Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-27T01:41:42.666Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Dodo, lame duck or phoenix, part 2? Can or should we preserve a slide library for research?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Jenny Godfrey*
Affiliation:
Llandaff Learning Centre, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Western Avenue, CF5 2YB, Wales
Get access

Abstract

In part one of this article, published in vol. 39, no. 3 2014, I described how the History and Theory of Art and Design Slide Library at Cardiff is to be reinvented as a visual resources collection by being put to new and creative uses. Here in part two I consider possible arguments for safeguarding at least one exemplar slide library to be preserved intact and exactly as it was when used for art school lectures. The arguments put forward are derived from the Florence Declaration to which ARLIS/UK & Ireland is a recent signatory. Were the arguments successful in persuading the art and design and library communities that such a collection should be preserved? I end by profiling the set of circumstances I believe would need to co-exist before any institution would find such a project to be practically, financially, culturally and intellectually viable.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2014

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. UK Research Reserve, accessed 10 Feb. 2014, www.ukrr.ac.uk/. The UK Research Reserve (UKRR) is a collaborative distributed national research collection managed by a partnership between the Higher Education sector and the British Library. It allows Higher Education libraries to de-duplicate their journal holdings of a title if two copies are held by other UKRR members, ensuring continued access to low-use journals, whilst allowing libraries to release space to meet the changing needs of their users.Google Scholar
2. Manchester Metropolitan University Visual Resources Centre, accessed 10 Feb. 2014, www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/visualresources/.Google Scholar
3. Davis, John, email message to author, 4 July 2013 Google Scholar
4. The Florence Declaration, presented on 31 October 2009, at the International Conference “Photo Archives and the Photographic Memory of Art History – Part II”, accessed 10 Feb. 2014, www.khi.fi.it/en/photothek/florencedeclaration/index.html.Google Scholar
5. ‘Photo Archives and the Photographic Memory of Art History’, New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, accessed 3 May 2014, www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/events/photoarchives.htm. Costanza Caraffa, email message to author, 20 Aug. 2013. Caraffa, director of the Photothek des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz-Max-Planck-Institut, is a founder member of the Florence Declaration, makes it clear that the Declaration is available to be used in various contexts, ‘of course you can use the arguments of the Florence Declaration for slides and other forms of analogue photography – actually one could change a few words and adapt the Florence Declaration to manuscripts, archival documents, etc etc.’Google Scholar
6. Caraffa, Constanza, ed. Photo Archives and the Photographic Memory of Art History. (Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2011.Google Scholar
7. The Florence Declaration.Google Scholar
8. Greenan, Althea. Research Degree proposal document “Slide walks: understanding the Women’s Art Library slide collection as a site of evolving feminist discourse and innovative digital development” (work in progress), accessed 10 Feb. 2014, http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/research/doctoral-centre-arts/student/althea-greenan Google Scholar
9. The Florence Declaration signatories, accessed 10 Feb. 2014, www.khi.fi.it/pdf/Florence_Declaration_undersigned_Unterzeichner_firmatari.pdf.Google Scholar
10. Jeffries, Stuart. “The rise of the camera-phone,” The Guardian, Friday 8 January 2010, acessed 10 Feb. 2014, www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jan/08/stuart-jeffries-camera-phones. The number of active cell phones will reach 7.3 billion by 2014; commonly these will be camera phones. Figures from Digital trends, accessed 10 Feb. 2014, www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/mobile-phone-world-population-2014/#ixzz2YdNqLaEC Google Scholar
11. The Florence Declaration, page 2.Google Scholar
12. Greenan, “Slide walks...”.Google Scholar
13. Florence Declaration, ibid.Google Scholar
14. Greenfield, Susan, video, “Mind change is ‘an issue that’s as important and unprecedented as climate change’”, The Guardian, 17 Aug 2011, accessed 10 Feb. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE61qIV0zSQ Google Scholar
15. Fletcher, Karen, email to ACADI mailing list, 21 Nov. 2012.Google Scholar
16. Fletcher, ibid.Google Scholar
17. Godfrey, Jenny, “Dodo, lame duck or phoenix? How should we view the slide library?Art libraries Journal, 39, issue 3 (2014): 31.Google Scholar
18. Thompson, David, comment made during the “Slide library: dodo, lame duck or phoenix?” workshop, ARLIS Conference, Bristol, July 2013.Google Scholar
19. VRA-L Archives, accessed 10 Feb. 2014, http://hstserv.uark.edu/cgi-bin/wa?Al=indl312&L=VRA-L. To read all relevant posts on this subject search the VRA-L archives in December 2013 for the following message threads VRA and the Florence Declaration (1 message), VRA and the Florence Declaration (lengthy message) (5 messages), VRA and the Florence Declaration and the historiography of Slide Collections (3 messages).Google Scholar
20. Kohl, Allan, message “VRA and the Florence Declaration” VRA-L archives posted 17 December 2013.Google Scholar
21. VRA Core, accessed 10 Feb. 2014, www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore4/. To see an example go to www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore4/example026.html Google Scholar
22. ‘RE: VRA and the Florence Declaration’, messages sent at 20:15pm and at 22:19pm GMT, 17 December 2013, VRA-L archives 17/12/13.Google Scholar
23. Davis, 2013.Google Scholar
24. MIRIAD Visual Culture Research Centre, accessed 10 May 2014, http://www.miriad.mmu.ac.uk/visualculture/ Google Scholar
25. Visual Arts Data Service, accessed 10 May 2014, http://www.vads.ac.uk/learning/dcsc/slide.html Google Scholar
26. Canyonlights world art image bank, accessed 10 May 2014, http://www.canyonlights.com/themanchestermet.html Google Scholar
27. Chen, Ching-Jung, message ‘Slides’, VRA-L archives posted 11 April 2014, accessed 10 May 2014, http://listserv.uark.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=indl404&L=VRA-L&F=&S=&P=67830 Google Scholar
28. Locker, Laura, email message to author, 13 May 2014.Google Scholar
29. VRA Conference 2014 programme, accessed 13 May 2014, http://vra32.sched.org/event/56f5f3f61c6a27e664ef5d5227206ec1 Google Scholar
30. Hannon, Neil, The Divine Comedy, “Lost Property”, from the album “Regeneration” (2001).Google Scholar