Collections Without Walls: Art Libraries Collaborate to Build Digital Repositories

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
As libraries’ roles are gradually shifting from serving as physical repositories for printed material towards becoming discovery portals for a digital world, new opportunities are opening up for building collections that are not confined to single institutions. The NYARC partnership, a consortium of art museum libraries in New York, has made headway in collaborative collection development. Two examples will be presented: the Macbeth Gallery Collection, a collaborative project the Frick Art Reference Library and the Thomas J. Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to digitize the exhibition checklists and pamphlets of an important New York art gallery, and the ’Documenting the Gilded Age’ project of the Frick and the Brooklyn Museum Library, featuring documents from small galleries, societies and art clubs from the late 19th – early 20th centuries. By virtually combining collections originally held in separate repositories, these institutions pave the way for dismantling physical and geographical borders between libraries. Implications to further cooperation with libraries in East Central Europe will be examined, and some initial efforts to enhance the discovery of Hungarian collections will be explored.




Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Head, Acquisitions, Frick Art Reference Library; MA in English and Russian Literature and Linguistics, ELTE, Budapest; MLS, Long Island University, New York. Served as Chair of the New York chapter of ARLIS/NA (Art Libraries Society of North America).