Out On A Limb: Citing the Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design

I was so excited when The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design arrived in our library this spring. I don't know if I've ever been more excited for any print acquisition. I talked about it with colleagues, tweeted it, Facebooked it, even carted it across campus for impromptu introductions to willing art classes. No easy fete, as it weighs in at over 40 lbs. It was a blast!

UNTIL, one lone student in the back of the class, on my last library art instruction session, in the very last 5 minutes of class, innocently asked, "So, how do we cite it?" And, suddenly the archive went from my new best friend to my archenemy. I bumbled something about, "entry in an edited reference work," and quickly fled the class. Full Disclosure: I really strongly dislike the minutiae of citing. I don't care if there's a double space after the colon or not, as long as all of the information required to find the item again, is there. In recent years I have adopted the attitude of a colleague when she observed my furrowed hemming and hawing over some citations for a publication: "That's what editors are for." But, students don't have editors, and they often, in fact, have extreme attention to detail oriented professors that will take off points when there is a missing space in a citation. I owe this attempt to them. I really care about you guys. This one's for you.

Crowd Citing
And, so I offer up to you my feeble attempt at citing a truly great resource, that defies bibliographic logic. Please feel free to comment and respond, as I was really just making this up as I went along.

Here's the card I used for the example citations.

Back

Front

Every card has one image on the front and most other important identifying information on the back. MOST.  The cards, however do not include the names of the authors that wrote the corresponding articles. You actually need the separate index for that. Users citing the articles need to note the ID number on the top left of the card, then find the corresponding author in the author section of the index. (Behind the front cover.)

The ID number for this card is: I032

If we search through the author section in the Archive's accompanying index we'll find ID # I032 authored by Frederico Duarte.

One section in the index explains about picture locations. "The following abbreviations have been used to locate the position of the images on the cards; front: 1; reverse: 2; top: t; bottom: b; right: r; left: l; middle: m" This will be necessary when referencing one of the images. The guide gives an example of how to cite both images and articles in various styles. 

Again, I'm very happy to hear criticisms and suggestions for changes, I would really like this to be as easy as possible for students. Thanks for reading!

Living Black Artists

I thought a nice way to celebrate Black History Month would be to highlight some living black artists. I stumbled across the below short from PBS' ART 21 series. It's artist Carrie Mae Weems in a brief discussion with actor and comedian David Alan Grier. I like how Weems explores the notion of creating art as an African American, though the video is edited before we see whether Grier agrees or not. And, If you like that piece, you have to check out a fun short of Weems talking to Wynton Marsalis and Cornel West. 


A Plug
All of the ART 21 series is incredible. The program explores the work and lives of a diverse group of living artists, based on various themes. Most of the videos are posted online, along with artist's bios. It's better than good if you want to see and hear from and about the heavy hitters in the art world right now. I've used the website and links in conjunction with our library site for an art instruction course and find it a great resource. Enjoy the vids!

Manifestewings

I have a great friend that blogs on and off expressing her sometimes hilarious observations and serious musings. (We all have this friend.) But, she also did a really great thing once in writing a blog manifesto. She talked about how and who she was writing for and the point of her blog and all kinds of great inspirational things. 


I keep thinking that since I've taken on this new role as the Research Instruction and Special Collections Librarian, that I really, really, need to hone my direction for the Bookie. Like my friend, I really need a manifesto. Really. But, the task seems a bit daunting since I have my hands in a lot of pots. Or, is it, I'm stirring many pots? Hold it, wait, am I many cooks in one kitchen? or is it, I have many plates in the air? No. I am the cook of many spinning pots stirring in the kitchens of the air. There.


So how can I direct this manifesto? Well, since our Special Collections just started a blog, I can encourage people to check there if they're curious about what we do and who we are. I'll be blogging occasionally on their site, so there's no reason to overkill a good thing. (Loving the mixed metaphors today.) I considered a part about academia in the abstract, however, most of what I publish or present or teach about can fall into one of my new directional categories. I also considered including posts about libraries or the future of academic libraries and information studies in general, but there are a gazillion of those. (Librarians love to blog and if you Google around for them you'll be busy for a month.)  SO! From now on, the point of the Baltimore Bookie will be...  

Baltimore Bookie Manifesto

To inspire and inform my fellow and aspiring librarians, fellow educators, and colleagues of all dimensions with:

1. Instructional and pedagogical insights or news including tools or ideas that I've tried in the classroom - (see my Google Docs post for an example)

2. Instructional and collection development ideas as an art+design and cultural development liaison - (see a post on art instruction preparation for an example)

3. Diversity work and initiatives on the Towson Campus and Baltimore including regular posts and updates on The Cherry Hill Oral History Project. 

4. LIBRARY RESIDENCIES! or How this blog got started in the first place. (I heart residencies.) Check out the ACRL Residency Interest Group* for more info.

I don't know why, but I feel so much better now! I should have done that months ago. What was I waiting for? Thank you for reading! I hope you find my blog fun, informative and useful.

*As of Nov. 18, 2011 the virus has been eradicated from Residency Interest Group site -sorry about that!

Book Club Fall Fun!

