FINE ARTS LIBRARY1. BACKGROUND INFORMATIONThe Fine Arts Library was originally established to serve the Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Elam in 1889. It was not until 1950 that the School became part of the University of Auckland. The Library has been professionally staffed since 1962 when, after a series of moves, it was accommodated in the present building at 20 Whitaker Place. At this time the Library occupied only 1200 square feet of space and held 1000 items. In 1977 that space was extended to the Library's present size. 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTIONThe collection consists of various materials: monographs, serials, audio recordings (records, cassettes and CDs), slides, CD-ROMs, DVD-Videos, posters, calendars, photographs, works of art, artists' books, ephemera, and an archive of newspaper cuttings. Microformats have been transferred to Special Collections for use in the Microtexts Room in the General Library, and other formats, including slides and cassettes are migrated to digital format to improve access. These materials have been acquired by purchase and by donation. The Fine Arts Library catalogues ephemera and processes items for the lending collections where the research level of content is useful. In addition the Library holds the Elam Archive, a collection of varied material on the history of the school. Most of this archive has been donated by past and present staff and students. 3. USERSThe Fine Arts Library primarily serves the study and research needs of the staff and students, under-graduate and post-graduate, of the Elam School of Fine Arts (including BVA students based at the Manukau Institute of Technology) and the Art History Department. Use is made of the collection by other Departments and Programmes, e.g. Museum Studies, Architecture, English, Romance Languages. Practising artists and graduates can apply for Associate Membership and members of the public, including students from other tertiary institutions and from secondary schools, use the library as a reference source. 4. SELECTION CRITERIA AND COLLECTION PRIORITIESA first priority is to purchase at least one copy of all material on the reading lists for Art History papers and to obtain material which is relevant to the Studio Theory papers offered at Elam. In addition to this there is a need to provide Elam students with a source of varied visual material to enable them to advance in their practical work undertaken in the mediums of Design, Painting, Sculpture, Multi-media, Photography and Printmaking. The research needs of staff and graduate students are catered for. Selection of material is made by the Subject Librarians, frequently in consultation with the staff of Fine Arts and Art History. All recommendations from staff and students are considered for purchase, and selection is made on the basis of:
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We aim to collect both contemporary and historical materials in each of the above fields as appropriate. Duplicate monographs are bought where there is a strong art component. This may avoid duplication with holdings elsewhere in the Library. Where a title is already available on the City campus an additional title will only be purchased for level three or level four requests. It is not always possible to purchase comprehensively in areas with high publishing rates e.g. American documentary photography. Instead we aim to maintain selective purchasing or sampling in these areas with preference to works which include critical discussion and bibliographies. Serial titles are maintained to support teaching and research needs. Where title are available as electronic resources with no loss of detail in the image quality the hard copy holdings may be withdrawn or held off site. The Library will also acquire monographs and serials relevant to the field of art librarianship. Duplicate copies of texts will be obtained in consultation with staff and students. 5. SPECIAL COLLECTIONSAt least two Artists Books* should be purchased each year in order to maintain the Library's Artists Books collection. Preference will be given to work by present and past staff and students of the Elam School of Fine Arts. At least two Photo books** should be purchased each year in order to build the Library's collection of classic photo books. Items are also transferred from the lending collections when they are identified as valuable or rare so that they are subsequently used only under controlled conditions. *Artist's Book - a term conceived and/or produced by an artist; may include imagery conceived for the publication and/or text. Multilingual glossary for art librarians, 2nd revised ed., IFLA Section of Art Libraries, 1996. 6. ELAM ARCHIVEScope: The archive should contain material relating to the Elam School of Fine Arts and to staff and students of the School while they were at Elam. The purpose of the Archive is to document the history of the School and to provide information for future researchers interested in the School, its staff and students. Conspectus level 5 - comprehensive. Type of material collected: Minutes
Ideally everything under the above headings should be collected. But owing to severe restrictions on space for storage and time available for documenting the archive, it may be that some or all of the above are collected on a selective basis only. 7. PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATIONItems published before 1800 and expensive material is transferred to Special Collections in the General Library where environmental and security controls are in place. This includes expensive facsimile editions and items with a current valuation of over NZ $10,000. The following collections are considered particularly important with regard to disaster management:
Jane Wild |