ARLIS/NA 54th Annual Conference

Please note that adding a workshop to your Sched itinerary does NOT mean you have registered for the workshop. You must register via conference registration.

Art exhibition publications pose unique cataloging challenges and often require more use of cataloger's judgment than other types of art documentation. They usually necessitate intervention in terms of transposing, omitting, and supplying data, and choice of access points can be complicated.

This workshop will provide practical guidance to catalogers working with art exhibition publications by explaining issues and situations characteristic of this type of material. The four chapters of Cataloging Exhibition Publications: Best Practices, updated 2023-2025, will frame the program, and relevant standards and documentation will also be covered. Presentations by members of the Cataloging Advisory Committee will be supplemented by interactive learning activities, real-world examples, and discussion.

The workshop will include an overview of cataloging art exhibition publications; recommendations for applying RDA rules and policies; instruction on assignment of Library of Congress Subject Headings and use of controlled thesauri for genre/form access; and local considerations in selection of subject headings and name access points.

While especially helpful to catalogers, the workshop also welcomes new professionals and students interested in cataloging, solo librarians for whom cataloging is only a minor part of their job, and other art library workers.

Learning Objectives:
• An understanding of cataloging issues unique to art exhibition publications and familiarity with best practices and documentation.
• RDA rules and national policies applicable to transcription of title and statement(s) of responsibility, addition of notes, and selection of name and title access points.
• Use of controlled vocabularies for subject and genre/form access, especially assignment of LCSH in accordance with the relevant sections of the Library of Congress Subject Headings Manual.

Centering on makers and forms, this panel considers how artists’ books can be viewed as sites of resistance. The impulse to generate such books is sparked by artistic ideas rather than practicality, their modes of creation defy traditional publishing norms, and their physical shapes often circumvent the limits of the codex. Artists’ books are neither solely books nor solely art. They exist as unique or multiple copies. In a digital age, they are meant to be tactile, experienced as material objects in intimate proximity to human hands. They evade formal display in casework. Artists’ books allow for experimentation. Their textures, media, structures, and narratives can be idiosyncratic and varied. Their networks of distribution can be conventional or alternative.

The first panelist, Christine Walde, will show how artist’s books defy categorization. Walde frames artists’ books as outliers that defy norms, exploring how the form of the book across titles such as Clive Philpott's Fruit Salad, Andy Warhol's Index (Book), and Ben Denzer's 20 Slices, acts as a perfect site of resistance.

Next, Caroline Clavell will speak to the Renegade Bookbinding Guild, a not-for-profit guild of artists founded as a Discord server during the COVID-19 pandemic, and engaged in binding fannish works under the idea of fandom gift economy. Rejecting the idea of publishing as a purely commercial endeavor, the guild preserves the ephemeral in print as a labor of love and anchors a community that freely shares resources and tutorials.

Finally, Nemo Xu will present on the inaugural catalogue for Behind VA Shadows (BVAS), a public art project founded as an autonomous choice by a group of frontline staff at the ICA/Boston to celebrate the dual identity as artists and museum workers. Xu shares how the collaborators considered what records would be necessary and adequate to tell the story of BVAS, to preserve the history and experience of their grassroots project, and resist disappearance.

Weaving together insights into physical forms and creation processes, the lived experiences of creatives and cultural caretakers, from the recent past to the present day, the panel frames artists’ books as contemporarily relevant and rich with possibilities for defiance.

This panel explores feminist resistance as practiced by artists whose work and lives are documented in archival collections at the Getty Research Institute, examining how their creative, political, and bodily interventions challenged prevailing cultural narratives around gender, sexuality, power, and representation. Drawing on the papers of feminist artists, as well as digital and programmatic approaches to engaging feminist legacies, the panel demonstrates how resistance takes form—materially, performatively, and structurally—through art, writing, and institutional activism.

The first presentation, The Female Experience: Works by Faith Wilding and subRosa, explores the papers of an artist whose solo and collaborative projects focus on critiquing dominant perceptions of women’s health and social identities. Through performance, installation, activist interventions, writing, and pedagogy, Wilding and subRosa challenge societal views of women’s bodies and traditional roles. This feminist resistance is documented in an array of materials in Wilding’s archive—from cyberfeminist websites, workbooks, and videos to installations and solo performances reflecting on both mundane and distinctive female experiences.

