian, Syracuse University
Core List or Not: Introducing the fifth edition of the AASL Core List of Architecture Periodicals
The core list of architecture periodicals was first formalized in 1995 and intended to address the needs of first-degree programs in Architecture. The need for such a list was initially suggested in the early 1990s by Pat Wiesenberger (Kansas State University) at an annual meeting of the Association of Architecture School Librarians (AASL). She proposed preparing a list of titles “without which we cannot operate,” and AASL has held fast to that principle over the succeeding years. For the 2017 edition, format (print, electronic), the type of graphic documentation (e.g., plans, sections, etc.), image quality, length and depth of articles, notable contributors, scope of coverage (geographical/typological), extent of inclusion in major indexes, and impact data (when available) were all factors in determining whether a title should be added or remain on the list. It is a guideline and working tool for those with architecture collections. Hopefully fellow architecture librarians and those arts libraries with architecture holdings will find value in this list.
Kathy Edwards is the research librarian for the Emery A. Gunnin Architecture Library at Clemson University and the Clemson Design Center in Charleston, covering Architecture, Art, Art History, City & Regional Planning, Construction Science & Management, Historic Preservation, Landscape Architecture, Real Estate Development, and the Planning, Design, and the Built Environment PhD. program.
Rose Orcutt is the University Libraries’ liaison for students, faculty and staff in University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning and the Art Department. Rose offers reference and research consultation services, collection development and provides support for research and teaching.
Barbara Opar is the librarian for Architecture and French Language and Literature at Syracuse University Libraries and a graduate of the same institution. She is an embedded librarian working closely with the School of Architecture and overseeing the operations of the soon to be renovated Architecture Reading Room (King+ King Architecture Library). She is co-editor of the AASL column in ACSA News, a frequent contributor to ARLIS/NA Reviews and the author of a chapter in the 2nd edition of The Handbook of Art and Design Librarianship. She is a past recipient of the AASL Distinguished Service Award.
Laura Marion, Project Archivist, University of Florida
Opening Saint Augustine: Promoting Historic Identity Through Governor’s House Library
The Governor’s House Library, located in Saint Augustine, Florida, is affiliated with the George A. Smathers Libraries’ Department of Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida and houses research material related to the history and preservation of Saint Augustine’s historic downtown. The library’s collections were created by the Historic Saint Augustine Preservation Board, a now defunct state agency whose mission was to preserve, restore, and reconstruct significant historic structures in the city. The collections contain unique and rare architectural drawings, maps, photographs, and archival material that documents the city’s built environment over time and show how structures have changed to more accurately reflect its historic past. When utilized together, these collections can provide an unparalleled resource for architects, preservationists, historians, students, and other researchers to study and appreciate the significant architectural and archaeological history of the nation’s oldest city. Although the Governor’s House Library collections contain valuable information for the Saint Augustine community and beyond, they have remained relatively unknown and underused due to a lack of description and discoverability. The University of Florida received grant funding from the National Historic Preservation Records Commission (NHPRC) for a two-year project to arrange and describe the library’s Photograph Collection and Maps & Drawings Collection, whose resources largely inform the architectural history and interpretation of the Saint Augustine downtown district as it can be seen today. This poster will briefly explore and discuss some of the ways in which the Opening Saint Augustine grant project will allow for better understanding of the historic and cultural identity of Saint Augustine.
Laura Marion is a Project Archivist at the University of Florida. She lives and works in Saint Augustine, processing a large collection of historic maps, architectural drawings, and photographs that document the history of preservation in the Nation’s Oldest City. Prior to her work in Florida, she was the Records Manager at the Nantucket Historical Association and its 21 historic properties. She received a BA in English from Wofford College and an MLIS from the University of South Carolina.
Mark Pompelia, Visual + Material Resource Librarian, Rhode Island School of Design
Material Order: A New Path for Materials Collections
Libraries supporting art, architecture, and design programs are creating collections of material samples to advance the curriculum and research of their institutions. A project team of librarians and faculty at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) and the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design have been partners in the multi-year development of a shared open-source cataloging and collection management database for materials collections called Material Order. Working with a database developer since 2015, we have achieved that goal. In parallel, we sought to expand our collaboration to include other partners, which inspired a consortium model. The consortium is intended to use, administer, and develop the database as well as provide a network of materials collection experts. By utilizing and developing standards and best practices, the consortium provides a community-based approach to management of and access to materials collections. The CollectionSpace Materials Profile has been available for use since September 2016. When delivered, it was pre-populated with the GSD’s existing database data. Both the GSD and RISD have contributed to the extensive authority files and local holdings records. Simultaneously, we have been working on the front-end discovery system, additional database functionality, creation of training documentation and shared cataloging standards, and outreach to build the consortium’s partner base. This poster will present our work and accomplishments, showing the taxonomy, database build-out, future developments, and benefits of becoming a consortium partner. This will be a valuable opportunity to present our work to the architecture faculty, administrators, and librarians attending both ACSA and AASL.
Mark Pompelia is Visual + Material Resource Librarian for the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design. Since 2010 he has overseen the non-text collections that include the library’s digital image subscriptions, film and DVDs, and streaming video platforms. He developed a 33,000-item materials samples collection and is engaged in a shared database project and consortium for materials collections. He administers RISD’s Shared Shelf platform for teaching assets and launched in 2015 the Digital Commons @ RISD institutional repository that now holds 4,000 digital objects from across the school. He has been active since 1995 in various elected officer and appointed positions for Art Libraries Society of North America and Visual Resources Association. He has organized, moderated, and spoken consistently at VRA, ARLIS/NA, ARLIS/Australia-New Zealand, among others. His chapter on materials libraries for the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Art and Design Librarianship was published in October 2017.
Jenna Rinalducci, Arts & Architecture Librarian, UNC Charlotte
Transforming Space: Student Murals in the Architecture Library
What started as a discussion about how to bring more art into the library developed into a valuable collaboration with faculty and students to bring murals into the architecture library. The Arts & Architecture Librarian reached out to one of the painting professors to discuss showcasing student work in the branch library, and the result was an elaborate mural project with the mixed media painting classes. The librarian worked with two professors teaching ARTP 3161: Mixed Media, an intermediate studio exploring conceptual problems using color drawing media, painting, collage, and printmaking techniques. Each class was designated their own wall to decorate while working in tandem with one another to create a cohesive art piece. Funding was secured from both the Library and the College of Arts and Architecture. Throughout the semester, students, faculty, and librarians documented the progress through photographs, videos, and interviews. This documentation was featured in the library’s visualization lab along with programming events in the architecture library, and the results will eventually reside on the library’s website. This project highlights the unique research and teaching undertaken in the College of Arts and Architecture and reflects the intersection of design and intellectual curiosity. It also allows librarians to be fully immersed in the research and teaching of these students, and the students are provided real-world applications for their scholarship. Ultimately, the final project helps to unify the scholarship of both fine arts and architecture students in their shared college. In turn, it creates an inviting space to inspire student learning.
Jenna Rinalducci has been the Arts & Architecture Librarian at UNC-Charlotte since July 2016. Prior to this position, she was at George Mason University and the Savannah College of Art & Design. She holds a MLIS in Library Science from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MA in Art History from Florida State University. She is currently enrolled in the graduate certificate program for Digital Public Humanities through George Mason. As part of her liaison duties, she serves on the library’s Arts & Exhibits Committee and provides supervision in the Hight Architecture Library in the School of Architecture at UNCC.
Nilda Sanchez-Rodriguez, Asst. Professor/ Chief Architecture Librarian, The City College of New York
Postcards from an Architect
The Architecture Library (the Library) is a branch of the City College Libraries at the City College of New York (CCNY), one of the most culturally diverse academic institutions of The City University of New York (CUNY). The Library supports the instructional programs of the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture through its collection, staff, and services. Recently, the Library acquired an extensive photographic postcard collection of the late Frank W. Hall, an accomplished architect, and a historian of architecture. This collection (1970s-2013) consists of approximately 13,500 postcards (46% photographic and 54% print variety) on architectural structures/buildings of the 19th and 20th century, and other related views from across the United States. Additionally, the world-wide images primarily emphasize New York City and Harlem, which provide an ideal opportunity to trace its history.
This poster will introduce and briefly review this treasure trove of visual and historical content. The goal of the presentation is to discover the benefits of sharing information and resources relating to visual content as a pedagogical tool. The concepts, materials, and instructional strategies can be explored and adapted to meet the diverse needs of any academic institution. The eventual digitization project aims to process this archival collection and make it publicly accessible. The poster presentation will be an excellent opportunity to share our results with other colleagues who may provide ideas for launching the first phase of visualizing the postcards.
Nilda Sanchez-Rodriguez is division Chief Librarian of the Architecture Library at The City College of New York and Associate Professor at The City College Libraries. In this role, she is responsible for staffing, collection building, developing relationships with the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture students and faculty, and monitoring the physical conditions of the library. Sanchez-Rodriguez holds a Masters in Library and Information Sciences from Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY); a Masters of Arts in Urban Studies from Queens College, CUNY; a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from the City College of New York, CUNY; and an Associates of Arts degree in Business Management from the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY.
James Sobczak, MLIS Candidate, University of Washington
Visual Media and Identity: Architects in Film and Television
As two of the most accessible and ubiquitous media artifacts of the past century, film and television productions not only reflect the world around us but actively shape our cultural norms and expectations. Unsurprisingly, this influence on audience preconceptions carries over into the realms of career expectations and professional identities. This database project, which looks specifically at fictional films and television shows in which characters play the role of architects, is an attempt to facilitate a comparison between the imaginary architect and its real-world, professional counterpart. Drawing from a number of statistical resources dealing with the architecture profession, this database analysis investigates how closely the fake architects, submitted to the viewing public as entertainment, reflect the architecture profession as it exists in reality. This comparison helps not only to inform the general audiences about architects and their role in society, but it also provides practicing architects new insights into their own profession, calling on them to re-examine their own professional work environments and demographics. As this is a longitudinal study, the database, and the figures pulled from it, is constantly subject to revision as new films and televisions shows are created or uncovered. Furthermore, due to the rarity and inaccessibility of much of the media included in the database, it is hard to guarantee that no errors or oversights are present regarding the information associated with each film or television show. Despite these challenges and shortcomings, many interesting trends can reliably be drawn from the data, placing both the real and fictitious architects in a new light. As this database grows in both size and detail, there is the strong possibility that continued analysis and mining may yield even more meaningful and nuanced insights.
