Robyn Fleming, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Aimee Lind, Getty Research Institute, USA No ART Library left behind: cross-border resource sharing among art libraries

No *Art* Library Left Behind:
Cross-Border Resource Sharing Among Art Libraries
ROBYN FLEMING, THOMAS J. WATSON LIBRARY,
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
AIMEE LIND, GETTY RESEARCH LIBRARY
2017 IFLA INTERNATIONAL INTERLENDING AND DOCUMENT SUPPLY CONFERENCE

Presentation Overview
• Introduction: The Met and Getty Libraries
• Characteristics Unique to Art Libraries
• Resource Sharing Among Art Libraries in the United States
• Models for International Resource Sharing Among Art Libraries
• Continuing Challenges and Potential Solutions

Introduction
THE MET AND GETTY LIBRARIES

Art Museum
Libraries in the
United States
“An amply endowed, thoroughly
constructed art institution, free
alike from bungling
government officials and from
the control of a single
individual...; an institution
which will command the
confidence of judicious friends
of art, and especially of those
who have means to strengthen
and increase its value to the
city and to the nation, is surely
worth consideration in a club
like this.”
Meeting at the Union League Club to discuss the founding of an art museum in New York, 1869

Thomas J. Watson Library: History
• 1870: Metropolitan Museum incorporated for
the purpose “of establishing and maintaining…
a museum and library of art…”
• 1901: Jacob Rogers fund ($5m) for art and
books; collecting flourished

• 1910: library moved to its current location
• Designed by McKim, Mead and White

• 1965: substantially enlarged and renamed the
Thomas J. Watson Library

Thomas J. Watson Library: The Collection
• 1,000,000 volumes
•  21,000 serial titles
•  136,000 auction catalogs
•  20,000 artist files
•  10,000 volumes in Rare Bookcage
• 30 physical locations

Thomas J. Watson Library: The Collection
• Reflects Museum’s encyclopedic scope (5,000
years of art from all cultures)
• Supports current and future research activities
of Museum staff
• Core strengths:
•  Fine and decorative arts
•  Material culture
•  Arms and armor
•  Fashion and costume
•  Musical instruments
•  Auction and trade catalogs
•  Early artists’ manuals and handbooks
•  Examples of fine printing

J. Paul Getty Trust

Getty Research Library: History
• 1954: J. Paul Getty opens museum at his
Malibu ranch house (~2000 book curatorial
library)
• 1970s: Villa museum opens; library grows to
14,000 titles
• 1976: Getty dies; leaves bulk of estate to J.
Paul Getty Trust
• 1982/83: Bequest received; Getty Research
Institute conceived with library as core
component
• 1985: Research Institute & Library open in
Santa Monica, CA

Getty Research Library: History
• Three Resource Collections built: General
Collections, Photo Archive, Archives of the
History of Art
• Scholarly Libraries: Ulrich Mitteldorf, Nikolaus
Pevsner, Sir Ellis Waterhouse, Wilhelm Arntz,
Jean Brown, among others
• 1986: over 500,000 items

The Getty Center
• 1997: Getty Research Institute is united with other programs (Museum, Conservation Institute,
Foundation) at the Richard Meier-designed Getty Center

Getty Research Library: The Collection
• Over 1,400,000 volumes of general collections books, serials, and auction catalogs
• Over 50,000 rare books
• Over 15,000 rare serials
• Over 20,000 linear ft (6 kms) of archives, manuscripts, and architectural drawings
• Over 22,000 single prints and drawings in albums/collections
• Over 1,000 collections of rare photographs
• Over 1.8 million study photographs

Getty Research Library: The Collection
• Core strengths:
•  Architectural drawings and models
•  Archives of art dealers and galleries
•  Artistic biographies and treatises
•  Artists’ journals, letters, sketchbooks, and
teaching materials
•  Early guidebooks and travel literature
•  Emblem books
•  Festival books and prints
•  Libraries and papers of notable art historians,
critics, artists, architects, photographers,
designers, collectors, and public institutions
•  Primary materials for the history of 19th/20th c.
artistic & intellectual movements
• Notable recent acquisitions:
•  Harald Szeemann Papers
•  M. Knoedler & Co. Records
•  Frank Gehry Papers

Characteristics Unique
to Art Libraries

Typical Art Library Users
Archaeologists Curators
Architects Designers
Architectural Historians Fashion/Costume Historians
Art Collectors Film Historians
Art Critics Filmmakers
Art Dealers Historians
Art Enthusiasts Journalists/Writers
Art Historians Museum Visitors
Artists Preservationists
Conservators Tour Guides

What Sets Art Libraries Apart?
GENERAL HUMANITIES RESEARCH
• Critical Theory
• Historiography
• Methodology
• Primary Source/Archival/Object-based
ART-LIBRARY SPECIFIC
• Connoisseurship
• Conservation/Scientific Analysis
• Iconography/Symbols (signatures, marks, etc.)
• Visual Resources: for study and authentication
• Provenance Research: business of art, curatorial

Visual Resources
•  Used to study changes over
time
•  Important provenance
research tools

