Message-Id: <mailto:199411282101.AA19184@wugate.wustl.edu> Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994 12:19:38 EWT From: mailto:FRYP%UCS.INDIANA.EDU@wuvmd.bitnet Subject: Re: Position description To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
I, too, have been somewhat astounded by the dialog regarding professional qualifications for a "Slide Librarian". I couldn't understand why after all the years we have been discussing and debating this in ARLIS and VRA, this rather naive viewpoint would have cropped up again. Then I realized this was coming off IMAGELIB, not ARLIS-L or VRA-L, and many people may becoming aware of this for the first time. Rest assured that this debate has been going on for a VERY long time, that many surveys have been conducted, many statements drafted, many panel discussions held. I, personally, as a Visual Resources Professional with both an MA in Art History and and MLS, have been involved it for twenty years. There never have been any easy answers, only generalizations. These amounted to 1)the MLS was a better meal ticket; and 2)Advanced Subject Knowledge was what enabeled you to do the job. In all these years, no one has come up with a better formulation of what is actually essential training for this job that Ben Kessler's formula of One and One/half plus experience. Yes, there is useful training to be had with the MLS, although until very recently there was little directly applicable. It is only now, with the advent of digital surrogate collections on the Network and the need to provide access to them, that the Library world (with the exception of Howard Besser and Deidre Stam) had discovered the joys of image and object cataloging. And when I first looked for appropriate database training, i.e. PC based rather than On-line, I found it in our School of Public and Environmental Affairs, not in Library and Information Science. Over the years I have trained many assistants and supervised many Library interns, as my institution is one of the few places one can pursue a double degree in Art History and Information Science. Some graduate students, whether Art History or Library, show a natural talent for Image Management, other are totally lost or frustrated. The program they are in does not provide a guarantee of how well they can do this job. Most distressing to me in following the debate on this issue on IMAGELIB, was a casual dismissal of the importance of "Communication with the Art Historians." When you are cataloging and classifying images, particularly when you mission is doing so is to facilitate the teaching of a specific discipline, not to cater to the amorphous needs of a general, uninformed public, communication with specialists is paramount. This has been our major contention with the Library Degree requirement all along, that it stresses central unified authorities applicable to generalities, and we have to stress scholarly usage, specilization, convenience, and local adaptation. We also think our way is more fun.Eileen Fry Indiana University mailto:FRYP@indiana.edu