The second presentation, Harmony Hammond and the Work of Making Space, examines the papers of a multidisciplinary feminist artist who mounted sustained resistance to the erasure of lesbian identity in the art world. Through interconnected strategies—including co-founding A.I.R. Gallery and the Heresies Collective, publishing Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History (2000), and maintaining her own creative practice—she challenged institutional exclusion on multiple fronts. Hammond’s archive reveals how her scholarly interventions, institutional activism, and artistic works operated as acts of resistance against systemic marginalization.

The third presentation, Resisting Erasure: Institutional Strategies to Support Feminist Art Historical Research, addresses institutional approaches that support feminist research, examining strategies that facilitate scholarly investigation into women’s artistic practices and resistances. As part of a larger research project that aims to examine the relationship between feminist performance art and its archives, this presentation will focus on the various ways that the research project has aimed to share resources pertaining to the holdings at our research institution. The speaker will primarily highlight the newly revised and expanded LibGuide on feminist archival resources, which was updated to bring attention to latent stories within our institutional collections and to take a feminist approach to historiography and the erasure of histories in the artistic canon. Throughout, the speaker will reveal the considerations underpinning decisions around accessibility within the shifting political landscape in the U.S.

The fourth presentation, Valentines for a Feminist Future, addresses programmatic initiatives that activate these feminist archives, with particular emphasis on networks of care and issues of bodily autonomy. Inspired by our collections of women artists’ archives, the speaker will describe events and partnerships that serve to illuminate the histories of feminist activism and resilience with the urgency of our contemporary moment.

Taken together, these presentations demonstrate how libraries and archives function as essential sites for preserving and activating feminist resistance practices. Through research, cataloging, and dissemination, the resistance strategies documented in these archives continue to contribute to the vital work of contemporary cultural workers.

Art libraries within academic institutions and museums globally continue to play a vital role in advancing the work of decolonization and Indigenization across library spaces, collections, and information cataloguing practices. This session highlights initiatives that contribute meaningfully to the ongoing journey toward reconciliation, with case studies spanning Canada and Norway. Presentations will examine the Indigenous art purchasing program at the University of Manitoba, including the work of an artist whose pieces are now prominently featured within the library; the Salish Weave Teaching Collection integrated into the Indigenous Curriculum Resource Centre at Simon Fraser University Library in Burnaby; and the decolonizing strategies undertaken by librarians at the Nasjonalmuseet (National Museum) in Oslo. Together, these projects reflect a growing commitment to inclusive, culturally responsive library practices and the reimagining of institutional relationships with Indigenous knowledge systems.Art as Literacy: bringing Indigenous art into academic libraries
Speaker: Ashley Edwards

Indigenizing the University of Manitoba Libraries' Art Collection
Speaker: Janet Rothney

Indigenous art in Norwegian libraries: DDC and Humord after the launch of the report Truth and Reconciliation – basis for a settlement with Norwegianization Policy and Injustice against Sami, Kven/Norwegian Finns and Forest Finns
Speakers: Hildegunn Gullåsen, Birgit Jordan, Per Gisle Galåen

In an era marked by ongoing budget cuts, shrinking storage space, and a surge in born-digital records creation, archives face a growing challenge: How do we determine what to keep? Focusing specifically on artists’ archives, this panel discussion will convene experienced archival professionals working across museums, academic libraries, and artist foundations, in both Canada and the USA to explore the complex strategies and evolving criteria involved in appraisal and collection development.

The panel will address the increasing necessity for appraisal, weeding, and sampling under institutional pressures, and how decisions must balance institutional priorities with the inherent richness and messiness of preserving an artistic practice. Artists’ archives—often composed of highly personal, eclectic, and unconventional materials—do not always fit neatly into traditional institutional frameworks. As such, appraisal requires deep contextual knowledge and collaborative engagement with artists and their estates, and a willingness to advocate for nuance in what might otherwise be seen as ephemeral material.