Provenance
Resources
•  Trace path of an artwork
over time
•  Help prove ownership,
authorship, authenticity

Art Library Materials
Albums Conservation Literature Materials Research Reports
Archaeological Reports Emblem Books Materials Samples
Architectural Drawings Ephemera Models
Art, Architecture & Design Journals Ethnographic Studies Oral Histories
Artist Files/Vertical Files Exhibition Catalogues Picture Collections
Artist Monographs Facsimiles Price Guides
Artists’ Books Festival Books Salons/Biennials/International Expositions
Auction Catalogues Historical Guidebooks & Maps Technical/Trade Manuals
Catalogues Raisonnés Manuscripts Video Art

Resource Sharing
AMONG ART LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES

Types of Art Libraries
ART MUSEUM LIBRARIES
•  The Metropolitan Museum of Art
•  Art Institute of Chicago
INDEPENDENT ART RESEARCH INSTITUTE
LIBRARIES
•  Getty Research Institute
•  Winterthur Library
 UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE ART DEPARTMENT
LIBRARIES
•  Harvard Fine Arts Library
•  Cornell Fine Arts Library
 ART SECTIONS OF MAJOR PUBLIC/
GOVERNMENT LIBRARIES
•  New York Public Library
•  Smithsonian Institution

WorldCat and WorldShare ILL

Interlibrary Loan Fee Management (IFM)
• Do not pay separate ILL fees for each request
• Net borrowing and lending fees tallied
monthly by OCLC
• Eliminates stress of currency differences

SHARES Consortium
• Over 100 research libraries primarily from
the US, Canada, UK
•  Holdings in WorldCat
• 80,000 ILL transactions per year
• Requests prioritized and expedited
• Low fees via IFM:
•  $10 non-returnables
•  $10 returnables same continent
•  $30 returnables overseas
• High level of trust

SHARES Art to Art
• No ILL fees
• Consider lending non-circulating, rare, fragile,
etc. items
• Flexible re: “Library Use Only”
• Highest levels of trust
 MEMBERS
•  Art Institute of Chicago
•  Bard Graduate Center
•  Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute
•  Cleveland Museum of Art
•  Frick Collection Art Reference Library
•  Getty Research Institute
•  Metropolitan Museum of Art
•  Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
•  National Gallery of Art
•  Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
•  St. Louis Art Museum
•  Winterthur Museum Library

ILL Borrowing at The Met and the Getty
BORROWING POLICIES PRIMARY ILL USERS
• Anyone with staff ID is eligible
•  The Met: ~450 active users
•  Getty: ~300 active users
• No request limit per user
• No cost limit per request
• Users not required to consult local libraries
first
• ILL staff exhaust all possible sources before
cancelling
Curators
Visiting Scholars
Conservators
Scientists
Research Assistants
Interns

ILL Borrowing at The Met and the Getty
WATSON LIBRARY
Requests filled: 14,341 (2,900/yr)*
GETTY RESEARCH LIBRARY:
Requests filled: 23,040 (4,600/yr)*

ILL Lending at The Met and the Getty
LENDING POLICIES
• Circulate via ILL in order to have borrowing
privileges
• “Library Use Only”
• Strict shipping requirements
• No transaction fees to art libraries; $20-$35 or
2-3 IFLA to other non-SHARES libraries
• Watson deflects requests from non-SHARES
libraries; Getty accepts all incoming requests

ILL Lending at The Met and the Getty:
Non-Circulating
WATSON LIBRARY
•  Most curatorial department books
•  Offsite (unless SHARES last resort)
•  Auction catalogs
•  Periodicals
•  Special Collections
GETTY RESEARCH LIBRARY
•  Special Collections
Both offer scans whenever possible
Both digitize books in the public domain on demand

SHARES
WATSON LIBRARY
Requests received: 16,360 (3,272/yr)
Requests filled through ILL: 7,453 (2,886/yr)
GETTY RESEARCH LIBRARY:
Requests received: 49,167 (9,833/yr)
Requests filled through ILL: 25,527 (5,505/yr)

Beyond SHARES
WATSON LIBRARY GETTY RESEARCH LIBRARY:

Models for International
Resource Sharing
among Art Libraries

Local Art Library Initiatives: Digitization on Demand

Local Art Library Initiatives:
Open Content/Open Access
• Getty Open Content Program: over 100,000
images
• Met Open Access for Scholarly Content
(OASC): over 400,000 images
• Getty Virtual Library: 175 back titles published
by the Getty, freely available online
• MetPublications: over 1,600 titles published by
The Met freely available online
•  Watson Library’s Metropolitan Museum of Art
Publications project aims to enhance and
supplement MetPublications, with 2,200 titles
online to date

Collaborative Art Library Initiatives:
Discovery & Access
• SCIPIO: Sales Catalogue Index Project
• Art Discovery Group Catalogue
• Getty Research Portal
• Digital Cicognara Project
• PHAROS: Photo Archives Resource
• Provenance Projects:
•  Digitization Initiatives
•  Getty Provenance Index Databases

SCIPIO (1980-Present)
• Sales Catalog Index Project Input Online
(SCIPIO)
• Database of records from 25 US and European
art libraries
• Over 300,000 auction catalog records covering
sales from late 16th century to the present.


