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Don’t fence me in! Reconsidering the role of the librarian in a global age of art and design research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Heather Gendron
Heather Gendron*
Affiliation:
Sloane Art Library, University of North Carolina (UNC)Chapel Hill, 102 Hanes Art Center, CB#3405, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3405, USA
*
Email: hgendron@ema
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Abstract

When we define society today as a ‘global society’ we are saying that we are, or at least we strive to be, an interconnected society, even more than if we were to say society is ‘worldwide’. In a global society, borders are crossed, and the phrase implies interaction, participation and inclusiveness. Artists and designers, as both a product of a global society and in response to the resulting all-inclusiveness, or ‘globality’, of their respective fields, are prompted to cross two kinds of border: physical and methodological. This paper focuses on the crossing of methodological boundaries and, in addition, recognizes the highly individualized nature of art and design research. This serves as a launch pad to explore the question of how librarians can shape their practice in order to respond better to the needs of contemporary artists and designers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , 2009 , pp. 26 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2009

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