Panelists will bring their specialized experience, highlighting approaches to appraising both physical and born-digital materials. Particular attention will be given to handling accruals, which pose logistical and intellectual challenges as some artists continue to work and produce after the initial donation. These additions often fall outside of typical processing workflows and call for agile, iterative approaches to appraisal and processing.

The discussion will also explore ways that professionals are resisting increased limitations—budgetary, spatial, and administrative—to ensure that artists' archives continue to be collected and preserved equitably across institutions. How can we maintain commitments to underrepresented voices and experimental practices when resources are stretched thin? What ethical obligations do institutions have when facing these limitations?

Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all solution, this session will provide a space for reflection on best practices and peer exchange. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of the tensions at play, implementable strategies, and the knowledge to advocate for thoughtful and sustainable appraisal practices.

Some librarians are turning to arts and crafts as a way to engage new and continuing audiences. Presenters in this session will discuss how using crafting in the library has provided new opportunities for their researchers.

Craftivism as Library Pedagogy in the Age of Disruption
Speakers: Kellie Lanham-Friedman, Rachel Riter

Craftivism, simply put, is craft + activism. In this paper, we present an overview of what craftivism is, the movement’s significance to the current socio-political climate, and how we have embedded a maker pedagogy into library instruction sessions and workshops. Drawing on existing literature on maker pedagogy, the presentation outlines our institution’s incorporation of maker tools into curriculum (including zine assignments, podcast lessons, and more), and highlights a new workshop designed around craftivism titled Unraveled: Censorship and Craft. Participants learned basic sewing skills while creating embroidered patches, buttons, and bracelets with messages that resonate with their sociopolitical beliefs. Alongside skill-building, participants were introduced to the concept of craftivism and invited to connect it with issues like free speech, censorship, and intellectual freedom. Ultimately, craftivism and maker pedagogy gives students a voice to defend their rights, expands their autonomy, and challenges flawed traditional forms of educational assessment. This paper situates craftivism not only as a creative practice, but also as a pedagogical strategy for academic libraries to resist cultural and technological disruption while empowering students to think critically, create meaningfully, and advocate for their rights.

Cut, Paste, & Share: 20 Creative Ways to Teach with Zines and Spark Low Cost High-Impact Engagement in Libraries
Speaker: Megan Lotts

Zines—self-published, low-cost, and highly creative—are transforming how libraries engage with their communities. Since launching the Rutgers Art Library Zine Initiative in 2019, we have seen firsthand how zines foster creativity, visual literacy skills, self-expression, and storytelling while empowering underrepresented communities.

This presentation will share 20 practical tips for integrating zines into library programming, collections, and instruction. Drawing on examples from the Art Library Zine Teaching Collection—which now includes over 750 unique resources—this presentation will highlight strategies for using zines in classrooms, and for events, and outreach activities. Case studies include collaborations with an English Department to transform annotated bibliography assignments into zines, a partnership with an Asian American Studies Department that won a digital humanities award, and the creation of popular library “Zine Creativity Kits” distributed to over 500 patrons during Welcome Week events.

From this presentation participants will learn how zines can support interdisciplinary teaching, empower underrepresented voices, and create opportunities for playful, hands-on learning in library settings. The session will also discuss practical considerations such as curating a zine collection, facilitating workshops, promoting engagement through exhibits and how to engage cross-disciplinary and organizational collaborations. Attendees will leave with actionable ideas for starting or expanding zine initiatives in their own libraries—whether through instruction, outreach, or collection development—all while keeping costs low and impact high.

Archival Interventions (with Scissors!): Zine- and Buttonmaking as Resistance at UCSC Special Collections and Archives
Speaker: Sam Regal

As is intrinsic to most repositories, the collections within the University Archives at UC Santa Cruz are interwoven with bias. Collections materials unevenly represent student life and experience, eliding certain knowledge, identities, and expression across the documented history of the university. In response and resistance to these elisions, UCSC Special Collections and Archives developed the “Zine Art Party,” a critical zine- and buttonmaking series hosted in Special Collections and Archives. At these events–usually held during finals week–students are invited to cut, remix, collage, and otherwise intervene upon the archive to tell their own stories. The “Zine Art Party"" has three major objectives: to welcome students into Special Collections and Archives and foster a sense of belonging in the space, to critically activate collections materials, and to empower students to pursue arts-based research methodologies. Librarian Sam Regal will set the “Zine Art Party” program in situ by outlining the role, utility, and activist potentialities of critical making as a teaching methodology and research practice, with particular attention paid to the political implications of experimentation and play.

