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Brilliant grey: the color of documentary resources at the Fundación Espigas in Buenos Aires*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Analía Trouvé
Analía Trouvé*
Affiliation:
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Esmeralda 1212 Sector C Entrepiso, 1007 ABP Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina Sante Fe 1769 1°, 1060ABD Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
*
Email: atr@mrecic.gov.ar
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Abstract

Grey literature, documentation published outside traditional commercial channels, is not very often taken into account by art librarians in Argentina, judging by searches on online databases. However, experience with grey literature at the Fundación Espigas, the highly specialized Argentinian art information center in Buenos Aires, is changing this point of view. The Center’s database offers access to a great corpus of such publications, especially to ephemera such as private view cards, pamphlets, auction catalogues, catalogues of solo and group exhibitions and posters. This ‘minimal documentary information’ has an important place as a resource, and would prove invaluable for any research project on Argentine art in the future. Indeed this material is not grey but unexpectedly brilliant at providing rich and hidden information.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 30 , Special Issue 3: Special issue: Art libraries and art librarianship in Latin America , 2005 , pp. 8 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2005

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Footnotes

*

Revised version of paper presented at the IFLA Section of Art Libraries workshop at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, 22 August 2004, organized by the Vitruvio network, the Fundación Espigas and the National Museum of Fine Arts Library.

References

Bibliography

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References

1. Color. Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000. © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation.Google Scholar
2. York Seminar (United Kingdom), organized by the European Communities Commission (now the European Union) and the British Library Lending Division (now the British Library Bibliographical Services and Document Supply Centre), 13 and 14 December 1978.Google Scholar
3. Cinzenta means the color of cinders, referring to the popular fairy tale Cinderella. In the domain of art librarianship, who cares about poor ‘grey literature’, when traditionally published material is so much more attractive?Google Scholar
4. COSATI (Committee on Scientific and Technical Information); EAGLE (European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation, with its data base SIGLE (System for Information on Grey Literature), GL (General Conference on Grey Literature); GREYNET, international network based in the Netherlands, whose main goal is to promote and support authors, researchers, librarians and information intermediaries working with grey literature (http://www.greynet.org); NTIS (the US National Technical Information Service).Google Scholar
5. Although ephemera has gained in importance separately from the grey literature universe (see www.ephemerasociety.org), I prefer to speak of grey/ephemeral documentation when referring to publications produced outside formal commercial corridors whose intention is to last for only a very short time.Google Scholar
6. Mason, Moya K. ‘Grey literature: its history, definition, acquisition and cataloguing’. 2004 (http://www.moyak.com/researcher/resume/papers/var7mkmkw.html). In this paper the author argues that its greyness is probably the reason why grey literature is known by this name. It means knowledge produced by mankind that is the color of the human brain.Google Scholar
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8. At the Fundación Espigas these are given the category REPORT 0, and begin each artist’s Special Dossier.Google Scholar
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10. de Carvalho, Ramos, Maria, Elizabet. ‘La literature gris y su contribución a la sociedad del conocimiento’. Paper presented at the 67th IFLA Conference, Boston, August 16-25 2001. This paper aims to demonstrate the way grey literature has contributed to the improvement of the knowledge society.Google Scholar
11. This was how I got to know Marcelo Pacheco, former Executive Director of the Fundación Espigas, who was jointly responsible for the Fundación Espigas Project Initiative with Daniel Martinez. He left Fundación Espigas in 2002, to become Curator in Chief at the MALBA Costantini Collection.Google Scholar
12. The National Academy of Fine Arts, the ‘Julio E. Payró’ Institute of Art Theory and the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
13. The Instituto Torcuato di Telia was the key institution in Argentina reflecting the cultural avant-garde movement of the 1960s.Google Scholar
14. Vitruvio’s recent co-operative work has resulted in Vocabulario de arquitectura, arte, diseño y urbanismo, published 2004.Google Scholar