James Sobczak grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan in 2007. After working for several years as an intern architect in New York, he went on to complete a Master of Architecture at Yale University in 2012. There he also acted as the architecture student liaison to the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library. His advanced design studio work with BIG was featured in Social Infrastructure: New York. James has also worked in architecture firms in Durham, NC, and Seattle, WA. James is currently a graduate student at the University of Washington and works as a digital imaging assistant in the Visual Services Department of the University of Washington’s School of Art + Art History + Design. He is scheduled to earn his Master of Library and Information Science in June of 2018.
Jesse Vestermark, Architecture and Environmental Design Librarian at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo
Pop-up Watercoloring in the Library
Over the past four years Jesse Vestermark, Architecture and Environmental Design Librarian at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, has been hosting monthly, two-hour-long drop-in “Watercolor Wednesday” painting sessions for students. Typically, two or three tables are set up in a public part of the library with basic watercolor supplies (paints, brushes and paper) and often with physical subject matter for inspiration, such as fruit or flowers. Curious students are welcomed to sit down and paint for as long as they can spare. Light instruction or coaching is offered as requested, but in the spirit of play, freedom and low-barrier-of-entry, these sessions aren’t promoted or run as workshops. Prior advertising is done via the library homepage, on digital billboards around the building, and on paper posters the day of the event. Watercolor Wednesday is free and open to all students. In 2016-17 Watercolor Wednesday logged 148 total attendees, over 100 unique attendees and averaged 16 students per session. The presenter conducted a year-end, anonymous survey to assess the possible correlations between participation and social interaction, sense-of-belonging and library use. The results were promising based on the 27 students that completed the survey. When asked if their experience at Watercolor Wednesday made them more likely to engage in six different “traditional” library categories (ask for general help, consult a librarian, study alone, meet for group work, consult online resources, consult print resources) over 50% replied yes in every category. The presenter will briefly address the questions of if, how and why academic librarians should incorporate “creative” outreach into our traditional, intellectual and quotidian tasks.
Jesse Vestermark serves as the liaison between the 2014 ACRL Award-winning Robert E. Kennedy Library and Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design, which is home to the nation’s top public undergraduate architecture program (as ranked annually since 2014; presented by Architectural Record in association with DesignIntelligence). Jesse holds an MA-LIS and MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BFA from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Prior to arriving at Cal Poly in 2010, Jesse served in temporary art and architecture librarian positions at the University of Minnesota and Yale University, where he was the 2008 Kress Fellow in Art Librarianship. Jesse is a practicing visual artist whose professional interests include first-year research skills, critical thinking, student-library engagement and visualizing library research processes.
7:30 pm AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education
Location: Grand Ballroom (across from the South Convention Lobby)
The AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education is awarded jointly by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) to an individual, who must be living at the time of nomination, who has spent at least a decade primarily involved in architectural education, and whose primary contribution to architectural education has been on the North American continent. This year’s recipient is Jorge Silvetti.
Jorge Silvetti was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he received his diploma in architecture from the University of Buenos Aires. He continued studies at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving his Master of Architecture degree and pursuing post graduate work in the area of architectural theory and criticism. Mr. Silvetti formed a practice with Rodolfo Machado in 1974, formally incorporating in 1985.
In addition to his architectural practice, Mr. Silvetti has served as a juror for the Pritzker Architectural Prize since 1996, and in 2000 he became a juror for the Mies van der Rohe Prize for Latin American Architecture. In total, he has received ten Progressive Architecture awards—many in collaboration with Rodolfo Machado—and was the first person to receive awards in all three categories (architecture, urban design, and research). Mr. Silvetti’s writings have appeared in numerous architectural and urban design magazines, including Oppositions, Controspazio, Daidalos, Metamorfosi, Harvard Architectural Review, and Assemblage.
Mr. Silvetti has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, Carnegie-Mellon University, the Polytechnic Institute of Zurich, the University of Palermo, Sicily and Nihon University, Tokyo. Since 1975, he has taught architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, where he became tenured Professor of Architecture in Design and Design Theory in 1983, was Director of the Master of Architecture program from 1985 to 1989, and was named Nelson Robinson, Jr. Professor of Architecture in 1990. From 1995-2002, he chaired the Department of Architecture at Harvard, where he continues to teach. He has also been appointed to the Art of the Ancient World Visiting Committee at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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