Video as art: collecting artists’ moving image in academic art libraries

Video collections have been part of library holdings for several decades, but developing and managing these collections presents a number of challenges. This is the case particularly for artists’ film and video, and this article attempts to identify the issues involved and to offer some practical guidance, drawing on the experience of collection development and management at Chelsea College of Art and Design Library, and across the libraries of University of the Arts London and elsewhere

From Cambridge to Brighton: Concrete poetry in Britain, an interview with Stephen Bann

Extensive interview with art historian, curator and concrete poet Stephen Bann by Gustavo Grandal Montero, focusing particularly on his curatorial, critical and artistic work of the 1960s, closely involved with the development of Concrete poetry in the UK. Associated at an early stage with Ian Hamilton Finlay, he co-organized the First International Exhibition of Concrete and Kinetic Poetry (Cambridge, 1964) and was Director of the Concrete Poetry Exhibition for the inaugural Brighton Festival in 1967, edited Concrete poetry: an international anthology 1967 and published several influential critical texts, while developing his own Concrete poetry practice

Kinkon biobib: life and work of Dom Sylvester Houedard

Bio-bibliographical essay on British Benedictine monk, scholar, translator, concrete poet and artist Dom Sylvester Houédard (1924–92). Based on scarce published materials and primary sources, this chronology emphasises artistic over religious and other activities, and public over private ones. It lists events where Houédard had an active involvement (group and solo exhibitions – focusing on UK based ones, and those where a catalogue was published; talks, readings and performances – including recordings; collaborations), significant artworks, monographic publications (broadsheets, print folders, cards, pamphlets, monographs, exhibition catalogues, anthologies) and serial publications (articles and magazines)

Artists’ books in HE teaching and learning

Learning resource, teaching collection, study collection, research collection or special collection: a historical collection of artists’ books like that at Chelsea College of Art & Design Library can (and probably, has) been used and referred to in all these different ways, at different times, responding to changes in education, audiences, users, etc. The focus on research within universities has led, over time, to a narrow view of such collections and their use primarily as research material, often to the detriment of their use in teaching and learning. With the rebalancing in recent years of the importance of these activities, seen again as central to the mission of Higher Education (HE), a re-evaluation of the use of special collections, and specifically artists’ books collections, to enhance and improve the quality of learning and teaching activities, is required

Biennalization? What biennalization?: the documentation of biennials and other recurrent exhibitions

Biennials have been central to the development of contemporary art for decades, but there is a paucity of published material specifically related to this subject. Documentation for these important exhibitions is not always made available and it is often difficult to acquire, posing an obstacle to current and future research across a number of areas within contemporary art, curating and art history. This article offers an overview of major current biennials and of the different sources of information they produce (catalogues, other printed material, online resources, archives), and surveys the secondary literature of the phenomenon. It also discusses specific collection development issues in libraries, from a research perspective, proposing a set of recommendations for best practice

Art as collaboration: 50 years of Edition Hansjörg Mayer

Extensive interview with artist, graphic designer and publisher Hansjörg Mayer by Eleanor Vonne Brown and Gustavo Grandal Montero, focusing particularly on his seminal work of the 1960s. Associated at an early stage with Max Bense’s Stuttgart Group, he developed his own “typoems” and other forms of experimental visual poetry, often employing complex conceptual methods (e.g. “typoactions”). His published output includes prints, portfolios, books and the broadsheet series ‘Futura’

Art documentation: exhibition catalogues and beyond

This chapter explores the present and potential future of the art catalogue and related formats, their role in the documentation of art, and their management and use in art and design libraries. Exhibition catalogues, alongside special formats like recurrent exhibition documentation (biennials, triennials, etc.), auction and sales catalogues, and scholarly collection catalogues and catalogues raisonnés, present a number of common characteristics and their management in library collections often requires specialist knowledge, as they can be challenging to acquire, demand expert cataloguing, etc. Art ephemera (invitations, posters, lists of works, press releases, etc.) are another important if underrated resource collected by libraries as a complementary source of information on exhibitions and artworks. The Handbook of Art and Design Librarianship integrates theory and practice to offer guidelines for information professionals working in art and design environments who need to support and anticipate the information needs of artists, designers, architects and the historians who study those disciplines. Since the first edition of this title, the world of art and design libraries has been transformed by rapid advances in technology, an explosion in social media and the release of new standards and guidelines. This new edition, offering mostly entirely new chapters, provides an accessible, fully updated, guide to the world of academic art and design libraries from a range of international experts who reflect current practice at a global level

Defending the aesthetic: the conservation of an artist’s book

Modern and contemporary books, easily replaceable in the internet age, are weeded from collections and disposed of because of their poor quality materials and construction. For an art library, where obsolescence is rarely an issue, the 20th- and 21st-century book can be a problem. Rare and seminal works in our collections are crumbling because they are acidic or perhaps they just cannot withstand the handling (and photocopying). We have become alert to the conservation of books from the hand-press period, but do not always know what to do with recent publications, or we cannot afford to undertake the measures necessary. As the artist’s book as an art form reaches its 50th birthday, we highlight the conservation of one such volume, in hopes of opening up discussion about the care of our contemporary treasures

Unemployment, poverty and social protection strategies: Peru 1998-2005

This paper uses information from a panel based on Peruvian National Household Surveys between 1998 and 2005 to quantitatively estimate the impacts that the loss of a job from a household member has. We find the following effects in the short run: a) reduces family income by 27%, b) reduces household’s real expenditures by 7%, c) diminishes the digested calories by 13%, and d) increases the probability of poverty by 44%. According to our results, the most effective strategy to mitigate these negative impacts on welfare would be an increase in the number of hours worked at the family level. Internal family transfers, receiving remittances from relatives abroad, and access to state social programs would be less effective. Finally, the benefit of the compensation for length of service (CTS) in the previous job would have no impact on halting the loss of welfare.Unemployment, poverty, social protection, caloric intake.

Raza, corrupción y acceso a servicios públicos en el Perú: ¿Exclusión o discriminación?

"Este estudio evalúa desde el punto de vista cuantitativo la posible existencia de discriminación contra los ciudadanos de origen indígena en el uso de los servicios públicos, con información de la Encuesta Nacional de Hogares de Perú entre los años 2004 y 2006. Dichas versiones de la ENAHO recogen información sobre la realización de trámites en un grupo de instituciones del Estado, así como sobre los episodios de coima en dichos trámites. Se encuentra que los hogares con características indígenas alcanzan niveles más bajos de acceso a servicios públicos así como menores tasas de conclusión exitosa de trámites. El análisis econométrico sugiere que mientras que la menor tasa de acceso puede explicarse por las más elevadas incidencias de pobreza y menores niveles de educación de los hogares indígenas (lo que lo convierte en un problema de exclusión más que de discriminación), la menor tasa de conclusión sí parece representar un problema adicional de discriminación al interior de las entidades del Estado. No se hallan efectos de un trato diferenciado a la población indígena en los casos de coima. El análisis desagregado por tipo de institución proveedora de servicios muestra que la situación es particularmente grave en el caso de servicios básicos, tales como agua potable y saneamiento, donde sí se encuentra evidencia de discriminación en los tres niveles analizados. Por último, no se halla evidencia de discriminación racial específica en la policía, el sistema judicial ni en los servicios de aduanas y migraciones."Burocracia, Corrupción, Discriminación, Servicios públicos