FROM THE CHAIRAuthor(s): Susan CraigSource: Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 5,No. 4 (Winter 1986), p. 162Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27947662 .

Accessed: 19/06/2014 06:32

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The University of Chicago Press and Art Libraries Society of North America are collaborating with JSTOR todigitize, preserve and extend access to Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmerica.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.77.25 on Thu, 19 Jun 2014 06:32:58 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Art Documentation, Winter, 1986

ARLIS/NA NEWS SECTION

FROM THE CHAIR After the flurry of activity around the midyear Board

meeting, the late summer-early fall seems a time of quiet for ARLIS/NA activities. Some of the highlights of that meeting as well as the budget for Fiscal Year 1987 are pub lished elsewhere in this issue. They represent the many hours the Board devoted to discussing the past present, and future of the Society while sequestered in the Green Mountains of Vermont.

One of the major topics that is occupying the Board's attention is the petitioning for additional subdivisions with in the organization. While studying revisions to the So ciety's bylaws we were forced to consider if there might be a better way to provide the forum needed for groups than through the present SIG and TOL divisions. We tried to both evaluate the present system and the support that each group requires as well as plan for the future, as we seem destined to receive more requests for such divisions.

Currently, in addition to the eighteen chapters and six teen committees, we have four Type of Library Groups (TOLS): Public, Museum, Academic, and Art & Design School; and five Special Interest Groups (SIGS): Architec ture, Cataloging and Indexing Systems (CISSIG), Computer, Serials, and Visual Resources. We also have received peti tions for an Indigenous Art and Culture SIG and a Women and Art Documentation SIG. Although no other petitions have been presented, we've heard there are two or three other interest groups that hope to form soon. People who wish to join a SIG or TOL are asked to pay an additional $5.00 in dues for each group with which they wish to affili ate. It is in this way that we determine who is a member of each group and currently the memberships range from 24 in the Art & Design School TOL to 153 in the Academic TOL. Each SIG and TOL is given space for a regular column in Art Documentation, is allowed time for a business meeting at the annual conference, is made an allotment of funds to cover expenses, and is encouraged to participate in plan ning program sessions for the annual meeting. They also are encouraged to act as the conduit of their special needs and concerns to the rest of the Society and to work on on going projects for the good of their members. No special assignments are given to them by the Executive Board as there are to the committees, but rather they are expected to set their own agendas and communicate with the Vice Chairman of ARLIS/NA.

The dilemma of the increasing number of subdivisions is this. As the number of groups increase, the amount of sup port that is needed also increases: larger issues of Art Doc umentation; longer conferences to include all the business meetings and program sessions (or alternatively more con flicts in the conference schedule for each attendee). There also is a danger of fractionalization within the Society as groups focus on more limited objectives.

On the other hand, there is no use having an ARLIS/NA if it does not represent the real interests of its members.

There must be a method for people of similar specializa

tions to identify each other and discuss mutual concerns. It is certainly not the function of the Executive Board to limit the Society.

This issue will be raised at the Membership Meeting in Washington for the advice of the Society to the Executive Board. If you have any thoughts you'd like to communicate before then, I'd be most grateful to hear from you.

Susan Craig ARLIS/NA Chairman

EXECUTIVE BOARD ACTION HIGHLIGHTS

During its three sessions, June 29-July 1, 1986, at the ARLIS/NA midyear meeting at Arlington, Vermont, the Ex ecutive Board:

Directed that membership renewal forms include a chapter affiliation designation.

Moved that the Canadian Regional Representative job de scription be revised to include the sending of an occasional newsletter to each member in the region.

Appointed Deirdre Stam as Editor of Art Documentation effective with the Winter issue, 1986.

Determined that the work of the editors of Art Documenta tion and ARLISINA Update be reviewed on an annual basis at the midyear Executive Board meeting based on the rec ommendation of the Art Documentation!ARUSI A Update Advisory Board.

Charged the Development Committee with focusing the fifteenth anniversary fund drive on the establishment of a fund, the proceeds of which will support ARLIS/NA Occasional Papers.

Approved the Guidelines for Conference Workshops as sub mitted by the Education Committee, with necessary correc tions to be submitted to the Executive Board liaison.

Changed the name of the Education Committee to the Pro fessional Development Committee.

Accepted the proposed changes to the Guidelines for Edi tors of ARLIS/NA Occasional Papers submitted by the Pub lications Committee.

This content downloaded from 185.44.77.25 on Thu, 19 Jun 2014 06:32:58 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions