Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T01:50:27.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The altermodern library?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Sara Wallace*
Affiliation:
Sackler Library, 1 St. John Street, Oxford OX1 2LG, UK
Get access

Abstract

At the 2009 Tate Triennial Nicolas Bourriaud declared that postmodernism was dead and that the world was now altermodern. Many papers have been written on the effects of postmodernity on libraries, yet three years on there has been little about the post-postmodern library. This short article, adapted from a Master’s dissertation, looks at whether the 21st-century library could be seen as an altermodern library. Recent changes at Bodleian Libraries are discussed to highlight how an altermodern paradigm could better fit today’s academic libraries.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Carr, Reginald, The academic research library in a decade of change (Oxford: Chandos, 2007), xv.Google Scholar
2. Ford, Simon, ‘The disorder of things: the postmodern art library,’ Art libraries journal 18, no.3 (1993): 1023.Google Scholar
3. Kirby, Alan, ‘Successor states to an empire in free fall,’ Times higher education, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=411731.Google Scholar
4. ‘The post-postmodernism issue,’ Adbusters no.88 (March/April 2010).Google Scholar
5. Verhagen, Marcus, ‘The nomad and the altermodern: the Tate Triennial,’ Third text 23, no.6 (2009): 803.Google Scholar
7. Altermodern: Tate Triennial (London: Tate publishing, 2009). Catalogue of an exhibition curated by Bourriaud, Nicolas at Britain, Tate, London, 3 February-26 April 2009: unpaged.Google Scholar
9. Verhagen, Marcus, ‘The nomad and the altermodern: the Tate Triennial,’ Third text 23, no.6 (2009): 804.Google Scholar
10. Ibid, 811.Google Scholar
11. Altermodern: Tate Triennial, 2009.Google Scholar
13. Postmodernism: style and subversion 1970-1990 (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2011). Catalogue of an exhibition curated by Jane Pavitt and Glenn Adamson, 24 September 2011-15 January 2012.Google Scholar
14. Carr, Reginald, ‘The Bodleian Library: maintaining excellence into the new Millennium,’ Alexandria: the journal of national and international library and information issues 11, no.2 (1999): 126.Google Scholar
15. Ibid: 127.Google Scholar
16. Ray, Kathlin, ‘The postmodern library in an age of assessment,’ Crossing the divide: proceedings of the Tenth National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries, March 15-18, 2001 (Denver, Colorado: American Library Association, 2001): 251.Google Scholar
17. Buschman, John and Brosio, Richard, ‘A critical primer on postmodernism: lessons from educational scholarship for librarianship,’ Journal of academic librarianship 32, no.4 (2006): 408418.Google Scholar
18. Stover, Mark, ‘The reference librarian as nonexpert: a postmodern approach to expertise’, Reference librarian no.87/88 (2004): 273300.Google Scholar
19. Altermodern: Tate Triennial, 2009.Google Scholar
20. Tate Britain, Altermodern manifesto.Google Scholar
21. Gendron, Heather, ‘Don’t fence me in! Reconsidering the role of the librarian in a global age of art and design research’, Art libraries journal 34, no.2 (2009): 26.Google Scholar