Once again our university is coming together with One Maryland One Book to get the campus and students involved. The book pick this year is a YA choice by an established writer. Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian," with illustrations by Ellen Forney, is this year's read. It's about a Spokane Indian kid trying to hang on to a little bit of hope in world that's stacked against him. It was a really great read. I've been reading Alexie for years and managed to catch him speak at ACRL 2009 in Seattle. He had me giggling then, and I'm sure he will again. He'll be speaking at various locations around Maryland and of course at the Baltimore Book Festival. His spot this year will be at 2pm on Saturday, September 24th. Despite addressing heavy topics in his writing and his talks,  Alexie never fails to bring a great sense of humor.

But what are we doing? Getting Alexie was pretty much a near impossibility. He's a big name and movie star, after all. So I'm super excited about Towson's unique involvement this year. Not only is it required reading for the Honors College, and not only will we have a book club discussion, BUT, we're also bringing Ellen Forney, the illustrator, to campus! How cool is that? The kid in the story wants to be a comic book writer and Forney lent her talents throughout the book in making the narrator's talents a reality. It's so cool to have the narrator talking about something and then, on the next page, there's a hilarious comic depicting the same scene. It's like the kid is using your novel as his sketchbook. I actually had to remind myself that a teenage boy hadn't actually drawn the doodles and comics. 

Ellen will be gracing our campus with both a talk AND a workshop. I truly hope our art and writing students don't miss this awesome opportunity. What a great way to participate in One Maryland One Book this year! I'm already psyched!

Basquiat and Art Students

Basquiat has such a pull on art students, including those at Towson. Perhaps because of how much he was able to accomplish before his young death. Perhaps it was his amazing ability to draw from so many different places and create a succinct image that even today, 20+ years after his death, continues to represent urban youth culture almost to the point of iconography. Or maybe it's just straight envy that he was able to garner so much fame and acclaim so quickly in his career. Or maybe as an art librarian I should leave these things up to the historians to ponder and just make sure the resources are there when the students and faculty come calling. That said, here's a film I might order for next year.

Tamra Davis, a personal friend of Basquiat, recently completed a documentary on his life and work with tons of never-seen footage of Jean-Michel talking about himself. Check it out on Independent Lens if it comes your way, or buy it for your library to satiate the hunger of all those envious art students. Here's an excerpt:

Watch the full episode. See more Independent Lens.

Art Liaison Yammerings

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm the new Art+Design liaison. Art has been a constant in my life since I was a kid, so I'm really enjoying my duties. In fact, I'm pretty sure one of the few ways to shut my usual yammering mouth up is to throw me inside a museum for a few hours and promise me a meal after. (The meal being the essential component where I will commence yammering about what I saw; what I loved, what I hated or what I just didn't understand.)  As for all of the growing online image databases, that is a sure-fire way for me to lose myself for an hour or two, (eeek! job hazard!). Speaking of which, have you seen, Art Project, powered by Google? Brilliant! Love it!

So, given my new duties, I have new classes to teach. Occasionally I've been able to find some background information on what the previous Art liaison did for a class or assignment, however, I've found constructing a class, and paying attention to the needs of the instructor along with her/his assignment is much better done when I come up with something original. All the same, that takes some serious time. I've been trying to curtail this, but I'm super careful and methodical about every single detail I put into every session. It's like a bad OCD thing. I have been driving myself batty this semester with the class planning.  I realize that it's because this is my first semester teaching these classes, but man oh man can I go overboard.

This is what I do. I usually start out with the PowerPoint. It generally includes a cheesy joke or silly image, followed with the agenda. At the same time I start the Powerpoint, I usually begin the handout. I try to create a handout that includes activities that coincide with the PowerPoint and are all skills needed in order to complete the student's assignment. After the handout and PowerPoint are done I put together a webpage on the library site that we call a Course Gateway. It's something like a LibGuide, and is specific to the class and their research assignment. It includes all of the resources we review in class and either links or call no's with information about each item and where it can be located. The in-class activities always require the students to find and use the Course Gateway. Easy, right? Notsomuch.

Here's a course guide I created for a digital art class. Their assignment was to find iconic high resolution images and photoshop them in some way to say something new.  I had a lot of fun with that. For the in-class activity I had them break into groups and find specific images in different databases and then use the reference books to give the class further information about the works. Lordy, do I love making students use books. Especially the ones that walk in and say, 

"I've never been in this building before." (You, my friend, have just become the designated book-information-looker-upper.)

This photograph by Gordon Parks has two titles, one of which is, "Ella Watson" "American Gothic," is not one of the official titles, but a title by which it is often wrongly referred.

I also really enjoy employing strategic trickery (heh heh). I misspell things intentionally or give a common name for an image, instead of the actual name.  I find false information on wikipedia and have them compare that to what the books say.  I can't help it! I know they are going to make those same mistakes on their own, so it's better for them to have that experience in the classroom first. But, in order to do all of that, I have to try every activity from every angle that a student might try in order to imagine how they might land at a given outcome. That takes some serious pre-planning.

Anyway, I'm sure this takes most people a few hours to come up with, but it takes me days. DAYS, I tell you! (And at least one time a whole week of really loooooong days.)  And it is so not worth it when all I get are blank stares throughout and after class. But, it is so worth it when students thank me afterward. It makes me warm in the heart of my body. They learned something, right?

Question: If you mash cooked yams, is the end result, "Yammerings?"