What's new in academic librarianship? Join us for four papers from colleagues from the US and Canada as they present on new projects, workflows, and policies.

“But what is it doing here?”: Library exhibition as pedagogy, strategy, and belonging
Speakers: Sarah Ward, Madeline Eschenburg

In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, Butler University’s Irwin Library mounted an exhibition to highlight how previous generations used art to process grief and loss, build community, and fight for their lives. The goal: to combine display, pedagogy, and outreach by involving students, faculty, and the broader Indianapolis community in a month-long, multi-modal, collaborative exhibit.

Unexpectedly, the exhibit also provided visible, concrete support to marginalized members of the community during a time when DEI-labeled programs were shuttering across the country. As one student asked on the eve of the opening, “Is that a real González-Torres? But what is it doing here?” The answer: it is here because you are here, and you should see yourself and your interests reflected here.

This presentation offers a case study that provides creative examples of connecting librarians (and libraries) with students, faculty, and administration. It will examine ways that existing ARLIS resources can contribute to successfully mounting an exhibition on a shoestring budget. It will also present the perspectives of the co-curators, an arts librarian and an art history professor, to discuss their approach in engaging the library as a space of learning, engagement, and belonging.

Who’s an Authority, Anyway? DEIA-AR-centered Instruction on Finding and Evaluating Sources
Speaker: Jean Thrift

This case study presents a librarian-art history faculty collaboration at Furman University in spring of 2025, on instruction exploring two frames of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education through a DEIA-AR lens. These lessons were part of a writing-research intensive course examining the role of museum spaces as sites for activism and resistance in contemporary society. Students conducted research projects culminating in proposals for DEIA-AR initiatives to be implemented in contemporary museums. For the frame ‘Information Has Value,’ we assigned a short reading and screened part of a documentary to inform a class discussion on equity issues in the scholarly communication landscape. Students then reviewed strategies for finding and accessing sources with a deeper understanding of why some sources are open access, while some must be accessed through the library, and the implications of each model. Next, for the frame ‘Authority Is Constructed and Contextual,’ we interrogated who is considered an authority by presenting and discussing scholarly communication demographic data. Students then evaluated and discussed, with a critical focus on bias, the authority of two potential sources they had found.

Breaking the Virtual Ceiling: Library Strategies for VR/AR Adoption in Design Disciplines
Speaker: Alisha D. Rall

As information professionals, we have all experienced the frustration when an emergent technology fails to meet expectations, encounters complex barriers or lacks equitable access. While the widespread adoption of virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) in higher education has fallen short of expectations, the potential value in the architecture and design environment are compelling. Pedagogical benefits of immersive 3D visualization include increased student engagement, improved spatial perception, dynamic precedent research, and high impact design problem solving. As architecture and design librarians, it is important to understand how we might assist our liaison faculty in overcoming hurdles to bringing the VR/AR experience into the classroom.

Our academic library is the home of a large makerspace/innovation lab. Upon the recent acquisition of forty Meta Quest 3 headsets, the team was looking for campus partners to promote VR technology usage beyond gaming and entertainment. With the mission to embed VR experiences into academic curriculum, a pilot test was launched between the library and the College of Architecture, Planning and Design to test feasibility of VR headset applications in the classroom. This initiative explored the feasibility of headset lending program for classroom assignments from technical, pedagogical and service model perspectives.

My presentation will share the progress of our pilot test, highlighting challenges and opportunities of VR/AR adoption in academic environment, particularly within the arts, humanities and design disciplines. Drawing on practices at peer institutions, the discussion will address service models, patron privacy, technological obsolescence, app hosting and uploads, accessibility, and curriculum integration. A persistent limitation of VR adoption in higher education is the difficulty of connecting headset use to instructional content; too often, VR/AR in academic libraries remains confined to gaming rather than deeper immersive learning.

