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Education for art and culture librarianship in Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Mary F. Williamson
Mary F. Williamson*
Affiliation:
Scott Library, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada
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Abstract

The ongoing economic recession together with redirection of dwindling educational resources towards the sciences, with less and less for culture, appears to some Canadian art librarians to be marginalizing art library collections and art librarianship. In any case, the current cultural climate invites a broader definition of ‘art’ that encompasses multiculturalism. Another source of concern is the increasing emphasis in our library schools on training information generalists, although the schools are simply addressing workplace preoccupations with technical and administrative skills. It can be more satisfying to teach art librarianship to practising librarians than to students of librarianship with differing backgrounds, expectations and motivation. In Canada, there is a need for art library associations to be instruments of positive change, by offering courses and workshops, and especially by taking advantage of teleconferencing methods to extend educational programs to librarians and students across the country.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , 1994 , pp. 22 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1994

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References

Notes

1. The description for the course in Art Librarianship runs as follows: ‘The course is concerned with the development, exploitation and preservation of resources in the library for the study of art, including crafts, architecture and museology. Among the types of resources examined are exhibition catalogues, catalogues raisonnes, periodicals, indexing and abstracting services, auction sources, artists’ publications, archival collections, and online services serving museums, the art markets, and art historical research. Our attention is focussed on the materials and methods of bibliographic research rather than the techniques of establishing or maintaining an art library’.

The course is actually misnamed, and in future it will be called the ‘Literature of Art’, or similar title. I think other instructors would agree with me that it is impossible to cover all aspects of art librarianship in a single course. The course will inevitably be superficial, but also the title ‘art librarianship’ gives the impression that the graduate will emerge a fully-fledged art librarian.