Art Discovery Group Catalogue (2014-Present)
• Grew out of Artlibraries.net
• Contains holdings of 46 individual art libraries
and 2 networks (IRIS and KUBIKAT)
• Represents art libraries in 15 countries on 5
continents
• http://artdiscovery.net/

Getty Research Portal (2012-Present)
• Free online search platform for fully digitized
art historical texts
• Currently 103,168 titles from 25 institutions
• Top 5 contributors to date: Gallica, Getty,
Heidelberg, INHA, Met
• http://portal.getty.edu/

Digital Cicognara Library (2015-Present)
• Open-access digitized copies of books
representing the collection of Count Leopoldo
Cicognara
• 5000 early imprints comprising foundational
literature of art and archaeology
• https://cicognara.org/

PHAROS (2013-Present)
• International consortium of 14 European and
North American art historical photo archives
• Digital research platform providing access to
tens of millions of photo archive images and
associated scholarly documentation
• http://pharosartresearch.org/

Provenance Initiatives:
Gallery/Dealer Archives Digitization Projects
• M. Knoedler & Co.
•  exhibition catalogs, pamphlets, and checklists (1869-1946)
•  898 exhibition catalogs, pamphlets, checklists, and unpublished materials (1869-1946)
• Duveen Brothers
•  400 reels of microfilm and 634 linear feet of records from Duveen Brothers stock documentation
• Brummer Gallery
•  16,000 object stock cards, 4000 address cards, inventory and ledgers, photographs, business and
personal correspondence

Provenance Initiatives:
Getty Provenance Index Databases
 Over 1.7 million records transcribed records from:
•  Archival Inventories
•  Sales Catalogues
•  Dealer Stock Books
•  Payments to Artists
•  Public Collections
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/
provenance/
Network diagram of agents connecting the British, French, Dutch, and Belgian
auction markets from 1801–20 using 230,000 records from the Getty
Provenance Index® databases. ©J. Paul Getty Trust and Maximilian Schich

Continuing Challenges
and Potential Solutions
FOR INTERNATIONAL RESOURCE SHARING AMONG ART LIBRARIES

Continuing Challenges
• Participation
•  Institutional Culture
•  Financial Burdens
•  Geography
• Shipping logistics and costs
• Payment
• Copyright

Challenge: Participation
RE: INSTITUTIONAL CULTURE
•  Non-circulating collections
•  “We don’t participate in international ILL”

POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
•  Non-circulating ≠ non-lending
•  Use trusted network
•  “Library Use Only”

Challenge: Participation
RE: FINANCIAL BURDENS
•  Consortium fees
•  Transaction fees
•  Shipping fees
POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
•  Tiered pricing
•  Sponsorships
•  Collaborative grants

Challenge:
Participation
RE: GEOGRAPHY
POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS:
•  Regional art hubs?
•  Art Libraries Discovery Group
as ILL consortium?


Challenge: Shipping Logistics

Solutions: Shipping Logistics
• Extensive shipping treatment only on books that truly need it
• Develop international shipping methods that are convenient and economical
• Digitize on demand
• Offer to pay extra if expensive shipping is required

Challenge: Payment
 “Please cancel this order. We cannot authorize
a bank transfer from dollars to euros for such
a small amount of money.” (5,53 euros!)
 “An invoice must be signed and returned with
payment in pounds sterling before copies can
be made. We do not accept IFLA vouchers or
cheques in foreign currency.”

Solutions: Payment
• Eliminate wire transfers!!
• Eliminate payment in local currencies
• Use IFLA vouchers, Paypal, credit cards, IFM,
etc.
• Eliminate ILL transaction fees altogether?!

Challenge: Copyright
 Patron:
 “I want to see if this is something different
than the exhibition invitation that is in
Watson's collection.”
 Library’s response:
 “The item you have requested comprises 1
sheet folded to form 6 pages. The pamphlet
comprises a short text by [author] and as such
is a complete work by a single author still in
copyright in [this country]. This means that we
are unable to supply the complete work
without the permission of the copyright
owner.”

Solutions: Copyright
• Assess real risk: “What’s the worst that could happen?”
• Form international working groups to study public domain and fair use for libraries
• Durationator (Tulane University): http://www.limitedtimes.com/

Conclusions
• Challenges can become opportunities for cost-sharing, collaboration, or agreement on best
practices
• Rethink what it means to be a non-circulating collection
• Collaborative, cross-border, [possibly] grant-funded initiatives have much greater reach and
impact than any single ILL transaction

Thank you!
ROBYN FLEMING: robyn.fleming@metmuseum.org
AIMEE LIND: alind@getty.edu

Robyn Fleming, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Aimee Lind, Getty Research Institute, USA No ART Library left behind: cross-border resource sharing among art libraries

Robyn Fleming, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Aimee Lind, Getty Research Institute, USA No ART Library left behind: cross-border resource sharing among art libraries

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