The intended outcome of the pilot project is to develop a VR/AR Curriculum Starter Kit to help faculty embed immersive technology into coursework. While the initial project focused on architecture, the potential applications for the arts, humanities and design curriculum is equally significant. Given the importance of visual and spatial experience in these disciplines, they are ideally positioned to benefit from immersive VR/AR learning.

Reinvigorating Library Policies with EDI, Sustainability, and Accessibility Frameworks
Speaker: D. Vanessa Kam

With the goal of revising library policies to better align with valued principles of EDI, sustainability, and accessibility, this presentation will describe a process for evaluating and reinvigorating library policies through the use of relevant frameworks. After conducting research and consulting with experts in the field, a library committee identified four established frameworks for this work. This presentation will describe the methods of the committee's deliberations, the challenges of working with a variety of frameworks (some of which were abstract in nature), the degree to which library policies were revised as a result, and what was learned by walking through the process. The presenter will conclude with comments about how to take this work to the next level while trying to avoid the trap of ""nonperformativity,"" as described by Sara Ahmed, where the act of writing policy is a stand-in for meaningful action.

Art and design librarianship requires a balance of subject expertise, knowledge of unique and distinct collections, interdisciplinary research practices, and creative problem-solving. Often these professionals work in specialized libraries where they employ a wide range of library-related knowledge and skills. All of these qualities make art librarians uniquely situated for library leadership roles beyond their disciplinary knowledge. Yet the transition from subject specialist to library administrator is not often discussed, and the challenges and opportunities resulting from this progression remain underexplored. This panel brings together art librarians who now serve in administrative positions, sharing how their experience in art librarianship has shaped their approach to library leadership.
This session focuses on pathways to library administration, with the intention to demonstrate how art librarian expertise can translate effectively into a diverse range of administrative and leadership competencies. Panelists hold a variety of leadership positions, some maintaining their core art librarian duties while others are entirely focused on administrative responsibilities. They represent academic and art and design school libraries located in the United States and Canada, providing a diverse range of perspectives, and will speak to the conference theme of resistance to the many challenges facing the profession.

Some prompts and questions panelists may address include:
-How would you describe your career trajectory and how has your background in art librarianship prepared you for your current role as a library administrator?
-What professional and personal adjustments are necessary when moving from a subject specialist role to an administrative one, and have you been able to retain connections to your work as an art librarian while taking on broader responsibilities?
-Tapping into the spirit of resistance, how do you resist the challenges faced by librarians in this age, including but not limited to censorship, government interference, budget cuts, and the reduction of staff and resources?
-How can library administrators foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in their libraries?
-What advice do you have for art librarians who are interested in moving into administrative roles in an academic and/or art and design school setting and how can ARLIS/NA better support this career trajectory?

By centering the voices of art librarians who have successfully transitioned into administrative roles, this panel seeks to demystify the path from subject specialist to library leader. It will provide practical advice, inspiration, and a space for honest reflection on the challenges and rewards of such career moves. After all, leadership itself is an art—shaped by experience, creativity, and a commitment to both people and collections.

This panel is moderated by a member of the ARLIS/NA Management SIG.

Catalogers, catalog users, and database builders in any type of library may encounter issues in the creation of metadata and how it is manifest in the catalog or discovery system. Existing metadata may need to be revised as names change, new names are encountered, language about topics evolves, or to revise harmful terminology. Sharing metadata involves the use of standard rules and procedures and controlled vocabularies such as LCSH and the Getty Vocabularies. All of these matters are covered by documentation from such organizations as OCLC, LC, PCC, ALA, and Getty. Open discussion to share experiences or methods can be helpful as well as providing answers to specific problems. Small groups (or a group of the whole) will discuss particular areas of concern, such as classification, artists' books, special collections materials, exhibition catalogs, authority control and entity management, local information, or tools for managing sets of records. All attendees would be able to introduce issues or offer solutions.